Despite having a summer that was hotter and wetter than usual, our annual weekend in the Adirondacks went off virtually without a hitch! In keeping with prior years, we broke bread together in the Catskills on Friday morning before rolling northward toward Gore Mountain where we intended to decamp for the night. The route was similar to prior years, but for the Pepacton loop. We wound our way through Arkville and Arena via backroads, ending up on the south side of the Pepaction, only to cross over the Shavertown Bridge and up Tremperskill toward Andes. In Andes we hooked a left onto 28 before making a right turn through Bovina, to Hobart where we hooked up with Rt 10 for the majority of the rest of the ride. We stopped in Canajoharie for some tacos at Taco 29 (no website, but you can’t miss it, right on the main drag in the middle of town). The food was great and the service was friendly!
We connected to Rt. 8 for what we thought was going to be the final leg of our Friday ride, only to discover that there had been a scheduling conflict relating to the lodging when we arrived in North Creek. After a couple of phone calls, Szabi was able to arrange for us to stay at a cabin belonging to a friend of that family. The location of this cabin was in Newcomb, a small town near the headwaters of the Hudson River. This would require another 30ish miles of riding. Luckily it was on Rt. 28n, which made for a very pleasant ride.
When we arrived at the spot, none of us really knew what to expect. It was a single story structure right on the water, located far enough from the highway that there was no traffic noise. It was perfect. We were able to settle in and get a fire going just in time to watch a killer sunset.
Here is roughly the route from day 1 (Except that from North Creek we took 28N to Newcomb)–
Day 2 ushered in another beautifully sunny morning, and slightly warmer temps than the prior day. We geared up and took a jaunt down 28n to grab breakfast in Long Lake at The Park, The breakfast sandwiches were no joke. We highly recommend this spot. With full bellies and a caffeine buzz, we jumped back on our bikes and commenced a large loop of the Adirondack Mountains, starting with Rt. 30 through Tupper Lake. We continued northwest, and ended up on an awesome section of unpaved deep woods starting near the Rainbow Narrows Kayak Launch, winding past several small lakes and glades, until eventually spitting us back out onto Rt.26 near Loon Lake. Despite most of the group having street tires, we all made it through this section without incident (other than a couple of bikes being very low on fuel when we got back to pavement).
We booked it to the nearest town for fuel before riding to the top of Whiteface Mountain. It was probably the least crowded that I have personally experienced it. We ripped all of the way up to our favorite lookout virtually unimpeded. There was more cyclist traffic than anything else. The weather had turned a bit hazy, but the clouds were super high, so the views were still pretty incredible.
After Whiteface, we made our way into Lake Placid for lunch. The town was really bumping, since it was the day before the Lake Placid Iron Man. Getting in and out of Lake Placid was easily the most traffic we saw for the entire ride. We headed south through Keene, and eventually doglegged back west toward Newcomb. It was beautiful riding weather for the entire day and we enjoyed another night grilling up at the cabin.
Below is roughly the route from Saturday’s ride–
Sunday morning we woke up to heavy rain falling outside. Luckily, we had all brought rain gear of some type. Looking at the radar, it seemed like we would eventually ride out of the wet as we headed back towards the Catskills. That proved to be the case as we essentially rode the reverse route from Friday’s ride. We stopped for some breakfast sandwiches in Speculator at a place called the Timberline which was quite tasty! By then the rain was just patchy and not enough to warrant rain gear. The temps had also climbed into the high 70s, making it uncomfortably warm to be wearing goretex. So we stripped back to perforated for the rest of the ride. Those of us who did not have transition visors (me), switched back to the smoked visor. We made it to Stamford by early afternoon and popped into Stamford Coffee for an iced pick-me-up, followed by some nice twisties on 23c, then home.
Big thanks to Szabi for putting together the routes, and sorting out lodging. Massive thanks to Szabi’s family friend for offering up his cabin to save our skins! Thanks to Lukas and Russ for the photos and good vibes! Can’t wait to do it again next year!
I dropped in a mega gallery below. All photos by Jake, unless otherwise indicated.
