ADIRONDACK ROAD TRIP

JUNE 2013

We leave the skyscrapers and hustle and bustle of NYC behind and travel north for the mountains and lakes of the Adirondacks.  Adirondack Park is 6.1 million acres, the largest park in the contiguous United States, and encompasses the majority of the Adirondack North country.   

DAY 1 – Friday, June 7^th, 2013.  We head north on I-87 (New York State Thruway) – around three hours to Albany.  You can go west on I-90 to Buffalo and Niagara Falls or East on I 90 to Boston.  I-87 continues north as the Adirondack Northway – or just the Northway as most people refer to it.  First stop – lunch a Celia’s Table in Glens Falls.  Housed in the oldest building in Glens Falls, the atmosphere is simple and homey as is the food.  Ask Maureen about Celia and her boarding house.  I had the soup and ½ sandwich combo.  The special soup of the day, Chicken Pot Pie Soup was incredibly hearty and delicious.  I opted for the roast beef on rye with horseradish dressing for the sandwich.  Just right.   It’s unusual that I would choose anything but chocolate for dessert but the home made Lemon Bar is their specialty so we went for it.  Yummy, buttery and just the right texture without the lemon curd being overpowering. 

After lunch we head to the Hyde Collection to where a Georgia O’Keefe collection was due to open June 15  (NO sneak peaks).  The current collection includes many furnishings along with art by Picasso, Rembrandt, Van Gogh and many others.  The collections are easily viewed by using the self guided “Dial & Discover” with your own cell phone or simply use the information provided in each room indicating each piece in the room.  I opted to just stroll leisurely through the rooms and if there was a particular piece that interested me, looked at the loose-leaf information.  I enjoyed the paintings more than the furnishings as I am not a big “antique” person but someone who was into that would love the arrangements.  I would have also liked to do the outdoor garden, but the weather wasn’t cooperating. The museum offers many special programs for children too. I set the GPS for the address of our first night accommodations and we continue north to exit 23 and follow Route 28 into North Creek. I named the voice on mine “Clarice”, like in the movie Silence of the Lambs; because sometimes she would go places she shouldn’t have gone.  (see Day 4).  Next - check in at The Copperfield Inn Resort.  If it is luxury you want – this is the place.  I was in the “Demi-suite” or Semi-suite as I thought it was called, which had a separate seating area, a Jacuzzi tub and separate shower.  I would have loved to have soaked in the Jacuzzi but I couldn’t deal with the embarrassment of possibly not being able to get myself out. Merle would not have been able to help me if she were stuck in her own Jacuzzi.  If you want more luxury – the Townhouse Suite is the top of the line.  Dinner was at Trapper’s Tavern in the resort.  Our server, Lindsay, was extremely helpful, answering all questions about the menu.  I opted for the salmon steak with wild rice & tomato scallion relish. It was perfectly seasoned and fresh.  The salmon, as Lindsay told us, is “ocean farm raised”, harvested directly in the Atlantic Ocean. Check it out.  Dessert was the chocolate Pot de Crème with fresh whipped cream, reminiscent of my memories of home made chocolate pudding.  Trapper’s has a rustic and comfortable atmosphere and a moose head on the wall.  Ask the staff about the Teddy Roosevelt story.  

DAY 2 –  Saturday, June 8.  Breakfast was coffee and breakfast cakes at Copperfield’s and then back south on 28 to Route 9 into Lake George Village.  SURPRISE!!!!! – It’s Americade Weekend.  That means the world’s largest motorcycle rally.  I mean like 80,000 bikes!!! We detour back onto I-87 south to come in on the other side of town to the Adirondack Pedal Cab Company. 

