To Plattsburgh

July 28, 2021

After yesterday’s excellent adventure today’s ride was quite tame by comparison. Like on a few of our other recent rides, we spent the whole day on regional highways with moderate traffic but an abundant shoulder. Not the most dramatic or scenic route we could have chosen, but we’ve done drama recently and don’t need more quite yet. Also, and most importantly, this was the easiest route available and with the least climbing - the right choice for Rachael’s improving but still stiff lower back.

So, not too much to say about the ride. The weather is worth noting though, because it was excellent again. We’re really experiencing a coolish spell here. It was below 60 when we left Malone, and just over 70 when we arrived at our room in early afternoon. Very pleasant.

We won’t really see Plattsburgh itself because we’re staying outside of town at one of the cluster of chain hotels around a highway interchange. There’s nothing reasonably priced in town itself so we’re treating this just as a place to eat and sleep. Hopefully we aren’t missing any unmissable sights in town; but if so be sure to tell us so we’ll feel bad about what we overlooked.

Leaving Malone. Entering it, actually. Our room last night was on the outskirts west of town.

We’ll be on the highway all day - Route 11 until Ellenburg, and then 190 the rest of the way. The shoulder is adequate the whole way, and often generous like this 8 foot wide stretch.

Crossing the Chateauguay River, looking down from the bridge on Route 11.

Further east from Chateaugay, still looking north. The sun is starting to break through!

Lunch stop. We don’t really know what’s going on here. It’s not signed, but it seems like a park or private development of some sort, complete with children’s playground and a miniature golf course.

This was interesting. It’s an unusual story, in which some members of the Mohawk nation executed a land grab about 50 years ago to reclaim a piece of their ancestral lands and won’t let it go again.

Dropping to Plattsburgh we get a brief glimpse of Lake Champlain, still about ten miles off, with the Green Mountains of Vermont dimly visible in the distance.

For dinner we dashed between cars across the highway to the Butcher Block for dinner. The tavern-style meal was fine, but the meal was mostly memorable for the group of nine diners that sat down at the long table next to us and broke out in conversation in some Slavic language. From their looks, they were three families - three stocky men on one side of the table, speaking softly to each other; their spouses on the other side talking amongst themselves with considerably more animation; and at the far end, three young adult women in their own energetic conversation, presumably the daughters.

As we are prone to do, we keep an eye and ear cocked on this crowd, curious about their language and origin. An ice-breaker appears when one of them pulls out his phone to take a photo of the group and then looks up our direction to see if we’ll do the honors. Much conversation ensues, because they all speak fluent English and there are things to discuss while we wait for food to arrive. They’re all Polish immigrants from some town near the eastern border, now living in Boston. We share with them that we biked briefly in southern Poland 20 years ago, which impresses them because they think cycling there that long ago must have been quite difficult (as it was). They say we would find it much changed if we went now - roads are much better, bike paths exist, they think we’d like it and encourage us to go. Perhaps we will.

We weren’t sure where our restaurant was so we pulled out the phone to check the map. We could have just looked up at the name staring in our faces.

Heart

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Ride stats today: 51 miles, 1,800’; for the tour: 2,251 miles, 66,500’

Today's ride: 51 miles (82 km)
Total: 2,251 miles (3,623 km)

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John Pescatore22 years ago (1999) on a cycling tour around Lake Champlain with 3 friends, we had a great meal at the Butcher's Block outside of Plattsburgh! Cycleblaze entry: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/OMBT99/day-4-isle-la-motte-vt-to-plattsburg-ny/

You missed Ausable Chasm, picture in my journal posting. But if it cost $13 to enter in 1999, might have been $100 today!
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3 years ago

Scott AndersonTo John PescatoreAs you’ve since seen, we’re heading south and Ausable Chasm is still in our future. The Butcher’s Block though! 22 years later it’s still going strong.
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3 years ago