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The Ride Part Three

The Ride Part Three

Americade

Touted to be the largest Touring Motorcycle Rally in the World and for all I know it very well may be. I left Cooperstown and had a nice ride into the Adirondack Mountains of New York. As I got closer to Lake George, the numbers of bikes on the Road increased mile by mile until I found myself virtually riding in a pack down Canada Street into Lake George and The Americade Motorcycle Rally. For a few days during June, Motorcyclists take over this small lake side town. Unlike other rallies that I have been to where the majority of the bikes seem to be chopped Harley’s, the bikes at Americade are mostly all of the touring variety. Never had I seen so many Honda Goldwing’s all in one place and all tricked out in so many different ways, towing trailers and from many different locations: license plates from all over the country.

After checking in and registering, I rode back on through Canada Street which is the main ride through Lake George, sort of like Main Street at Daytona or Sturgis. North of town I pulled into the Hearthstone point Campground and set up the tent in a nice spot amid some huge pine trees, a picnic table, fire ring and a place to park the bike made up my little area. The campground was practically empty, asking the ranger about that he just said “it is only Tuesday; wait till Thursday evening it will be a zoo”. After getting the campsite all set up I checked out the pain in the bottom of my foot. I had stepped on a piece of glass before starting the trip. I thought that I had pretty much cleaned it all out and it had not bothered me too much during the ride but seemed somewhat inflamed and being right on the bottom of the ball of the ball of my right foot , hurt every time I stepped on it, not good! I got my first aid kit out: some Neosporin and a large band aid. There really was not a whole lot else to do. Pulling my boot back on it seemed to feel better. It was not a big deal while riding the bike but at the rally I figured to be doing some serious walking during the next couple of days.

The day was getting on but there was still some sun over the trees so I got back on the bike and took it back into town. I rode down along Lake George, what a pretty place. The town of Lake George sits at the very south end of the lake. Looking north into the lake you see the Adirondack Mountains on the west side of the lake and the hills of Vermont on the east side. The lake is 32 miles long and varies from 1-3 miles wide; it drains into Lake Champlain via the La Chute River. The Vendors for the Rally were set up down by the lake. But as the sun was setting I did not have time to stop so went off looking for a place to eat. I really had not had anything to eat since breakfast at a diner outside of Cooperstown so I was pretty hungry. The thing is finding a sit down place to eat at a motorcycle rally can be nearly next to impossible. Sometimes luck is with you though. Riding back on Canada Street I found a place to back the bike in among hundreds of other motorcycles and getting off the bike I turned around looking at the door of a Seafood Restaurant. I don’t remember what the name of it was and I guess I was too tired to remember it. Anyway, I walked in and was immediately seated at a table with another group of bike riders. I ordered the Seafood Platter which was excellent and had a great meal and some fine conversation. Turns out some of the people at the table were from France. They try to come over every year. Flying into New Jersey, They rent bikes there and ride them to Lake George….truly giving an international feel to the rally. After a fine meal, I said goodbye to my new friends and proceeded back on to the campground. Which, by the time I arrived, was completely in the dark. I crawled into the tent, turned on the lantern hanging from the ceiling and reflected on the journey…some 1300 miles from Florida, a flat tire, mountains, highway miles, new friends, great weather. Who could ask for more….well, the flat tire………..

Wednesday morning I was up with the sun. During the night someone had moved into the camp site across the road from me. I never heard them come in. I boiled some water and made a cup of coffee and some instant cereal for a quick breakfast. The new people were rousing about the time I finished my coffee so I walked over and chatted with them for a while. They had driven in from Rochester NY, hauling their bikes in a trailer and seemed quite surprised that I had actually ridden my bike up from Florida. I have somewhat of a hard time with folks who don’t appreciate or understand the Long Ride so while they were unloading their shiny Harleys from the trailer I went back, cleaned things up, closed up the camp and took the short trip back into Lake George and Americade.

There are basically two places to park your bike at Americade, along Canada Street or at the designated parking area down by the lake. Well, I had already done the Canada street thing so rode on down to the lake again and the large grassy/park area that had been set up for motorcycle parking. About the size of 3 football fields, it was already more than half full. I found a lone tree over in to the side of the field and parked there so that I would be able to find the bike again. Really, if you were not paying attention, you could spend hours trying to find your bike! I spent the rest of the day walking around Lake George and the Americade Rally. I visited the vendors down by the lake which were the same vendors that one sees at any of the other bike rallies, same people too. The lady that works at Ultimate Seats in Ormond Beach was at their tent and we had a nice chat. I took a Demo ride on the new BMW K1600GTL. A nice ride but with all of its high tech stuff I wondered what mechanics would be able to fix them a few years down the road. I visited Ft William Henry in the Center of Town and just had a generally nice day walking around even though the pain in the foot was beginning to become a bit of a bother. While I was having and ice cream cone down by the lake and talking to one of the locals he mentioned that I should take a ride up along the lake and over into Vermont. I had not even thought about doing that but from his description, it sure sounded like a nice ride. So rather than hurt the foot anymore I decided to go on back to the camp, get into bed and up early for a ride north in the morning. Back at the camp I made up another exciting meal of canned chili and had my first alcohol on the trip, I stopped at a liquor store on the way back to the campground and talked the owner into selling me three bottles of Guinness. The canned chili was OK, the Guinness afterwards was great. I was in the tent early and not even in the sleeping bag as the weather was unusually warm with temps in the mid to high 80’s…of course I woke up a few hours later freezing as the temperature plummeted.