  

After watching the motorcycle parade for a while right in front of the building, Mike pedaled us around the village a bit and to the dock where we would board the Lac de Saint Sacrement  for a lunch buffet cruise around the lake.  Lunch was very good for a tour boat cuisine and the entertainment was enjoyable. Although the weather was cloudy with light rain on and off, the cruise was fun.  We had arranged for Mike to pick us up again after the cruise for a tour of the village. This is definitely the way to travel around Lake George Village.    They do historic tours, family funtours, pedal and paddle tours, fireworks tour, or just pick you up and go wherever you want to go.  You can locate a Pedicab with an app on your phone. Merle and I made up a new name for the drivers  -  pedalers as opposed to peddlers.  There is no set cost for a ride.  You pay the driver a tip that you think is appropriate for the ride.  Be generous!!! Although the Pedicab is equipped with a battery booster for the hills, they really work their butts off, (which are viewable from the comfort of our seat in the cab!!)  We make a stop at The Adirondack Winery  for a wine tasting.  The standard tasting session is seven wines and you get to keep the souvenir wine glass.  A real bargain for only $5.  Have owners, Mike or Sasha Pardy, or any of the helpful servers; explain the wines and the winery itself. I am not a big drinker and I know you’re supposed to swish and spit for tastings so you can get the detailed flavors, but I like to taste it the same way I would drink it.  I’m still not able to detect all the subtle flavors but when I like the taste I ask them why this wine is different than one I didn’t like so I get a sense of which reds I like better.    It’s starting to rain again so Mike takes us back in the pedicab and we head back to North Creek.  On the road we see Barkeater’s Chocolates and stop for our chocolate fix.  Barkeater’s has been wholesaling their handmade chocolates which are available on-line and in many of the stores in the North Country and just opened the Factory Store in North Creek where they also make the chocolates now. Tastings of several specialties satiated the chocolate cravings.    Dinner is at  Basil and Wicks.  An appetizer of tuna tempura with wasabi noodles is exceptional.  The chicken franchisee with a fresh veggie medley is also delicious. 

We return to Trapper’s Tavern for dessert, drinks and live music with Mikki Bakken. She has the type of voice I like and played a great arrangements of what I would call light rock.  The crowd, a mix of hotel guests and local people, made a few requests which Mikki sang.

DAY 3 – Sunday June 9^th   I walk a short way into town to have a breakfast of two eggs over easy, sausage, rye toast and coffee at Martha’s.   Back to Copperfield’s to check out and go up the road a piece to check out the Gore Mountain Farm Alpacas.  Can you say cute and furry?  We got to see the alpacas out in the field, with a short visit to us to get some treats.  The little shop has some very nice alpaca clothing and items which are available for purchase.  I got some alpaca socks which are a lot more comfortable than wool.  Next we head up to Gore Mountain to do the Gondola ride to the top.  Actually it’s not the top top.  That can only be reached in ski season by another ski lift, but the day has cleared up enough for the views to be amazing.  From the Gondola you can see mountains for miles in all directions.  As the Gondola is large and enclosed Merle is very comfortable and can listen to some of the information being given to us by our host.  When we get to the top I take the opportunity to walk out to get better views and take some pictures of the mountains and ski trails to show Merle who will be sitting down at the time. 

It’s still off season now which means it’s quiet and peaceful.  In a few weeks the summer activities will start including Disc Golf, mini golf, climbing walls, biking and hiking and other special activities.  Ski season at Gore includes 13 ski lifts, 98 downhill trails, 20 glades, 5 freestyle areas, and cross country and snowshoe trails.  Back into North Creek for a light lunch at Café Sarah.  We head out to RT 28 again to RT 30 into the village of Speculator.  Located in the town of Lake Pleasant in Hamilton County, it has a population of around 325. 

The rain has held up for the time being and we check in at the Lake Pleasant Lodge where we relax by the Gazebo and enjoy the views of the lake. 

They have a small private beach but it abuts the small public beach and a couple looking for the public beach accidently wound up in the parking lot of the lodge.  Our first clue that something was amiss was when the man started to disrobe down to his “Jockeys”  in the parking lot.  Mike, the manager of the lodge, politely led the couple to the right place and we continued our conversation.  Seems like Mike and Merle had a common past experience with “EST” and they exchanged some stories.  I was wishing I could get out on the lake on my kayak or one of the canoes provided by the lodge, but it was getting late.   Dinner is at The Inn at Speculator on RT 8.  

