Day Two – Henderson Harbor NY to Portland ME (469 miles)
We stayed on NY3 and motored to Sackets Harbor where we filled up on gas and took a couple of pictures of Henderson Bay. Route 3 east of Watertown is a nice road that gradually climbs up into the Adirondack Mountains and runs along several rivers and through many small towns typically located on lakes. We stopped in Star Lake to take a picture along the Oswegatchie River. Continuing on, we quickly came upon a nice stop just east of Cranberry Lake on the south branch of the Grasse River. As we continued east the mountains were becoming bigger, we were now looking at mountains in the 3,000 foot range, and the ski areas were becoming more prevalent. We came into the town of Tupper Lake which is in the heart of the 1,000 lakes country and the lake itself is the source of ten rivers. The area here is heavily forested, everywhere you look there is nothing but fir trees. Soon we were in Saranac Lake (KMZ), where we stopped to take a couple of pictures of the beautiful downtown without ever getting off of the bikes. We changed roads in Saranac Lake to NY73 and headed south towards Lake Placid. It wasn't long until we ran into the biking & hiking crowd. Lake Placid draws these types of people who vacation here, I guess thinking they may have a spot on the next Olympic team. It was Friday morning and already the place was jam-packed. We stopped to take a picture of the ski jumps (KMZ), that can be seen along NY73 where it, Riverside Dr, and the West Branch of the Ausable River all converge. Shortly after our stop we blew through Keene and down to NY9 where we planned to take the bridge over to VT. We were going down NY9 at a nice clip when we decided we had gone too far. We pulled the map out and realized we had gone too far south and were now due west of the Ticonderoga Ferry. We needed gas so we headed towards the Ferry on NY74. This road provided a nice view of Lake Champlain as we headed east and down towards the historic town. After filling up we decided not to chance the Ferry either being on the far side or not having room. So, we decided to blast the 10 miles north to the bridge to cross (KMZ). Near the crossing is Crown Point State Historic Site where the Champlain Memorial Lighthouse sits. Little did we know the bridge would be blown up in October of 2009. This also put us in position to head east on VT17 rather than VT73 which we had previously traveled on. Immediately after crossing the bridge we ran into a brutal rainstorm. It stayed with us until we got through Bristol VT, where we made a stop along the New Haven River (KMZ). We had just entered the Green Mountain National Forest and the scenery, as well as the road, was perfect. We hit rain again as we headed north on VT100 and on to I-89 for a short haul to US302. We have traveled this stretch of road many times and it never disappoints except, maybe when it's raining. We crossed the Connecticut River in Woodsville where we had made a stop back in 1994. Just beyond this point we turned onto NH112, better known as the Kancamagus Highway. Just past Stillwater the rain stopped so we stopped for a brief time along the Wild Ammonoosuc River (KMZ). Back on the bikes we were back into the rain, although the heavy stuff had stopped. The road was still wet making the ride less than perfect, but this highway is always entertaining. We were losing daylight and we still had our sights set on a lobster dinner in Naples ME. I think we knew about this time that we were not going to make Bar Harbor that night. We were simply not making good time with the rain. So we stopped for our lobster dinner which we had to eat in parking lot since the place was standing room only and a two-hour wait (KMZ). We continued on US302 and set our sights on Portland to stay for the night. We went through town and found the Falmouth Motel (KMZ) a few yards south of where we stayed in 1994.
