Week 12

Day 78 Monday, August 16

New York

Boonville to Raquette Lake Campground 

We started out today with a stop at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. We were still trying to get lodging for tomorrow night. I tried calling a place I had emailed with no luck. I found a place just outside of town that had a restaurant and good reviews so I called. The owner was very nice and said he’d have to check with his wife since she handled the motel. He called back a few minutes later and said they had a room for us. Yes! And the price was reasonable, unlike others we had checked. 

On the road for the day. Temps were expected to be in mid 70’s and partly cloudy. Great! Not long after leaving we hit our first climb. It’s never good when I see Terry stand to peddle up. I went as far as I could and called it quits. I told Terry I would make it up the rest of them for the day though, and I did!  The days are much more difficult now. I can tell my legs are able to handle it better, but it’s still difficult. It takes so long to make it up some of the climbs, so the days get long. We finally get to the campground. So many mosquitoes! There’s no air moving so it’s good that it isn’t too hot and we have shade. The showers are quite a walk away and I’m the only one that chooses to shower. We make dinner and clean up and take a walk down to the lake. It is very pretty. We go back to the tents and decide at 8:30 that the mosquitoes are too much for us and we go to bed.  I was so tired I went right to sleep 😊

Day 79 Tuesday, August 17

New York

Raquette Lake Campground to Schroon Lake

Wet. The rain started around 4:30am I think. We stayed dry in the tent, but it rained a lot. I waited until 6:15 to start packing things up in the tent.  Because we had to hang things for possible bear issues, my bags were all unorganized. I had just 2 bags under the rain cover of the tent and one was for my sleeping gear. That was good - I could put all my sleep stuff in the bag without having to take it out in the rain. Once out of the tent though, I had to reorganize the other bags so everything got a little wet. Didn’t really matter. It poured on us all day. I don’t mind rain, as long as I’m not cold. We left camp and went up by the bathrooms where there was an overhang that we could go under and stay dry. We ate our breakfast muffins and waited to see if the rain would let up. Nope. We didn’t have cell phone service to check the weather, so we decided to just go. Good choice since it didn’t stop raining until we got to our hotel.

There was a lot of climbing again today, but roads were good and views were pretty. We stopped a couple of times to eat, but mainly to get out of the rain. Ross figured out a change of route that would cut a few miles and a climb. It worked out good. My legs are pretty tired after 50 + miles though. I take the hills slow and rely on granny a lot. I made it up all the hills today. Just had to stop to catch my breath a couple of times. Goodbye Adirondack mountains!

Day 80 Wednesday, August 18

Leaving New York, entering Vermont

Schroon Lake, NY to  Middlebury, VT

Today is 1 year since I had my hip replaced. It bothers me occasionally, especially with the rainy weather, but it is so much better than before the surgery.

I was able to do laundry last night with the help of the owner whilst she did laundry. It was very nice of her to let us use her machines. It was good to get our clothes dried out after the wet ride.  It was another wet day today. We waited until 10:30 to leave which allowed us to do some planning, but also waited out some very heavy rain. It still rained on us but not  too heavy, so our stuff stayed mostly dry.   My legs were tired today, and they just got more tired as the day went on. There were some tough climbs. By about mile 40 I was having a moment. I had to stop and convince myself that I could do the hill looming in the distance. I figured I would just go until I needed to stop a bit and then I’d go some more. It was a long one, but I made it. And there were more to come. Finally made it to the hotel around 4:45. Good to be done today…

Day 81 Thursday, August 19

Vermont

Middlebury to White River Junction 

We couldn’t avoid the wet today. A low pressure system named Fred hung over us all day. It poured. Everything on me was soaked. Every time we stopped I’d wring out the water from my gloves. 

We started the day with our last major climb. It was good to get it done with, but made the hills the rest of the day difficult. My legs were so tired!  The climb took 2.5 hrs to do the 9 miles. I stopped to catch my breath quite a few times. The climb started after just a few miles from leaving the hotel.  I didn’t make it up the 1st steep section without having to stop and then I had to walk a bit to get to a point where I could get going again. It’s better if I remember to shift into a slightly harder gear before stopping. Otherwise there’s not enough force in the lowest gear to get started on the steep grade. I was very happy I made it to the top and that we are done with mountain passes now!!  We still had a long day left with only 18 miles done before lunch and another 48 to go. We got to the hotel around 5:30, happy to finally be out of the rain.

Day 82 Friday, August 20

Leaving Vermont, entering New Hampshire

White River Junction, VT to Concord, NH

A dry day! Well, no rain was falling, but it was hot and humid, so lots of sweating going on. It was a long day. It’s been too many days of lots of miles and climbing. Today was minimal climbing, but more miles than I like to do. We were on a crushed rock trail most of the day so lots of bumpy riding. We got going around 8am and finished around 5pm with a couple of breaks. I need energy/food about every hour-hour and a half. I know when I start slowing down that it’s time for a snack and drink. Terry and I had several of those kind of breaks too. I know Ross is always waiting for us and the mosquitoes make stopping miserable, so those breaks are very short.  I felt very grungy from the crushed rock sandy trail. The shower was amazing as always!

Day 83 Saturday, August 21

Concord, NH to Kittery, ME

Hot and humid right from the start again today. My legs are so looking forward to not having to climb a hill for awhile. It takes me about 5-6 miles before I can go uphill without my legs burning. We get to the trail after 15 miles and it’s hello mosquitoes again! The trail was like riding an obstacle course, dodging rocks, water holes, and loose gravel. My poor female parts that meet the seat were not happy from the past two days of trail riding! Once we were back on the roads we had some ups and downs. We made it to a spot where the Atlantic Ocean was about 10ft below us but too rocky to get down to. We celebrated the end of the journey with lots of pictures and phone calls to family and friends. 

Thanks to everyone for all your support and words of encouragement!! Thanks for listening to me complain about my aches and pains and all the ups and downs of a long journey on a bicycle.

I will have one more post after we get home to summarize thoughts on the trip 😊