Harvey-the-RV  - Roadtrip 2009

 Adirondack Mountains, New York State, USA

26th August - 1st September 2009

Our arrival into New York State did not bode well.     We crossed the bridge from Vermont, over Lake Champlain and into the state of New York, to find the welcome centre closed due to the major road works outside.    We'd hoped to pick up information to help plan our visit to the Adirondack Mountains area but had to press on westwards uninformed and somewhat stressed in the pouring rain.     

Finally, after enjoying major traffic congestion in the small town, we found a tourist information centre and excellent and helpful fly fishing outfitter in Lake Placid.  It was hard to imagine such a small town being a previous host to the Winter Olympics, when on a normal work day the town was so busy.  Armed with abundant local information, we selected a campground on the Ausable river, near to Wilmington, purported to be the best spot for fly-fishing in the area.   

The fishing Olympics on the Ausable river.

From our new base we spent a few days exploring, fishing and hiking different spots up and down the river.    The surroundings were beautiful, striking woodland and rugged mountains.    

Hiking Copperas Lake

Hurry....can't hold this tree up much longer!

We made a brief excursion northwards, to check out Santa's workshop in North Pole, New York.    Despite the ill-humoured elves, we managed to mail our postcard to the grandchildren back in the UK.    During the course of our travels, we'd sent a series of postcards from various locations, one in Nova Scotia, four in the USA.   Six weeks later only two items had been delivered, a pretty poor success rate!     However, the bad-tempered elves did achieve success with this piece of mail, perhaps it was delivered by raindeer!

A cold front passed over, bringing a day of continuous rain followed by a distinct drop in temperature, it was most certainly beginning to feel like autumn.     Undaunted, we pressed on westwards and re-located to Rollins Pond campground, where we shivered in our canoe in search of elusive fish.

First we tackled the larger lake, right by our campsite, Rollins Pond itself.    Many hours of chilly and energetic paddling in a strong north-west breeze did finally result in capture of a nice bass.    As we cycled to the enormous and distant bathroom at the campground, hoping for a warming shower, we suffered an unfortunate casualty.    Christine's aged but beloved bike, Pinky, suddenly ground to a halt, behind her a trail of pieces of broken chain.    With no bike shop out there in the wilds, Pinky had to be retired hurt until a later date.  

That bass as cold as my nose?  asks Christine

Poor Pinky

The icy wind died down later in the day and we spent a lovely evening trying our fishing luck in the smaller lake, Whey Pond.     Phil wanted to try out a new fly fishing method, using a streamer behind the canoe as Christine slowly paddled.     He was delighted to finally land a good sized trout, which was duly christened "dinner"!

Looking autumnal at Whey Pond

May I introduce you to dinner?

Christine's favourite part of fishing!

Beautiful Rollins Pond with Loons, early morning

Throughout our road trip we'd been singing along to a song called "Cranberry Lake" on our satellite radio.   Suddenly we found out exactly where Cranberry Lake was located, right there in the Adirondacks.    It turned out to be another gorgeous spot, this time an enormous lake with a campsite right on its shore, so we decided to stop and check it out.

After setting up camp in our desirable new waterfront home, we set off up a rather muddy trail to the summit of Bear Mountain, where we hoped to get a good view of the lake.    Our long uphill squelch through the woods was rewarded with an excellent vista, giving us a true idea of the extent of the lake.

Of course we couldn't live right on the lake without inflating our canoe and heading out on a fish-hunting expedition.    

Christine at the summit of Bear Mountain

Cranberry Lake

Is that a bass or a guppy???

One more morning of fishing in the Adirondacks, this time on the Oswegatchie River and we were headed west, to the shores of Lake Ontario.