0539 Granville Vermont to Cranberry Lake SP, New York

15^th June 2016

Beautiful scenery in the Adirondack Mountains

No bears or mountain men attacked me during the night, tucked away in the forest near Granville, and I woke up to a clear blue sky, and a temperature at 8 am (14 deg C) that was higher than the maximum I saw just a couple of days ago !  It was definitely getting warmer after such a long time in the cold. 

There were lots of roadworks everywhere today, with traffic lights restricting flow to one way, and quite a lot of dirt sections – Which had been watered to keep the dust down, and while that may be nice for the locals or the road workers, it is a PITA for car owners who then end up with filthy vehicles all the time !  Depends which side of the fence you are sitting on, I guess !  Within 15 minutes of starting today, just as I entered my first roadworks, I caught a glimpse of a waterfall through the trees, and as I was still getting sorted for the day (cup of tea, shaving, getting all things electrical on charge, etc) I missed it – So I did a U turn and went back to check it out !

Photography when on the road is not easy.  You might think that some of my pics are a bit blurred, or not composed very well, but often you only get a couple of seconds to react to a momentary passing scene and get your camera up, focused, and click.  Often there is traffic behind you which means you can’t slow down or stop suddenly, and with country roads (that I usually travel on) often being quite narrow and twisty, it makes it even more complicated sometimes.  So I make no apologies for my photography – I snap what I can !!

I mentioned yesterday that the countryside and little towns were all very “American”, and today was no different.  Coming into the tiny township of Granville just down the road from my campsite, the old style Granville General Store on my left was a delight – US and State flags flying proudly outside the old wooden building, a sign out on the road declaring it to be “The General Store”, and just the right amount of old vehicles and stuff out side to make it looked totally lived in !  Meanwhile on the other side of the road was the rest of Granville – 4 or 5 very plain wooden houses with neatly mown lawns – Just perfect !

I drove on through the beautiful countryside in the sunshine, and not long afterwards came to the Hipton Country Store which was yet another delight – right down to the old MobilOil sign with the red Pegasus – And a solitary pump up against the building.  And once again the flags flying, and the old 7 Up “Open” sign that has probably been in use for 40 years.  I love it !

In driving on down the road, I was surprised by the Armco guardrails beside the road -  I realized that you never normally see rusty Armco – It is usually galvanized and “clean” looking.  Just an oddity – I guess someone in the local council purchased some cut price materials a few years ago, and tis is the result !

I passed through some wide open agricultural country (a change from all the recent forests and lakes), and then came to a big expanse of water, and, in the distance, the big arch of a bridge.  The big stretch of water is Lake Champlain, while the bridge was the crossing from Vermont on one side into New York State on the other.  First time I have driven in New York State since ?? 1971 ?? when I was here with Janet in an old Plymouth Station Wagon that we had driven from California – via Mexico !

Crossed Lake Champlain on the bridge, and then drove north up the other side of the Lake where the water was SO still, it was almost unbelievable for such a a large body of water.  A couple of fisherman were out there trolling slowly, and even they didn’t make a ripple

After a while I cut west again, up through the Keene Valley, eventually coming out at Lake Placid where they had held the 1980 (and 1936) Winter Olympics.  The first thing you see are the two enormous towers of the ski jumps, and I immediately thought of the recent movie I had enjoyed so much of Eddy the Eagle, the British Ski Jumper.  For a moment I thought maybe these were the jumps he had braved, but then I worked out that he actually competed at the 1988 Olympics.  Nevertheless, when you see these towers outlined against the sky, you realize just how big they are !

The little town of Lake Placid wasn’t too special for me, with lots of roadworks again, so I continued on to Saranac Lake, which was much prettier.  I went into the information centre there, but basically all they had was info on restaurants and hotels – So I grabbed a map, used their loo, and left.  I went down to the lake side and enjoyed a lunch time sandwich in the warm sunshine, watching  fishermen put their boats in the water and set off across the lake for the afternoon.  Very pleasant.

One thing I did find out from the Information centre was that basically it is about a 5 hour drive to Niagara from here.  In order to time it right, I decided to stop somewhere near here for the night, then go on to Niagara tomorrow, find a camp site near there, and then have a day at the falls.   So after my lunch I set off on the road again,  eventually ending up at Cranberry Lake at about 3 pm, where I found a delightful State Park and camp site dotted around the shore of the lake.  So I checked in (hardly anyone else here mid week) and just sat around reading my book and dozing in the sunshine beside the lake.  A very pleasant rest !

While I cooked my dinner, some ducks were hanging around, and later another came over with her ducklings.  After dinner, while I was sitting inside the van, a chipmunk came over and actually jumped up onto the rear step of the van and looked at me !  I wasn’t ready with the camera, but in the end there were 3 or 4 of them chasing each other around and fighting for the few peanuts I put out on the ground for them.  Very pleasant little interlude with all the wildlife as the sun went down over Cranberry Lake.  Nothing earth shattering today – Just a very pleasant sunny day driving through some beautiful scenic countryside.  

Pics are here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/6299011991662054241?authkey=Gv1sRgCIrM3f3k6_3wzwE