Day 6: Port Henry, NY

August 9, 2017

Miles: 44

Average Speed:  Unknown

Total Climb: 2400 ft

 

Heading out of Lake Placid this morning, passing all the Olympic parks and sporting complex had me thinking back to 1980 when the Winter Olympics took place in Lake Placid and how exhilarating is must have been.  Remember the historic win against the Russians - Ice Hockey team.  Along Main Street, on every corner, were stores and shops that sold memorabilia from the 1980 Olympic games. Miracle on Ice plastered everywhere and in certain establishments a TV playing the final moments of the winning game looping over and over.  It must have been something for those who were here!  I remember watching every game on television with my father and brother.  It brought back great memories.  I'm sure some of you have memories of the games too!

 

On a different note, the weather forecasts in the mountains cannot be trusted.  Right before we went to sleep last night the forecast reported rain 10:00a-4:00a.   This morning when we woke the forecast reported rain 2:00p-3:00p.  Luckily, this unpredictable weather has worked to our advantage.  Not knowing what to really expect today, we stayed on plan this morning, which was to leave early and to get breakfast and food along our ride.   

 

Just outside Lake Placid, we stopped for our first bite.  Steve has a breakfast sandwich and I settled for a banana and Kind Bar.  We both drank our first and as it turned out, only coffee for the day.  

 

Egg and ham sandwich for Steve

But just a little one

Today's ride was difficult because of the 2400 ft to climb.  However, there were as many downhills as there were long climbs.  We had three mountain peaks to climb, followed by three long descents; and the downhills were a great payoff not to mention a quick way to get miles behind you. 

Here we pulled over after about 10 miles to take some pictures.

Mountains in background still to climb

Steve getting lower for pictures of Cascade Lake

Pic 1 of Cascade Lake

Pic 2 of Cascade Lake

So we climbed for 30 minutes our first uphill.  It was a gentle climb with changing grades between 5-7% and then immediately following an exhilerating downhill.

Ready for the first downhill

Me too

At the bottom, we rolled into a little town named Keene.  It had this awesome country store.   Lots of organic, gluten free and fresh baked goods.  Steve had a blackberry muffin and me the gluten free brownies.   Worth every bite!

Steve having his usual - Chocolate milk and me lemonade.

When leaving the town of Keene, Steve snapped this shot of the local library.



We climbed for 45 minutes our second uphill.  It was a steep climb with changing grades between 10-12%. After this climb another long descent followed; we stopped at another country store at the bottom.  Steve bought a gatorade and me a vitamin water and we both needed a bio-break.

The final climb was a slow grind about 6 miles, but the descent was fantastic dropping us in Port Henry our final destination of the day. 

We are staying at the only Inn in town - The Village Inn.  Also known as the Red Brick Cafe, both owned by the same person.  Tim the owner gave us a quick history of Port Henry.  For instance, it is the third largest town on Lake Champlain behind Burlington and Plattsburg.  It is an old mining town.  Mining ore fed the town with people up until 1971 when mining came to an abrupt end.  Today, it is a town without people on most days.  There is about 4800 population in Port Henry, but the people are spread out; the town is tiny, but oddly appealing.  It is unique and has one of every kind of store that is needed in a small town. 

We checked in then we took showers.  Then we went out to explore a bit.  Seriously it took us about 5 minutes to explore.  That's how small it is!

This is a shot of me just before rolling into the center of town.  It was about 2:30p.  

Rolling into town

This little town has one of everything.  A restaurant, diner, liquor store, gas station, market, pharmacy, library, church and one Inn.

Main Street

Man about town

 

Woman about town

Town Library

Steve browsing book

Eye candy; the bikes of course!

So what's for dinner?  It's late now so I am going to make a long story short.  I hope!  As you can see, we didn't eat very much today, so we were very hungry when we arrived to town.  We went into the market and then Steward's gas station to look for food, but nothing looked appealing so we decided to call a restaurant in the next town.  Tim, the owner, told us that they delivered.   They has a mediterranean salad with grilled chicken on the menu, which I ordered and Steve ordered a chicken parmigiana sandwich.  We lost time exploring the tiny town, so by the time we called for the food it was 6:30p.  Steve asked how long before the delivery and the guy on the phone said they do not give out this information.  Steve found this odd but said ok - before Steve hung up he told the man to make sure the delivery person calls when he arrives because we were the only ones staying at the Inn and the doors were locked.  The man said ok.  We were hungry without many options so we figured we would just wait.  We snacked on pistachio nuts as we waited.   After about 1 hour the phone rang.  We thought, great they are here with our food.   Steve answered the phone.  A woman on the phone said that the delivery person waiting outside the Inn and that no one answered the phone when she called.  She said the delivery person was now back at the restaurant with our food.   Steve told the woman that we have been here the whole time waiting and that the phone never rang.  The woman got agressive with Steve on the phone.  She told Steve he had to go to the restaurant to pick up the food, otherwise she was going to press charges.  Steve told the woman that we didn't have a car; the woman replied we will press charges.  Steve simply said, do what you feel you have to do and then hung up.  He looked at me and said - 'we have no food coming'.  If I wasn't so hungry, I would have brushed it off, but I was extremely irritated.   Steve responded by saying lets just go to Stewart's gas station.  We noticed earlier they made deli sandwiches, so we headed back to Steward's. We both ended up with turkey sandwiches.  I managed to get a gluten free sandwich and Steve a foot long.  These sandwiches may not look too good, but after today's long ride and the mis-hap with the restaurant, they were exactly what we needed! 

Gluten free turkey sandwich

Foot long turkey sub

Tomorrow we are headed to Lake George where we will be greeted by our friends Michelle and Brian.  They are driving up tomorrow to spend three nights in Lake George vacationing with us!  

We cannot wait to see them!

 

Tomorrow's ride will be our most difficult day yet.  A 53 miles roller coaster ride with a 2 mile very steep climb up Tongue Mountain.  Here is the profile below.

Lake George

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Bonus picture - Port Henry has a great view of Lake Champlain.  Here is the beautiful view below.