“A Journey is like a marriage, the certain way to be wrong is to think that you control it.” John Steinbeck

Vermont

When I left the next morning, the Harley folks across the way were still sleeping in. There was a bit of fog hanging in the trees and the sky seemed cloudy or maybe it was just misty. Riding north on 9N, the road goes right along the edge of Lake George. Weird thing, all of the roads leading out of Lake George are #9, you have 9N, 9 and 9L. I rode the 32 miles to the end of Lake George where I pulled over at an incredibly gorgeous, scenic turn out and overlook at the north end of the lake. There was another rider already stopped there, we talked a bit and took pictures of each other. I told him I was thinking of riding over into Vermont and he said I should take the ferry at Ticonderoga, only a few miles up the road. Sure enough at Ticonderoga there was a sign for the ferry. I took the turn off from 9N to go to the ferry, three miles later I arrived to find that it was closed! You would think that someone could have put up a sign at the turn off from 9N. Oh well, I rode on back and stopped to get gas a bit north of the turn off and found out that the Ticonderoga Ferry had actually been closed for quite some time and that there was a new one at Crown Point which was another 10 miles north on 9N. Arriving in Crown Point, I stopped and had a fine breakfast at a quaint little restaurant. Besides the owner/cook, I was the only one there so we had a good conversation. Turns out that there used to be a bridge across the river but it got old so the NY Department of Transportation blew it up and was in the process of building another. However, seeing as the Ticonderoga ferry closed down there was really no way to get into Vermont unless you went all the way north of Lake Champlain. So they put a ferry in at Crown Point till the new bridge gets built. When I arrived at the ferry there were several other bike riders waiting for it. We all got on the ferry, crossed the river and rode off into Vermont.

The countryside in Vermont, even though it was just across the River from New York was completely different. With open land, farms, pastures and rolling hills, cattle along the fence. I stopped at a general store to pick up a couple of post cards and nice surprise! Found that the gasoline prices had dropped from well over $4/gal in NY to $3.20/gal in Vermont. I made a mental note to fill up before going back across the border. In Vermont, I rode through the rolling hills, looking for one of its famous covered bridges but never did find one. Eventually I got onto 22A and headed back south: then RT4 and 149 back over towards Lake George. I stopped in Lake George looking for a place to eat but this time, not quite so lucky, more people arriving for the rally so fewer places to eat. So I rode on through Lake George and about five miles out of town to Warresburg, where I had a delightful meal. Riding back towards the campsite, I passed by the Green Acres Motel. It was not flashing a NO VACANCY sign and looked like a nice place so I decided to ride back and check it out. I found a nice room there at a very reasonable price. I rode on over to the campsite, packed things up and moved back to the motel. After the long day on the bike the hot shower and soft bed felt a lot nicer than sleeping on the ground over at the campsite would have been.

The next morning I was on the road early through Warrensburg where I stopped for a light breakfast then a misty morning into the Adirondack National Park. The Adirondack Park is the largest National park in the continental USA, some 6 million acres. The southern area, where I was riding, is not nearly as mountainous as the northern area but there are many good sized “hills” and lots of scenic lakes. I rode through the small towns of Indian Lake, Blue Mountain, Raquette Lake, Eagle Bay and Otter Lake while crossing through the park. The weather was fine: partly cloudy with an occasional sprinkle to keep things cool. Coming down through the hills and out of the west side of the park, just past the town of Woodgate, traffic backed up, dusty construction vehicles appeared alongside the road. Creeping around a bend there was a flagman directing traffic and large temporary sign off to the side of the road “Gravel Road next 21/2 Miles”. The front of the bike dropped off of the pavement into deep gravel. With the slow traffic it was a real chore just keeping the bike upright for the next couple of miles. The joys of Motorcycle Travel! It was with no little relief that I made it back onto solid pavement without any mishap. I rode the remaining 30 miles or so into Rome and stopped at a McD’s to treat myself to an iced coffee. Out of Rome I took RT49 over to Sylvan Beach near Lake Oneida. Following the edge of the lake and the back roads into Syracuse NY, I rolled into my brothers Driveway a little before 5 p.m.

Make sure you read Part 4, if you have missed the other parts then catch up here: Part 1

This article is placed on site by kind permission of, Phil Hughes, Jacksonville, FL June 2011

Catch up with Phil on his site: http://motorcyclejourney.weebly.com/