Taking advantage of local ingredients, the food is tasty and fresh.  Appetizers of coconut shrimp and Buffalo wings, salad, and the Adirondack Pork made with local maple syrup and fresh glazed apple sage reductions, all delicious. Our discussion with owner, Neil McGovern, who is also the Town Supervisor, was interesting and enlightening with lots of laughs.  

DAY 4 – Monday, June 10^th  -  “This must be the other side of the lake”. I set Clarice for the Adirondack Museum.  I make a right out of the driveway and Clarice directs me to go right and left, which seemed strange because we were already on RT 30.  I thought it was some short cut so we follow her directions.  We see Lake Pleasant and Merle and I say together “ This must be the other side of the lake” just as we come up to the entrance of our motel again.  Now I hum the Twilight Zone theme and we both crack up.  I realize I should have made a left out of the hotel and Clarice, instead of just telling me to make a U-turn, sends me in a loop to get back around to RT 30 again.  I swear, she can be sarcastic at times!!  A breakfast of baked oatmeal with blueberries at a little place in town, The Timberline Café and Bakery, was exceptional.  Unfortunately they were closed on Tuesday and Wednesday (off season) or I would have gone back for breakfast every day.  We head north on RT 30 into Blue Mountain Lake to explore the Adirondack Museum.  The rain was holding out again so we could enjoy exploring the museum.  It’s actually more of a “campus”, with 22 different buildings, a fire tower,  and log cabins and lean-tos.  

 Even though there are numerous buildings, structures, and exhibits to view,  the museum is really more about the history and stories of people in the Adirondacks through the decades and how the lived,  traveled, worked and played.   I took advantage of the self-guided audio tour which makes the visit more interesting and educational. The individual personal stories were my favorite part. The audio is free with admission to the museum or you can even download a free app to you iphone.   My favorite exhibits were “Work in the Woods”  (logging in the Adirondacks), Roads and Rails” and “Boats and Boating”.   The actual carriage that  Roosevelt rode in to get to the North Creek Depot, when he was notified about the death of President McKinley, is on display along with many other modes of transportation including  A private railcar that you can walk through giving you an idea of the transportation that the wealthy had available to them.  Listen to the audio and you can hear about the changes in transportation over time from the “city” to the Adirondacks.   The smaller buildings such as the “Artist’s Cottage”, the “Log Hotel” and the schoolhouse are also really interesting. The smallest structures are probably the lean-tos.  Lean-tos were used for shelters and were either very simple or somewhat comfortable.  Many people came to the Adirondacks for health reasons and would use the lean-tos as a kind of outside porch to inhale the fresh air and relax while viewing the mountains. I heard one person say that the Adirondack chair, with its inclined back, was made so the lungs were more expanded and people with tuberculosis could breathe more easily.  Merle made use of one of the electric scooters available for rent and the majority of buildings and areas were handicapped accessible.

Her experiment with the ride over the log road set up in one of the exhibits in Roads and Rails can’t really be described.  Look for it on her video.  You can picnic on the grounds or eat at the Lake View Café, overlooking the lake oddly enough, which has a nice selection of sandwiches, salads, hot food, and desserts.

 I had to stop into the Museum Store where I pick up a few things, including decals from various areas in the Adirondacks which I put on my kayak and car.  Leave at least ½ day to make the most of this attraction. All admissions are valid for a second visit within a one-week period so if you are in the area on vacation for a week it’s a great deal.  The rain is back.  Dinner is a special treat at The Hedges Camp.  Lunch and dinner are usually available only for the guests of the Camp but sometimes open spaces are available by reservation. We had New England clam chowder, a salad with fruit vinaigrette, the crab stuffed flounder, and an amazing baked brownie with vanilla ice cream.  The Camp, now owned by Pat Benton, is on the National Register of Historic Places and has an interesting history.  In order to pay tribute to service men and women,   The Hedges offers wounded military personnel one free fully paid week in their “Warriors Den cabin”  when available.  The cabin is handicap accessible and sleeps four.  If you are able to take advantage of the offer – tell them you heard about it from Merle and Laurie’s blogs.  After dinner and a look at some of the accommodations, it’s back to Speculator.  It seems as though everything is an hour from everything else up in North Country. 

