Day 9

Today is a good day. Today is a rest day. Today is Rudy's birthday. Today is a day to heal. We've only made it 43 miles since our last posting, but a lot has happened in these last few days. First, Rudy ran into his college roommates sister in Long Lake's public library. Second, we arrived at the Hideaway campsite on the north end of Long Lake and encountered the enigmatic proprietor. She was a woman in her early 70's, and she quickly explained that she had plenty of available lake front tent sites, but we could not swim. At first we thought she was the most hilariously sarcastic old woman we had ever met, but eventually we stopped laughing at her when we realized she was serious. We asked her why not, and she said, "Well, you can swim in there, but I wouldn't. Not unless you want to sink up to here (and here she gestured to her neck) in mud." We discovered that it was a tad mucky, but perfectly swimable. This was not our first campsite where we had trouble with the water, so from here on out, our first question will be, "Can we swim here?"

Also at Hideaway campsite, we were vistited by hungry ducks, racoons, a crow, an inebriated man who traipsed through our campsite at 5pm and then again 2am. We discoverd the following morning that there had been a bear in the vacinity. So from now on we're definitely hanging all of our food instead of using it as pillows.

We awoke late morning to avoid the tale end of a early morning rain storm. We rode through Blue Mountain and Inlet and into Old Forge. We made a quick stop at Petals and Pedals, a unique small business shared by a husband and wife. Half was a bike shop, run by the husband, and half was a flower shop, run by the wife. There Adam’s bent rear derailleur, which was damaged the previous night in the descent to the lakeside campsite, was replaced with a new aluminum hanger. We finished another spectacular peanut butter and jelly lunch and topped it off with a chocolate milk apiece. Our time is up on the Loon, which is the computer here at Old Forge’s public library.

We spent last night in a motel so that Colin could be in walking distance of the local medical clinic. His right knee is really sore. The good news is that he can ride with it, but the bad news is that it probably won’t improve with riding. We’re going to figure out exactly what our plans are later tonight. That’s it for now.