June 15, 2008
Day 34: Middlebury, VT to Newcomb, NY
73.29 miles, 6:18:01 Ride Time, 11.63 Average Speed, 37.54 Maximum Speed
It felt like Sunday morning today; Sundays don't always feel different to me while touring. Riding through downtown Middlebury, the streets were almost empty, and the next twenty miles were on nice country roads. The sun was out, the temperature was mild, and it was mostly downhill to Lake Champlain, where I took a ferry to Ticonderoga, New York.
Ticonderoga (pop. 5,167) seemed like a nice enough town, but I was only there a few minutes before I turned west onto State Route 74, and HOLY SHIT LOOK AT THAT HILL. I had switched to section 10 of the Northern Tier maps at Ticonderoga, and had noticed that there was no elevation profile on the back of this map. Must mean there are no mountains worth mentioning, right? No. Actually, I would be riding through the Adirondacks for the next few days, and this long climb out of Ticonderoga was only the first of several big hills of the day.
After that unpleasant surprise, it was a fairly easy, pleasant ride through Paradox (where the grocery store promised by my map did not exist), then Severance (where before riding a mile or so on dirt, I did find a campground with a limited selection of groceries), then the little crossroads of North Hudson, where the one store seemed to sell mostly hardware, and had perhaps four bottles of Gatorade in stock.
Then I began the longest ride through empty, isolated countryside in the last month. It might have been because it was a Sunday, but this was a more lonesome day than even the ride through the Delaware Water Gap a few weeks ago - Very few houses, cars, people, stores or anything except trees and hills. I had assumed the Adirondacks would be a busy tourist area, but that's not what I saw today. In fact, I passed several old, shuttered resorts that obviously hadn't been open in years. Pretty creepy, actually.
Around this time I began to be bothered by little bugs that would swarm around me whenever I stopped. Very irritating.
Looking at the maps this morning, I had contemplated reaching Long Lake, but after riding up hill after hill this afternoon, I knew that wasn't going to happen. Instead, I set my sights on Newcomb (pop. 481). It was about 4:30 when I saw the sign welcoming me to "Newcomb: Heart of the Adirondacks", but I rode several more miles before I saw any signs of life. This is something I've been noticing the last several days: Towns announce themselves four or five miles before you actually see anything. This is rather the opposite of what I saw in the South, where I would be riding for a few miles through what appeared to be the town, and then I would belatedly see the "Welcome to Podunkville" sign.
I passed by a state campground, and rode further into Newcomb looking for what my map indicated was a private campground next to a store. The campground looked pretty junky, and there wasn't much at the store, but the price, $15, was right. My initial impression of the place was not good - junk was piled haphazardly near the entrance - but the showers and bathrooms were OK.
My weak-ass "Off" spray was totally ineffective against the little bugs that constantly swarmed around my legs, arms and head. I asked one of the people nearby what they were. "That's the Black Fly, son."
I'd heard of these things, but for some reason I assumed they would look like regular flies. I'm an idiot.
I was tired after the long, unexpectedly hilly day, and I was asleep in the tent by 9:00, after hearing, on one of the two stations I could pick up in this isolated area, that showers and thunderstorms in the night and morning were likely.
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Today's ride: 73 miles (117 km)
Total: 2,452 miles (3,946 km)
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