White Lake, NY to John DillionPark Campground 67.8 miles

It seems like the farther I get into this tour the harder it is for me to get on the road in the early morning. I guess the days are getting shorter but I don’t think that is the whole story.

I made it to Old Forge, I have never been there before. I have been to the Adirondacks many times but this was my first time seeing the Western edge of them. It seemed less developed, the towns were more like oases in the wilderness.

I stopped at Blue Line Coffee House and was enjoying a cup of coffee and a piece of crumb cake sitting in the sun at their bar top front window when a monster fifth wheel pulled up out front eclipsing the light coming in through the open window. It was hard to not be resentful. Namaste.

I asked the guy in the picture below “How long till you will need to come back to wreck the dam again? I can’t remember what he said.

I stopped in Long Lake at Hoss’s Country store and noticed they had a White Pine growing right through the roof! Apparently when they expanded the store this tree was in the way and chose to build around it instead of taking it down. The ice cream at “The Park” across the street is top notch.

I rode past ponds and lakes all day. White Lake, Otter Lake, Old Forge Pond, First lake, Second Lake, Third Lake, Fourth Lake, Fifth Lake, Six Lake, Seventh Lake, Eighth Lake, Raquette Lake, Utowanna Lake, Eagle Lake, Blue Mountain Lake, Minnow Pond, South Pond and Long Lake. And now I was arriving at John Dillion Campground on Grampus Lake.

The Campground is the combined effort of Paul Smith’s College and International Paper. I am imagining most of the funding was from International Paper and Paul Smith’s runs the Campground. When I called asking how much it was for a campsite I was shocked when they said it was free! Donations are accepted. They had space in one of their Adirondack shelters, I was stoked.

The Campground was really well designed. It seemed like they really made an effort to make it accessible to all. There were wide gravel paths that a wheelchair could navigate, ramps up into the shelters, carts you could borrow to haul stuff to the shelters, there was an ADA compliant pit toilet, free stacked firewood next to the fire ring and they offered charging for electric wheelchairs. It made me happy to see all this.

I had imagined that I would have had many incredible night skies on this trip, but so far they were few and far between. Probably because I was dead tired every night and the nights were short. Now that the nights were getting longer, I was excited to have a clear night in the dark skies of the Adirondacks.