Last night it started to rain about 10:30 PM. I awoke
briefly to ensure my ground sheet was totally under the rain fly and back to
sleep. About 12:30 Am the first of the
big lightning and thunder claps woke me again.
Then the rain started in earnest. It was just pounding down on the tent
so hard that it was a little scary.
However my tent is pretty close to bullet proof so I rolled over and was
back asleep. However the lightning and
thunder continued on until at least 3:40 AM when the fire siren went. It continued for quite a while after that but
I was off to sleep.
This morning the only remnant of the big storm was a 15 mph
wind out of the north east. This meant a
bad head wind as today’s route was northeast to Star Lake. The route was a 70.6 mile route with 2970 feet
of climb following state highway 3 with a few detours to ride three sides of
the square.
Being Ed’s day to ride, Bob, Ed and I set off after an
exceptionally fine breakfast. As a side
note last night’s supper was one of the top 2 or 3 suppers on the tour. The best we could do headed into the wind was
about 9-11 mph. This meant a seven hour
grind and I sure wasn’t looking forward to that. Fortunately at mile 13 we turned off onto a
rail to trails path and in the trees there was no wind. The path was beautiful as it wound along the
Black River. Unfortunately it was only 4
miles and then we were back to grinding into the wind. At mile 25 we came to a gas a convenience
store and went in for coffee. It was a good stop as when we came out the wind
had died down considerably.
Picnic finally came up a mile 45.7. Having battled into the headwind for so long I
was totally winded. I had spotted a
short cut on the route sheet map and when queried about it Ed who had done the
routeing agreed that continuing up highway 3 would save about 5 miles. Ed was
back to work but Ken was there so he joined Bob and I and we set off with now
only 20 miles to go.
It didn’t take us long to figure out why they put us on the
back road where the pavement is crumbling and the hills steep. About a half mile past the turn was brand
new pavement with a 15 foot wide shoulder.
The routers just didn’t want us on it.
Tomorrow is Lake Placid and a rest day. The end of week 8. The count down to the end is underway with
only 7 more ride days.
Terry
2 comments:
Good talking to you and great pictures of the route. Your storm was exciting. Reminds me of biking across Kansas and Iowa.
You have had a long summer of hard work and and I can sense you have your sights on the finish next weekend. Hang in there.
See you soon, keep the rubber side down.
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