Day 78: Blue Mountain Lake, Summer Colors, North Hudson

Day 78:  Friday August 22nd, 2014.
Old Forge, NY to North Hudson, NY.  86.2 miles.

After a good night's sleep, I woke up in time to say goodbye to Catherine as she headed off to work.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a picture with her.  But, leaving later for work, Ryan wasn't able to escape the camera.

I snapped a picture of their ducks.  Ryan ordered them off the Internet, hoping to have quite a few female egg-layers.  But, the majority turned out to be male.  Oh well!

I went to Walt's diner in town for breakfast.  Then, I made my way along the South shore of Fulton Chain Lakes headed towards the town of Inlet.  The scenery was breathtaking. The forest seemed so fresh and lush.

It was another day with lots of climbing up and down, some ascents being steeper than the Rockies.  Lakes and streams were as numerous as they are in Minnesota around this area of the Adirondacks.  BnB's, cabins, and other vacation rentals are plentiful.

At the hamlet of Blue Mountain Lake, I rode through town and climbed up steeply to the North for a few miles, arriving at the Adirondack Museum.  I stopped here for lunch at their cafe overlooking Blue Mountain Lake.

The food was good, and the scenery was awesome.  The museum has an incredible collection housed in several buildings on-site.  I could have spent a full day browsing through their exhibits.

As I climbed higher in the Adirondacks, I noticed that some of the trees were already hinting to the change of seasons into fall.  Some of the leaves on trees were starting to change color.  It seemed early for this to be happening, but it has been an unseasonably cool Summer.

The rest of the day proved to be very challenging mainly due to the terrain.  But, toward the end of the day, the low-hanging clouds lowered to my elevation, producing a light mist that only got heavier as the day went on.  It wasn't rain, and thus lured me into thinking that it would eventually lighten up, or evaporate.  But, it just kept getting denser, the mist turning into small drops. By the time I wanted to stop and put on rain gear, I was already soaked.  

I pressed on, originally thinking that I might be able to make it to Ticonderoga, on the border of New York and Vermont. But, a roadside campground 25 miles short, in the town of North Hudson, was too inviting to pass up while I was soaked to the bone.  I called it a day at Yogi Bear's Jellystone Campground along the banks of the Schroon River, a tributary of the Hudson River, in the community of North Hudson.