DAY 5 – Tuesday, June 11 -  We checkout of Lake Pleasant Lodge and I grab a breakfast sandwich on the run from the only Diner in town and we head back up north on RT 30 to RT 28 west into Raquette Lake.  Our first stop is the Great Camp Sagamore Tour.   The Camp was owned by the Alfred Vanderbilt family from 1901-1954. Now a National Historic Landmark with 27 buildings located on Sagamore Lake, the camp is open for tours, special events, and education programs and courses.  The Intergenerational programs are very popular.  Road Scholar also offers various programs at the Camp.  This is not a hotel or resort, or even the accommodation of The Hedges, so expect to be part of a comfortable but rustic experience.  Leave your high heels at home!     The camp also depends on volunteers for its upkeep so you can also have a hands-on work weekend.  On our tour we got to see most of the buildings, the dining hall and some of the accommodations.  The most interesting one for me was the open air bowling alley.

 

 I find these “great camps” incredibly interesting.  As with The Hedges, these camps were intended to “rough it” away from the city for the wealthy and privileged.  Even the smaller vacation camps are far from roughing it, even now.  When I went to an actual children’s summer camp in Great Barrington in the Berkshires I thought that was roughing it!  We slept in a cabin with hot and cold running water, an indoor toilet, got three good meals a day and spent the rest of the time boating or water skiing on Lake Buel, riding horses, or playing sports.  I wouldn’t mind roughing it all summer again.  Black fly season in the Adirondacks, as Merle found out, can be very uncomfortable.  They provided her with a net heading that made her look like a bee keeper.  Be prepared.    Next up – a lunch cruise on the W.W. Durant on Raquette Lake.  We thought the rain would hold out – but no such luck.  The family owned and operated business provides daily cruising from July to Labor Day and weekends in September and October with luncheon, dinner cruises and other special cruises.  The lunch was buffet style but the food was as tasty as a sit down dinner in any good restaurant.  Not surprisingly as the chef, the son of the family is CIA trained. (That’s Culinary Institute of America – not the government agency!!!)      Lunch included pork tenderloin with wasabi cream, pasta with veggies, and more fresh veggies with key lime cheesecake for dessert.  Oh right!!!! This is a cruise too – I almost forgot!!  Even though it was raining and I couldn’t really go up to the open top deck, the cruise around Raquette Lake was enjoyable and informative.  The Pohl family is extremely accommodating and hospitable.  After the lunch cruise we head back on Rt 28 to RT 30 north for a couple of stops on our way to Wilmington.  After all, this is a road trip.  First stop – The Hoss Country Store in Long Lake on Main Street.  A large store with an even larger tree right in the middle of it.  I kid you not.     Lot’s of good stuff including the old candy standards.  Next stop – The Wild Center in Tupper Lake.  Unfortunately we got there too late to take advantage of the whole center and it was still raining so we couldn’t do any of the outdoor walks but it was still fun to watch the otters swim and play.  Back on the road to RT 3 onto RT 86 east into Wilmington.  Check in at the Ledge Rock at Whiteface Mountain.  Great view of the mountain with a swimming pool that I would not be able to take advantage of.  

Being in the Adirondacks and not being able to kayak, swim in a lake or even the pool was disappointing for me but the scenery and always friendly people made it worthwhile, and of course, the fantastic food!!  That reminds me – it must be time for dinner.  We head just down the road apiece to The Hungry Trout.  It has a spectacular view of the raging rapids of the Ausable River. 

