lennon_68

I hate to start a third thread asking for help planning our tour this summer but I updated and posted in the previous thread and didn't get any input (and I really feel like I shouldn't try to just wing it on my own) so here goes thread #3

Unless someone talks me out of it we're looking to do Adirondack Park in upstate NY the week of August 18-25. We'd be driving from Minnesota to wherever the start location is, bike a loop, hop in the car and drive back (well, there'd probably be a rest day on each end of the biking I suppose).

I'm looking for advice and help planning the route and overnight stops. I might grab the ACA map for this but if someone here is familiar with the are and camping options I'd prefer to save the $



There's lots of information in the other threads about what we're looking to get out of a tour but to save anyone willing to offer guidance from having to track through those threads here's a summary:

- This will be my 3rd tour (and my wife's 2nd) but the first one that we're planning "from scratch". The other two were based out of my and my brothers' houses.
- 4-5 light days, ~40 miles/day.
- Loaded touring - we'd be hauling camping gear and at least some food. It would be nice to be able to eat at a restaurant at least once a day but that's not a must (on the flip side we could eat all our meals "out" if that's an option). Similarly we'd prefer to come across a place to buy groceries/refill water/etc. each day or at minimum every other day.
- Paved roads/paths - in Oregon we did some gravel, we'd prefer to avoid that if at all possible (maybe a mile or two of gravel sprinkled in would be doable if a route couldn't work any other way).
- We'll want to do a loop starting where we parked the car and ending there.
- We'd probably want to stay in a hotel the day before and day after. Maybe we could leave the car at the hotel?
- We're pretty comfortable camping in most situations but would prefer a designated campsite. We'd prefer not to have to step down grass to setup a tent but if we *had* to do so for 1-2 nights we could. We'd be open to hotel/motel/B&B/etc. as well but only if it's cheap...

Jim Kukula

The ACA loop would be a good starting point:

https://www.adventurecycling.org/rout...ack-park-loop/

Looks like it is about twice the mileage you want, but maybe you can figure out a short cut somewhere. You could also look at Lake Champlain:

https://www.champlainbikeways.org/

There might be some overlap with the ACA loop & anyway that should give you some more options in the area.

lennon_68

This is where I've started as well. I drew a map that's the ACA route cut down to 220 miles. Things I'm not sure about are:
https://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/247431633

- Are all these roads paved?
- What services are available in the towns we'd be riding through
- What's a logical starting point for this (somewhere we'd have the option of staying in a hotel with somewhere to park our car)
- What camping options are there ~40 miles apart


I was concerned about doing mountains again so for kicks I mapped the Oregon tour from last year... Doesn't look like this tour will be a problem and the 40 miles/day shouldn't be an issue at all. I knew we did some climbing last year but dang, didn't realize we did a healthy climb every day! And that one 40 mile long descent was the least enjoyable descent I've ever experienced. At the top we were dragging our bikes through snow covered roads (they hadn't been driven on yet! - up near Lake Waldo) in the rain... the entire descent was in a cold rain with a strong headwind. We actually stopped and camped because my wife couldn't hold her brakes any more. Ah, gotta love bike touring! Sucked while it happened but love having had the experience

https://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/247419957
(note, this might not be the exact route... some of the stuff between Bend and Oakridge probably isn't quite right)

Again maybe I need to just fork over the $$ for the ACA map but if there's someone familiar with the route that's willing to help out it would be greatly appreciated.

Jim Kukula

I don't know the Adirondacks at all. I was talking to a friend who grew up there and returns every summer. I asked her about biking on NY route 30 and she said she thought it would be a great biking road. So that is one tiny data point for you!

Of course you will want to be looking places like this:

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/l...octype=journal

lennon_68

Thanks! I appreciate the feedback One thing I've come across in my limited searching is to try to avoid the climb from Keene to Lake Placid. Two different sources suggest this is a crappy climb on a narrow busy road. I'm considering going from Keene up to Wilmington than down to Lake Placid, across to Saranac Lake, and catching the ACA route back up near Lake Clear. This would avoid the worst climb on the route and cut 20 miles off. Not being familiar with the area I'm not sure if these roads will be OK for touring though...

I edited my proposed route with this change for reference. I'll have to see if I can figure out how to make a copy to compare the two...


Edit: From that crazyguyonabike link I found someone doing a very similar tour. Looks like this is a picture of that climb I mentioned above but they did the tour the other way so they were going down... Looks beautiful but definitely doesn't look ideal for touring, especially while climbing a 7% grade.

Steve B.

[QUOTE=lennon_68;15857681]Thanks! I appreciate the feedback One thing I've come across in my limited searching is to try to avoid the climb from Keene to Lake Placid. Two different sources suggest this is a crappy climb on a narrow busy road. I'm considering going from Keene up to Wilmington than down to Lake Placid, across to Saranac Lake, and catching the ACA route back up near Lake Clear. This would avoid the worst climb on the route and cut 20 miles off. Not being familiar with the area I'm not sure if these roads will be OK for touring though...

Ummm.... Keene to LP is 14 'ish miles on Rt 73. and a +1800 ft climb, mostly up to the Cascade Ponds. Keene to Wilmington and then back up Rt 86 to LP is 27 'ish miles and +2200 ft. So not as steep but longer and it's not "Down to Lake Placid".

lennon_68

Hmm, thanks for pointing that out. I'll have to look into it a bit more. I know the posts I read also mentioned it was the busiest highway on the tour and the shoulder is pretty nonexistent too but if it's "short" and sucky it's probably manageable

Lightingguy

Rt 73 has a climbing lane for the middle 2 miles or so up to the ponds, so if you take the lane you'll be OK as the really slow vehicles won't be flying by you at speed.

