Ferry Ride Number Four Aug 16

Our stay in Lake Placid was out at the horse show grounds. On the first night there was a wedding in the big pavilion so everyone had to camp. However, last night the pavilion was not being used, so this meant that the pavilion was open. It was a terrible old place with creaky floors. There was a lot of clouds with a chance of showers so a bunch of the floor floppers moved into the pavilion. Oh! It might rain ooh too scary! Of course it didn't and they all got a terrible night sleep because of the squeaky floors.

There were lots of clouds in the hills when we got up but no rain. So down to breakfast in the beautiful old Northwoods Inn. As we only had 40.1 miles there was no hurray, so I lingered over breakfast and then Steve and I rode off. The ride was pretty much all down hill as lake Placid was at 1738 ft and we were headed for Port Kent on Lake Champlain at 79 ft.

We get to the 30 mile mark when the was a huge crack of thunder and it started to rain. So Steve and I stopped and put on our rain jackets. We rode down five miles and went in for coffee. After about 30 minutes the sun came out and we cruised on. At Port Kent we had picnic in a beautiful park along side the Ausable Gorge. The Ausable River goes over several water falls here before entering the lake. Just as I crossed the bridge there was a huge bump and my camera jumped out of my bento box, and hit the road a 20 mph. The shock proof Olympus took the hit but suffered a little road rash.

After picnic we rolled on down to where the ferry was which would take us across Lake Champlain to Burlington VT. I had no idea that there were all these ferries involved in crossing the US. This is ferry ride number four on the trip. I guess that when you take the back roads there are still lots of ferries in operation. The ferry turned out to be an open deck ferry of the 1950's vintage and Lake Champlain is very large. The wind was just howling down the lake, with a three foot chop, so there was a lot of roll to the old ferry. There was spray coming over the bows and everyone was crouched near the back out to the spray. It was a fun forty minute ride across to Burlington.

Here in Burlington we are staying in the University of Vermont dorms. It is a beautiful campus over looking Lake Champlain. There seems to be a mix of old and new buildings. I think there is a group who are headed out to saample the local night life, tonight as tomorrow we have a 50 mile day.

Lets ride!

Terry