Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Great Sacandaga Lake, upstate New York, 6 August 2012

  • Ian Paterson Kawasaki Concours 14 (GTR1400)
  • Joe Schaus Honda VT1100 Shadow
After a couple of weeks of hot, muggy weather, hard work and persistent illness, I finally got out for a ride with my brother-in-law Joe a few days before I flew home from the USA. Joe is married to Sally’s sister Holly and they live near the village of Charlton in upstate New York. Fortuitously, he has two bikes and serendipitously, he lets me ride them.

 
We did a loop north out of Charlton on beautiful back roads with almost no traffic until we hit the south shore of Great Sacandaga Lake at a tiny outpost called Fayville. This lake is at the southern edge of the spectacular Adirondack Park, an enormous area of forests, mountain peaks, lakes and streams – and the source of the mighty Hudson River, which meets the ocean at New York City.

We followed a tip truck (a fast one!) along South Shore Road as it wound its way along – yes – the south shore until we ran out of lake and ran into Hadley, where we stopped for an iced tea. We didn’t see much wildlife, apart from the odd squashed chipmunk on the smooth blacktop and the occasional eagle or vulture circling overhead, keeping a hopeful eye on us.

From Hadley we crossed the Hudson River into the town of Lake Luzerne, turned right, crossed the Hudson again and headed south on 9N. Even this far upstream the Hudson is so wide I thought we were riding beside a lake. Route 9N goes to the horse racing centre of Saratoga Springs (You’re So Vain – “I hear you went up to Saratoga and your horse naturally won . . .”) but we turned off well before that and followed another assortment of back roads back to Charlton.

The whole trip was only 90km but the roads were a lot of fun, the scenery was magnificent and it was a great way to spend a few hours. Meanwhile, Holly, assisted by Sally, was cooking up one of my favourite meals of all time, Mexican Lasagne, which contributed mightily to the 3kg I put on during my stay – but that’s another story.

Despite the incredibly harsh winters (snow, ice, -30C) and hot summers, most of the roads in the north-eastern US are well-maintained and smooth. The food is good, plentiful and cheap but there are no meat pies and the coffee is awful. Be sure to ride on the right hand side of the road and learn how to use the four-way stop signs at crossroads.*

Ian Paterson

*you can practice on the three way stop signed intersections in Queanbeyan (Webmonkey)




More forest than you can poke a stick at!