Note as well that this is generally (Rt 73) not a heavy trucking route as a lot of goods heading to Lake Placid and Saranac come out of Plattsburgh to the NE thus use Rt 3. So from what I remember, mostly cars and barely mobile homes.

I wouldn't worry too much about bad traffic in the Daks. It's tourist season and there will be more traffic then say, September (which would be my choice for time of year), it's still not a heavily populated area.

One choice detour if you don't desire to ride thru Lake Placid (which might be worth doing, it's a pretty little town) is to take the Old Military Rd, which is south of town. Joins 73 to 86. Yes it's paved.

lennon_68

Thanks for the information! Sounds like I shouldn't worry too much and should trust the ACA's route planning. Everything I've read says Lake Placid is a highlight of this tour so I think I'm going to make it a priority to end up there at some point

I've done some more research on camping options and it looks like they're pretty much everywhere along the route. Well not everywhere but there's quite a few options to where I can probably piece something together without too much trouble and still have lots of options when things change while we're out there. I also like that we'll have the option to cut across from Lake Placid if we're feeling rushed for time. Maybe I'll use that as a determining factor in setting the starting point... maybe not though, if we have the option to be done in 20 miles or ride another 50 it might be too easy to take the 20 mile option lol.

I'm definitely still open to any suggestions or help planning the starting point and nightly stops but I'm getting more comfortable with the idea of planning it from scratch now that I've gotten a chance to map camping options.

One thing I don't know is what the towns along the route will offer. I know when we did the tour here in MN the maps showed 2 or 3 "towns" that we were counting on for refilling water bottles. When we rode that stretch they were nowhere to be found though, not even a cluster of houses. Fortunately we'd stopped at a national forest picnic area for lunch and had filled our water bottles or we could have been in trouble.

Lightingguy

A quick glance showed Blue Mt. Lake as a convenient starting point, if driving up from I90 and the western NY area. There's a hotel as well as a restaurant at The Hedges, just south of the Rt 28/39 junction. Never stayed there but have passed it and it looks nice.

One loop at 200 miles is, Rt 30, 3, 86, 73, 9N, thru Long Lake, Tupper Lake, Saranac Lake, LP, Keene, Elizabethtown, then Lincoln Pond Rd to Port Henry on Lake Champlain, then over to Rt 22 to Crown Point, then Rt 8 across to Rt 28 at North Creek and back up to Indian Lake and to BML.

Another option is west from Ticonderoga on Rt 74, to north on 9, to Blue Ridge Rd. over to Rt 28N, then on to Long Lake and back down to BML. About the same distance. Blue Ridge road is remote (and paved) as is Rt28N at North Creek. Nothing out there but trees. So less traffic. Note that about any stretch of Rt 9 gets more traffic, which is why I routed over to Lake Champlain.

There's camping at DEC sites, Follensby Pond, Wilmington Notch, Crown Point, Harris Lake plus other sites scattered across the Daks. In the Adirondaks, the NY State Dept. of Environmental Conservation operates the state campgrounds.

https://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/7825.html

lennon_68

That first route sounds pretty close to what I've drawn up. I did an optional spur north from LP (following the ACA route map) but figured it'd be a nice optional cutoff when we get to that point to cut across through Saranac Lake (in my mind we were heading the other direction on the loop).

Have you seen my proposed loop? It looks like every time I change it MapMyRide sets it back to "Friends Only" for the security so it might have been blocked if you tried before:
https://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/247431633

Lightingguy

I couldn't read the MMR prior, can now.

Pretty much the same route. Thoughts:

You are starting in North Creek, which means extra driving. You would need to head east on I90 to Albany, then north on I87 to Warrensberg, then NW again. Why not get off I90 near Rome and head up 8/28 towards Blue Mt. Lake. It's a pretty ride up the Fulton Chain with ton's of places to stay and eat. Same loop after.

Rt 73 up from Rt 9 south of Keene Valley is a killer hill, thus I would recommend Rt 9N between Keene and Elizabethtown. With Lincoln Pond Road the link coming north (it's paved and pretty). 9N is also straighter and wider thus less issues with cars then Rt 73 which is narrower and twistier. Rt 73 is also the primary road used to get from the interstate to Lake Placid, thus see's a lot more traffic.

As to towns ?. BLM, Long Lake, Tupper, PL, Elizabethtown, all have places to stay and eat, as do the town along Lake Champlain. Not always a LOT of choices, but everything will be open in summer.

lennon_68

Awesome, this is exactly the kind of information I need! As far as the starting point it was just an arbitrary point on the loop not the actual starting point for the tour. I'm going to take your advice and plan for starting at Blue Mountain Lake. I'll also incorporate your suggestions around Keene, if I remember right I was looking at the elevation plots in that area thinking I'd like to see if there was anything friendlier.

I updated the route with these changes

lennon_68

Just checking in from moriah, NY. Were right around half way through the tour and aside from the fact that we didn't train nearly enough for this were having a pretty darn good time . We were shooting for 4 50 mile days so wed have more time after the tour but that's just not gonna happen lol.

I'd planned the whole route out with 40 mile and 50 mile days but it got all messed up when I couldn't get a room in blue mtn lake... we ended up starting 10 miles back in long lake. Due to that and only getting 40 miles we ended up stealth camping the first night. It wasn't too bad but to make up for it we took a short day yesterday and checked into a motel in ticonderosa at 4 in the afternoon lol. It was a nice break though and we got all restocked and refueled (even did the laundry). Anyway on to elizabethtown and hopefully at least Keene before the end of the day