August 13, 2018 Lake Placid to Plattsburgh NY

I really don’t know what was wrong with me last night but I could not get to sleep.  Ken and I turned lights out at around 10:30 Pm and then I tossed and turned until well past 3:30 AM.  I tried everything I could think of to get to sleep.  I do know I did get some sleep as there was some weird dream I was glad to be out of when Ken got up at 5:40 AM but probably not much more than a couple of hours.  It was a good thing that today’s ride was only 58 miles and 1800 feet of climb. 

This morning’s breakfast was back in the North Woods Hotel downtown so us hotelers had and extra 1.5 miles back to town for breakfast, but it was worth it as the bacon was extra crispy and served with good coffee and waffles. 

When we left the motel room Ken’s rear tire was flat but Ken thought it was someone’s idea of a joke as our bikes had been in a storage room in the basement. I pulled a stone out of the tire and was sceptical but who knows. Ken pumped his tire and rode to breakfast.  After we got out of breakfast it was flat again.  Auzzie Bob and I worked on the tire while Ken went and got a floor pump out of one of the vans.  We had it off and ready to be inflated by time Ken got back with the pump.  New tube in and we were off. 

The ride down from Lake Placid was very nice.  It was nice and cool and the road was smooth and predominately downhill. It was quite scenic as we were following along a river most of the way.  We stopped for a quick coffee and were on our way.  Picnic came up at the 37 mile mark at the Ausable Chasm.  It is really quite a unique spot where the Ausable River cuts down into the escarpment before entering into Lake Champlain. 

After picnic Auzzie Bob and I could see that it was 12 miles to Plattsburg via the highway or 22 miles via the designated route.  It was a hard decision. Go down the highway where there was a 10 foot wide smooth as glass shoulder with no hills and beautiful views of Lake Champlain or 22 miles of hills with crumbling roads and no views.  We decided to go down the highway.

After a two mile decent down off the escarpment to Lake Champlain it was postcard perfect.  The blue sky and lake dotted with white sail boats.  We were kind of sorry to have missed seeing more trees and the crumbling roads but we were enjoying the lake.  There was a very nice cool breeze off the lake which was actually a bit of a tail wind.  In places there were mansions on both sides of the highway and in places only on the one as the highway was right along the lake shore.  I picked out a very nice two story turn of the century brick mansion while Bob settled on this large white mansion set well back from the highway with columns all along the front porch.   

Upon reaching Plattsburgh we found a bike path which took us to within a half mile of our turn and then a half mile down Broad street right to the Plattsburgh State of New York University dormitory where we are staying tonight.  Bob and I rolled in just as the leaders were coming up the other way. 

Ken who had left Bob and I at picnic came steaming in as he had ridden the extra 9 miles and of his 21 miles 4 of it was through busy streets of Plattsburgh and he saw nothing but trees.   He was less than pleased.

If you add in the three and a half pints of cider I had after the rider with Bob, and Ken, it was a very fun day.

Terry hot biker