Start: Farmington, Maine
End: Tupper Lake, New York
Distance: 528 km Total to date: 5524 km
Gas: Bethel, Maine: 3.009 gal @ $3.719/gal; Total $11.31
Montpelier, Vermont: 3.095 gal @ $3.719/gal; Total: $11.51
Weather: Perfect! It started out a bit cool at about 59 degrees and warmed up to about 69 degrees. The sky was bright blue with wispy white clouds...a gorgeous day. The moon was very bright until about 8:30 a.m.
We headed down Hwy 2 towards Bethel, Maine and the scenery started to ramp up. We rode into a cute town, located just before the White Mountains, called Rumford. Rumford has a beautiful waterfall and dam system that was first used as a fishing ground by the native Indian bands and later as a power dam. It's the largest waterfall east of Niagara.
Down the road from Rumford, the area is a popular ski area for the Black Mountain. There are quaint wooded rustic hotels that add flavour to the area.
Further down Hwy 2, the hills got higher and the scenery more spectacular. Just past Bethel, Maine, we came to a gorgeous little lake that reflected the blue sky and white clouds. Hwy 2 was starting to show it's stuff.
Once we crossed into New Hampshire and the town of Gorham, we saw Mount Washington, the highest peak in the northeastern states at 6,288 ft. and is part of the White Mountain National Forest.
We continued across Hwy 2 to Montpelier, Vermont, a small city with interesting architecture.
We stopped in Montpelier, Vermont and had lunch. We had to decide on our next route. We had to get on the west side of Lake Champlain and had the option of going to Burlington, Vermont and then taking a one hour ferry across, or we could ride south to Port Henry and cross over a bridge to get to the west side. We opted for Port Henry as we would not have to worry about ferry times and would also have a more direct route to Lake Placid.
We headed down Hwy 12 and then turned south onto Hwy 17. This was one amazing ride. We climbed a mountain that had tight curves all the way up, switching back and forth as we slowly made our way up. At the top, we met a couple of other motorcyclists that were ecstatic about their ride from the other side. We took a few photos, Lori caught her breathe and courage and we had a very curvy but bump ride down. Jamie said my trailer was air-bourne a few times on the way down. It was a super and exhilarating ride.
Once out of the mountain, we Hwy 17 continued as a rolling road, going thru farm land with the view of distant mountains. It was gorgeous. The bridge at Port Henry was a magnificient structure. Being on the highway without and parking area, we could not get a photo that gave it justice.
We headed up Hwy 17 and Hwy 9 to get to Lake Placid. Once again we climbed the mountain that went up and up and up. It wasn't as windy as the previous mountain, but it was surely high. We saw many cyclists and runners along the way. By the time we got into the city, there were even more of these very healthy bodies everywhere. The town was bustling as the Ironman competition was happening and there were over 2500 participants and their families there. Once again, time was our enemy and we had to find a place to stay and it was apparent, it was not going to happen in Lake Placid. We continued down Hwy 3 to Tupper Lake where we found a nice municipal campground. We set up and then went back to the town for dinner. As it was 8:00 p.m., the owner of a restaurant came out and said they close at 8, but will stay open for us. We had a nice dinner and then retired for the night at the campground.
Mentally, today is our last day. We have to make it back tomorrow and it's a long, long ride back, especially for Al & Jamie who must get back to the Sault as Jamie has to work. I have to get to St. Catharines and Al & Lori will be going to Manitoulin. We had a very good ride today and the scenery was spectacular. What a way to sort of end the ride. Tomorrows ride will be long and without stops to take in anything, so hopefully we can look back at this day and smile!
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