Camp Santanoni and the Best 20 Mile Day Ever!

5 days to go and counting, we have recently realized that we really don't have that much farther to go. This realization has come with shorter days, and shorter days generally means we spend more time doing our mileage anyway. It's not that we bike slowly, we've discovered, it's just that we don't bike. This was especially true yesterday. We knew we only had a forty mile day, so we might as well take our time doing it right? Our first stop was after one mile. Yes, only a mile. Not only that, our excuse to stop was to check out the Adirondack Museum. Even though it didn't open for another half an hour, we decided it was worth it to wait. Yes that's right, we though it was worth it to wait a half an hour instead of riding to see a museum that probably was pretty uninteresting (one of it's exhibits: a privy. A glorified privy). In the end, we discovered that the museum was 15 dollars each and we decided it wasn't worth it after all.

We continued on all of 10 more miles (a really hard push I know) before stopping again in Long Lake for second breakfast. After struggling to get back on our bikes and hour later, we made it all of (gasp!) 10 more miles before stopping at the Santanoni Great Camp, a lodge built in 1893 on 12,900 acres that is now all state preserved land. After discovering that the main lodge was 5 miles away on a dirt-and-sand-and-rock trail reserved for hikers and mountain bikers, we though about it long and hard. Was it worth it to go on this long detour out of the way to camp in this forest preserve when it was kind of drizzly and we knew that with all of our stuff on our bikes we would sink into the sand no problem? Yes! Of course it was. But first, we went into town, bought a twelve-pack of beer, and then proceeded to bike-and-trek five miles out of the way on a hiking trail.

The camp was really beautiful when we got there, the sun came out, and best of all, there was no one around. For miles. Not an RV, not a camper, nothing except these old buildings, some of them ruined, a huge lake, and us (and our 12 pack). Even though after I discovered a leech on my foot after wading in the lake for a short while, we were not to be deterred and all went swimming. We generally relxed and even felt refreshed enough this morning (back to the rain) to make the 5 mile trek back to the road.

This morning our 50 mile day passed so quickly because we ran into some other cross-country cyclists! Pete and Ryan are headed to Boston, and today they were planning on going 140 miles, to get to Ryan's girlfriend's house! They had a lot less stuff than us. They were also really cool and we rode 30 miles with them or so, and it felt like nothing.

Now we are in Ticonderoga, and are excited to journey on into Vermont tomorrow!

-Sarah

PS we will try to upload pictures soon, we promise.