Happy birthday Harry! It was fairly cool as we started riding from Lyme and the terrain continued to be fairly steep climbs and descents. We arrived in Holderness of On Golden Pond fame. Henry Fonda won an academy award for this, his last movie, in 1981. When we came into Holderness we saw Walters Pub overlooking Squam Lake. We stopped for a late lunch and met several biker/motorcyclists inside. We talked about our trip and heard stories about their trips and discussed maps. Our bicycles were parked outside Walters Pub next to a Harley. The owner of the Harley was a Big Fella, maybe 6 foot 6 and 280 pounds. We started talking to him about our route. He clipped his words short, ‘Bah Hahbah’. He started talking to us about our route, said he worked for the New Hampshire Department of Transportation. He studied our maps. We told him we were in Holderness because we were avoiding Kancamagus pass. He said, ‘yea, the Kank can be pretty tough’, then he told us in detail what the roads, and especially the shoulders, were like on the route ahead of us tomorrow. As he left he said, ‘I’m in an orange truck, maybe I’ll see you tomorrow’. ‘We’ll wave’ we replied. We stopped at a small motel along the lake. ‘Do you have wifi internet?’ I asked. ‘No, but you can get internet from the motel across the street, they don’t have a password’. We spent the evening trying to figure out how we are getting back home.
July 31
We dance round in a ring and suppose.
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.
Robert Frost
Crossing the Green Mountains is challenging because of the steep climbs, 12% grade one sign stated, and charming because of the beautiful forests and picturesque New England towns. In Ripton we stopped for a rest, and a woman named Sara talked to us about our upcoming terrain and sights. She said Ripton was where poet Robert Frost lived and is also home to 350.org founder and author Bill McKibben. The day was a little cooler and no rain, but we planned on stopping fairly early in Sharon. Unfortunately there were no rooms available so we continued on, going through Hampton and finally finding a room in Lyme New Hampshire. It has been a long 75 mile day. Randy and I are both tired.
This morning we woke up to the sound of a few drops of rain on the tent. The campground looks very nice with woods all around, and is very quiet. There are a few RV’s in the camp, but it is like a ghost town campground, we saw no one outside last night or this morning. The reason why is mosquitos, we are attacked as we take down the tent and prepare to leave. It’s overcast and threatening rain, not as hot today. Pedaling, we crossed the Hudson River. We were surprised to learn that the headwaters of the Hudson were discovered 50 years after the headwaters of the Columbia had been discovered. About noon we arrived in Ticonderoga and stopped at the Fort which is on the eastern border of New York. We take the 4th ferry ride of our trip to get to Vermont crossing Lake Champlain, and as we cross it starts to rain, hard. At least it’s a warm rain. Even so we are soaked and getting cold as we arrive in Middlebury.
— Sent from my Palm Pre
It was foggy this morning, but it cleared by the time we finished breakfast. The terrain is still steep climbs and great downhill coasts, although the road is sometimes rough. For lunch we stopped at a burger and fries place that was pretty busy, all the picnic tables were occupied so we asked a woman named Silvia Smith if we could share her table. We had an interesting lunch conversation; it turns out Silvia grew up in Portland Oregon before moving to the east coast, and she and her family have been coming to this area for 20 years. She asked if we had been in a Stewarts, explaining it was an up state New York institution. She said their ice cream was great, and for bicyclists they always had a restroom available. She pointed to a Stewarts across the street. After lunch we stopped at Stewarts and the black raspberry ice cream was very good. We arrived in Newcomb and stopped to ask about camping and food. I asked the young girl, she must have been 16, where Teddy Roosevelt stayed, and she knew! She described where, near Newcomb, and the circumstances, he was here when McKinley was assassinated. We are staying here tonight, and it is remote; we neither one have phone service or internet access. Posting this blog will have to wait.
— Sent from my Palm Pre
The Adirondacks are the largest wilderness area on the east coast, they call it a civilized wilderness, because it has picturesque villages wthin it’s borders. It’s a huge area, 6 million acres, and the range of outdoor activities includes everything from fishing, hiking, kayaking, white water rafting, mountain climbing, mountain biking, and more. Riding bicycles here is challenging, but the scenery is beautiful, with deciduous forest and lakes. Once again we are only glimpsing just a hint of what is here as we pedal by at 10 miles an hour. As we were leaving Pulaski (Puh las ki, long I sound) there were road signs with a silhouette of a horse and buggy, and sure enough we saw a couple of buggies on the road. One was being driven by a boy who looked about 16, he waved as we rode by. We also saw a field with a horse drawn binder for alfalfa. Even though Randy and I both grew up on farms, neither of us had ever seen a field with bound alfalfa instead of bales. We passed a couple of motorcyclists, stopped looking at a map. Later they passed us and honked, and still later we caught up with them at a cafe in Osceola. We talked about trips, both bicycle and motorcycle, and looked at maps of our route. As we left Osceola we met Christine bicycling east from Bar Harbor to Astoria, almost the reverse of our route. Today we generally have followed the Moose River to Old Forge. This area of the Adirondacks is a major white water rafting area and in the winter it is a snowmobile area, even though most of the Adirondacks are closed to snowmobiles.
— Sent from my Palm Pre
2guysbiketrip 