Ausable to Albany (Tuesday and Wednesday, August 20-21

August 20, Tuesday

82 miles  Ausable Chasm  to Whitehall, NY                        

The day of my greatest anticipation and trepidation on the tour has arrived.  Today’s ride in the Adirondacks has the greatest rise of any single day of the entire tour: 6700 feet  (one day in Arizona would have had over 10,000 but they were bused that day).  Sunrise, just after 6, is beautiful.

 Peter Kempe and Elly Torsius and I will ride together all day.  We leave at 7:15 and stop to take pictures of the Ausable chasm.

We immediately begin climbing covering only about 7 miles in the first hour.  Down to Willsboro (15 miles and first sag) and more steep climbing and coasting descent (39.9 mph top speed) gets us to Westport (30 miles) at 10.  Expecting to enjoy some baked goods at “Me and My Gals” we find that it is no longer a bakery, but just a diner.  We have coffee and rolls/pie/muffin anyway.   The day is getting hot.  We press on already tired from the steep hills and I am aware of the very steep climb that lays ahead entering the village of Port Henry.  I foresee us walking up this ridiculous hill, but we will not be deterred.  We victoriously make this climb, rest and then make our way down to the train depot area for some pictures (about 45 miles).

 Another sag just south of Port Henry and then on to Crown Point.  I am glad to stop at Gunnison’s for a cinnamon cider doughnut and catch up to Peter and Elly in Crown Point resting in the shade of the Catholic church.  Elly is getting tired, it is 1:00 and we still have a long and very hilly 30 miles or so to go.  On to Ticonderoga, and on the way I stop at a roadside stand and buy a tomato to eat while I ride.  My tomatoes are ripening at home so this is a little taste of home.   In Ti we stop at the McD’s to cool off and get some ice and water.  Elly is looking very red and the temperature is near 90. I also get a large fry and soda.  It is after 2 and we still have 22 miles and some rather big hills to climb, but we make a little detour and visit the Ti falls first.

Back on the road and we pass (the closed Fort View Inn where I had imagined us stopping for a beer carbohydrate re-hydration therapy

across from a view of Fort Ticonderoga

 but it would not have been a good idea anyway since by now we and 2 others are the last riders.  Big long hills heading south of TI and a sag after the first hill is very welcomed and then at mile 67 I get my first flat of the tour.  Peter is ahead but Elly stops with me while I fix it.  At the end of the last long climb (mile 74) there is a sag and they make us wait while they get Elly cooled down.

  She is really overheated and dehydrated.  After a bit they let us go, as all of the longest climbs are now done and only 8 more miles to go.


We make it to Whitehall at 5:30.  It has been a long, hot, very hilly day but we did it – there were a few riders who did not make it and were sagged into camp.   It is at a dilapidated RV park past the marina surrounded by swamp and ponds – very buggy and muggy.  Set up camp and shower while supper starts at 6:  meatloaf, corm and roasted potatoes, cherry cheesecake all very good.  Phil Westra and family and some folks from the Vergennes CRC join us for supper.  3 trains go by on the other side of the swamp during supper: 1 SB CPR, one NB CPR and one NB NS.

  A call to Cathy, Peloton at 7:30, and a beer with Peter and others at the marina tavern.  The day began with a lovely sun rise ends with a full moon rising, warm night, log in the tent with the tent  fan on until 9:50.

August 21, Wednesday

75 miles:  Whitehall to Albany (East Greenbush)          

Up at 5:30 as seems to be the habit these days which may seem early but I am getting 8 hours of sleep as 9:30 is a standard time to go to sleep, although you can hear people snoring by 9!  Many people nap when they get to camp -- every day I see people who just lay down with their biking clothes still on and just collapse into sleep.

Even a picnic table is a perfectly good napping spot.

I get 8 hours of deep sleep each night - and even though I am sleeping on the ground by myself in a tent I am sleeping wonderfully -- don't mention this to Cathy.

Anyway, this is a soaking wet dewy morning and packing up the tent is a very wet job.  Call Cathy at 6:30 to be the first to wish her happy birthday.  I am on the road before 7 in part because the wait at the only two bathrooms were very long and I knew that just south of Whitehall there was a McD (across from MacLeod Lumber).

 There was no line at McD’s and I was glad to know the area well enough to not wait in line at camp while swatting mosquitoes.    I ride in a good pace line with Dave and Al for the first couple of hours with a sag stop in Kingsbury.

 When we get to Fort Edward I tell them I am going off route to stop at the train station as I know the southbound Amtrak Ethan Allen is due at the station at 9:22.  I arrive at 9 and have a cup of coffee to go with some cookies I brought along.  The gift shop has been converted to a deli but the coffee is good.  The train is on time and I am back on to the route at 9:30.

 I see a three person pace line going by so I jump on the end.  It is a good team and for the next 30 miles we keep a good rotation to maintain about 17 mph as the road is pretty flat paralleling the canal – we pass a lot of folks.  Once we hit Mechanicsville (I spot a PanAm train on the bridge) and soon Troy the pace is interrupted but we continue to make good time.  We catch up to a number of riders on the city streets in Troy and have a rather large group through town.  We get on a nice riverside bike trail for 6 miles into Albany before having to stop and walk our bikes up and down the ramps for the bridge over the Hudson to Rensselaer.  This picture looks back at Albany.

  After we cross the bridge over the tracks just south of the station there are several miles of climbing to get up out of the valley to the YMCA in East Greenbush.  The RCA from Delmar is there to greet and welcome our arrival.  Yesterday was tiring in part because we went so slowly.  Today’s pace was more to my liking and today I needed to have some time off the bike in the afternoon.  I set up the wet tent to dry (it is sunny and near 90) and sit in the shade to have some lemonade, yogurt and cottage cheese.  The YMCA has nice locker rooms, showers and for the first time since Sunday: wifi and internet access!  After a nice shower I sit in their air-conditioned lobby and try to update the blog but with the flood of riders all using the same pubic wifi none of us can get enough band-width to do much and updating the blog with pictures  is futile.