7/7 & 7/8 Jill's Bike Log

7/7-Wed-Destination-Hague, NY. (Biked 66 miles; total 1081). We headed out, thinking that after 10 miles we would stop to get a quick refuel at a bakery Sue & Thelma scoped out. When we arrived, they were in a local convenience store. Apparently the bakery along with the other eating establishments were closed. We ate lunch in a shaded area bordering a creek. Sue made bologna & cheese sandwiches and Oreos for dessert.
Today the hills were more challenging than the previous day. We had a 4 mile climb with little shade to protect us from blaring sun with temperatures in the 90s. At some points on the grade, I was in my lowest granny gear and barely making forward progress. With the intense heat, it felt like my body fluids were in a rolling boil, welling up into my head and about to make it explode. The boys apparently made it to the top of the grade without stopping, but I had to make two rest stops before making it to the top. They concurred however about the intensity of the heat and steep grade. We cruised 4 miles down the other side of the hill into Hague.

We had four more miles to bike to Roger’s Rock State Park. After that major grade, fortunately the road had gently rolling hills bordering Lake George. As soon as the attendant saw us at the office, she waved us onto the campsite. Apparently she was forewarned to anticipate hot, sweaty, and potentially grumpy bikers would be arriving. Compared to last night’s exceptional campsites, these were medium sized and didn’t border the lake.

We walked down to the beach to swim and cool off. It was painful to walk across the hot sand. After we swam, we hunted down the showers to scrub off the daily quotient of bike grease. By the time we arrived back to the campground, we were already profusely sweating.

Yesterday I missed my daily ice-cream fix, so Sue, Kelsey, Jenna and I went on a mission in the car to bring back ice-cream. Four miles down the road, we found a soft serve ice-cream stand. We bought 2 qts. of chocolate, 1 qt. vanilla, 1 qt. orange creamsicle and 1 qt. of maple yogurt soft serve we loaded into an ice chest to load for transport. We snarfed it for a hors d’ouvres before Sue & Thelma made a delicious meal of salmon and grilled corn on the cob.

Lynne left after lunch to pick up Todd’s son Evan at the airport. They arrived at the campground around 9:00 pm. Sue and her mom Thelma, bid their goodbyes and headed back to their motel. They really spoiled us with elaborate dinners for two days. I’ll miss Sue’s laugh and Thelma’s vigor. We played a round of pinochle before heading to bed.

7/8-Thur-Bomoseen, VT. (Biked 26 miles; total 1107). We decided to take the ferry across Lake George which shortened the route by 25 miles. For some reason we all felt the ride today was even more tiring than yesterday. I suspect it had to do with the intense heat, plus we had a number of although short, but very steep hills to climb.

It was fun to take the ferry. It brought back memories of twenty years ago when Todd and I went on our biking honey moon in Vermont and we crossed on this ferry. We lived in Colorado, and little did we know that we’d eventually move to Vermont.

Once we hit gravel roads, we loaded our bikes on the vans and drove to Lake Bomoseen. The sites we had reserved were sunny, so Lynne and I cruised the campground to see if there were any shaded sites that might be available. We were able to snag several very shaded sites situated in tall pines. We headed to the lake to cool off before setting up camp. The beach was a distance from the campsite, but the boat launch wasn’t too far from it. We swam from the boat launch to the beach through major sea-weed, plus it was shallow with a mucky bottom. It was a relief to get to the sanctioned beach area because the bottom wasn’t as mucky and less sea-weed, although at one point the kids collected enough of it to drape on Mallory, so that she looked like a creature from the Black Lagoon.

My brother Keith and his wife Kim arrived at supper time. Keith will ride with us tomorrow. Crystal made a yummy spaghetti supper with the burger (from “T-bone” which she raised and slaughtered), along with a salad. Before supper, the kids played a complicated card game that Evan brought with him. After supper, we had two teams of four playing pinochle. Rich poured over the quadrant maps, dreading the 8 mile climb to the summit of Killington tomorrow. Keith changed the knobby tires on his mountain bike to smooth ones to make it a little easier for biking.





























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