Vacation Tidbits

It seems like at the beginning of each of every one of my vacations, I have grand plans to do all kinds of things during the week that I really want to do. This vacation, I wanted to do two or three posts, but with all of the stuff we did, I never found the time to get that done.

In addition, this trip was bittersweet, for Alex's parents, who were born and raised in the Adirondacks, and who retired to just east of here in Vermont, moved to Indianapolis, where Alex has two sisters. This may be the last time we visit here, at least for a while.

Anyway, I did get a little biking in during the week, and I took a few photos. I thought I had Blogger photo-uploading all figured out, but as I uploaded my photos, they are not in the order I had planned. But I think I've got them pretty well sorted out now, so if you've got some time to kill (i.e. nothing else better to do), we'll get started.

We stayed at a cabin on Glen Lake, about halfway between Glens Falls and Lake George, NY. We rented this cabin, instead of our usual rental on Friends Lake because it is easier to get into and out of for Alex's parents, and because it has air conditioning. Last year's 100F temps cooked us in that little sun-drenched cabin.

Here's the road heading out toward Highway 9, a bumper-to-bumper two lane road that more or less parallels the Hudson River.


Between Glens Falls and Lake George, is this sweet little trail which roughly follows an old rail corridor. In several places, the trail leaves the former rail bed to climb over a large hill, or to follow beneath overhead power lines. The trail is wide, recently paved with asphalt, and is very well marked with stop signs and hazards (like this anti-car device).
Blue Trek needed a rest along the trail, and he (she?) chose this spot. I must confess I'm becoming quite attached to this old Blue Trek. It is such a comfortable bike to ride and it never complains. I feel the need to give this bike a name, which is unusual. I've not named any of my other bikes, but this one is different.

The city of Glens Falls is at the south end of this trail. The trail follows roads around the Glens Falls Country Club, but jumps back on the old rail line south of the golf course. This building is near the old feeder canal trail in central Glens Falls. I thought it looked cool, and is a good advertizement for the product the plant produces.


The old feeder canal. This canal carried water to the main canal which connected Lake Champlain with the Hudson River. This early 1800's transportation system enabled the US to become the great country it is. And a lot of people literally worked their guts out building it.

Blue Trek likes this spot, too.

A history sign. I can't get enough of them.


Glens Falls is embracing this trail. Many people were out walking and biking on the trail when I rode it on July 17th. This business looks like my kind of place, but it was closed at 9:00am.


Around the side, along the trail, they've got a welcoming little park-like area for the ice cream stand. It was closed also.

The trail was clearly marked in Glens Falls at each road intersection.


Glens Falls reminds me of mid-sized midwestern towns with some nice, affluent areas, and some run down areas, and homeless folk wondering around downtown. Along the path, with folks from all walks of life, I found this to be a very pleasant place to be. And I'm sure that the other people using this trail found this a very pleasant place to be. Funny how a simple thing like a trail built just for walking or biking can lift the spirits of a community.


Dang, a couple photos out of order. This is the feeder canal trail again. It's packed limestone screenings which makes a very nice surface. I saw some bikers with 23's or 25's who had no problems on this trail. When these trails are wet, however, they get my bike dirty.


At a trail head near the start of the asphalt-paved trail. Info sign with map. And history sign. I love the history signs.


A better view of the trailhead.


At the other end of the trail is Lake George. Coming down a heavily-wooded path, the view opens suddenly to this. Spectacular!


A tour boat on Lake George. This is a big lake.


I rode around the east side of Lake George to find a vista to get more water photos, but the road was heavily wooded, and I didn't find any good spots. But I did climb up Lockhart Mountain (my first mountain on a bike) and found this sign. I thought about riding down this road to the golf course, but thought it might be restricted. My father-in-law later told me this is a beautiful course which looks out over the lake.


Back at the cabin, Georgia and her boyfriend, James, shucking corn for supper.
Anders and I fished for several days. He is a very good bass fisherman, and taught me some good tricks for catching bass. We caught a bunch of bass every day. This is one of the larger ones he caught.


All-in-all it was a very nice vacation. We were able to get Alex's parents safely to their new home in Indy, we caught gobs of fish (all of which were returned, relatively unharmed, to the waters of Glen Lake), and I got to ride a little bit. We never did get out to ride as a group, but Brooke (Alex's sister), Anders, and Alex and I are all set for our Door County, Wisconsin trip on Labor Day. We'll be doing nothing but biking on that trip.

Thanks for hanging in there to get to the end of this post.

Happy riding!

Bill