Day 29 - Old Forge to Long Lake, NY - 48 miles

Since we are on such uncharted territory we decided to hit the road early this morning in case we had major hills to climb to avoid the mid day heat.  We rolled out of bed at 5:00AM and we were on the road by 5:30. Right out of the driveway we went to cross a bridge and here there was a deer standing in the middle of the road right now down Old Forge.  The deer looked at us and didn't move until we got real close and then we chased him off the bridge.  We stopped at the convenience store to grab a bit to eat and we had V8 and Chocolate milk and a few stale pastries.  We headed out of Old Forge on South Shore Road and bicycled along side the Fulton Chain of Lakes.  12 miles into our ride we came to the town of Inlet and stopped there for a real breakfast and enjoyed conversation with the locals that gather there to drink coffee and disgust the world problems.  For some reason some people are easily impressed by what we are doing. lol

The next 24 miles was a beautiful stretch of road following highway 28 from Inlet to Raquette Lake and on to Blue Mountain Lake.  We stopped for an ice cream at Blue Mountain Lake and spent about 20 minutes right along the shores of the lake enjoying the ice cream and the scenery sitting in an adirondack chair.  There was a boat out on the water and also three kayak's as we sat there.  It was a beautiful sunny day but still quite cool by the water.  Apparently there high tourist season is yet to come in July and August.

After leaving Blue Mountain Lake the next two miles were a rather strenuous climb to get up and over 3,759 ft. Blue Mountain.  Our reward was about a 5 mile downhill grade with only a couple of short hills between Blue Mountain and Long Lake where we will be spending the rest of the day and evening. 

We checked into the Sandy Point Motel around 11:30 and then bicycled into Long Lake and had lunch at a little cafe where we sat out on the deck and enjoyed the view.  We struck up a conversation with a couple from Minneapolis that had driven to New York to go to Niagara Falls and then visit the area.  The rest of the day was spent back at our hotel blogging, resting up, and enjoying the view of Long Lake and a cool breeze coming off the water. We are hoping to finish off New York state tomorrow which will mean that we have bicycled 12 of the 15 states to get from the state of Washington to Maine and only have Vermont (90 Miles), New Hampshire (80 miles) and the remaining miles will be in Maine.  We have a total of 463 miles to go yet to complete our journey, and oh what a journey it has been. 

Today's good news is that the ferry, on our route, that will take us across Lake Champlain is back in service after having been out of service due to flooding earlier this spring.  So we will bicycle to Ticonderoga, NY tomorrow and spend an evening there and catch the ferry on Tuesday morning and start biking in Vermont.

Life is good!

Our bike gets hotel privileges also.

The deer in Old Forge are definitely not afraid of people and we saw several deer as we bicycled out of town this morning'.

Fog coming off Lake Fulton as we left Old Forge this morning.

We had such a beautiful ride this morning with rolling hills to start off with and dense forest on both sides of the road and birds singing in the trees.

It was a little cool bicycling at 5:30 in the morning so we had gloves and fleece jackets on.

This is the water with fog lifting on it and the shadow of the trees reflected in the water.  How cool is that?

We bicycled by numerous lakes today and each one was as pretty or prettier that the last.

This is so much fun!

These lakes remind us the old Hamm's commercial with the bears "From the land of sky blue waters"!

Peaceful!

Blue Mountain in the background!

It was a great day to get off the bike and stretch our legs!

Have to keep hydrated!

Up and down hills most of the morning!

After all we are in the Adirondacks Mountain range!

Oh beautiful for spacious skies!

Relaxing at Blue Mountain Lake and eating Panda Paw Ice Cream in a cone - LIFE IS GOOD!

Little creek alongside the road on our way up Blue Mountain!

Interesting sign - bike route and Amish buggies!

The view out of our room at the Sandy Point Motel - you sure can't beat that!

View in the opposite direction from our room!

Diner we ate lunch at - we sat out on the deck and enjoyed the view of the mountains and lake!



View of the lake from where we ate lunch!