 I had the Maine lobster ravioli appetizer which was delicious and of course I had to have one of the several trout dinners.  I opted for the “Rainbow Trout Grand Marnier”.  It was butter flied and the marnier sauce was not overpowering.   Merle had the combo plate of pan fried trout, quail, and venison.

DAY 6 – Wednesday June 12    We were scheduled to do the drive up the Whiteface Veterans Memorial Toll Road but the weather was cloudy and overcast and you could barely see the top of the mountain so we head back onto RT 86 up to 9N into Ausable Chasm.  

We were also scheduled to do the raft trip but the weather was still iffy.  I had already done the trip several times so it was not too  much of a disappointment, but it is a must for those who have not done it.  It’s certainly not white water rapids, or even class 3 so it’s comfortable for most people.  The hiking and trails are also something to experience. This is at least a half day trip.   We entered the North Star Underground Railroad Museum located just off the parking lot for the chasm. 

  Although the museum itself is very small with only a few actual exhibits, it is really the information and history about the journeys along the railroad, given by the docents, which make the experience special.  This is more of a museum about people and families and the local areas that were part of the Underground Railroad escape then it is about exhibits or structures.   The video and stories about the slaves’ escapes and trips up north are very emotional.  We were informed by one of the docents that many of the visitors to the museum were “exploring their own history and connections with escaping slaves that were family members.”  The museum also has special events and programs including a Freedom Festival of Music and mini tours of the Underground RR and Abolition sites in Keesville & Peru.  They also spend a great deal of time and effort on special education programs for children, making history exciting and enjoyable.    Next stop – Lake Placid.  Back on 9N south to RT 86 into the village of Lake Placid for lunch at The Lake Placid Pub & Brewery.

Beer is brewed right on the premises so I tried the “Moose Island Ale”.  The special soup of the day was a smoked Gouda & roasted pepper which was really tasty.  “Josh’s Fire Fish” was a twist on the usual fish and chips where the haddock was prepared traditionally and then tossed with Buffalo wing sauce and served with “beer bleu cheese”, tartar sauce and fries.  Not disappointing and the beer was a great accompaniment with the spicy sauce. 

It was getting a little late so we could not get to the Olympics site tour so we took advantage of the sunny day and just walked around town and hung out by Band Shell Park overlooking Mirror Lake.   Dinner tonight is at Generations right on Main Street and also overlooking Mirror Lake.

I had pot stickers for an appetizer and decided to try the “Adirondack Trout” to compare it to the trout last night.  Lightly crusted and with no sauce – the taste of the trout really came out.  A dessert of chocolate ganache hit the spot. The spot on my belt which was now one notch bigger for some reason. 

After dinner we check in at the Whiteface Chalet back in Wilmington.  Very cozy with rooms that are, as the name says, like chalets. 

DAY 7 – Thursday, June 13  -  Before checking out I head down early in the morning for what they called a “continental breakfast”  Not packaged pastries and coffee, I come into the dining hall to choose from three different cereals, fresh corn muffins, various breads to toast, P & J and other toppings, and hard boiled eggs, coffee and juice.  I think I tried everything!!   It rained pretty much all the way to Kingston and we headed back into Queens to end our road trip.

I have always loved the Adirondacks from my previous kayak trips and vacations.  Our road trip showed that the Adirondacks can provide everything for everybody whether you are looking for the luxury of the resorts, the comfort of Inns, the freedom of cabins or cottages, or the full camping experience.  Whether you want to go hiking, biking, fishing, kayaking, birding, see museums, shop and antique in quaint villages or just spend time in and around the hundreds of lakes and mountains.  Whether you want the “hustle” of Lake George Village and Lake Placid, or the quiet of Speculator and North Creek, the Adirondacks are right in your own back yard (almost).  Enjoy the North Country of New York in any season.  I know I’ll be going back again to see and enjoy some of the things I missed or couldn’t spend enough time at. Hopefully, it won't rain.