zacster

I'll be up at Lake George, in Cleverdale on the south east side from 7/25 through 8/1. Anybody out there want to do a ride. I'd be interested in a 40-50 mile ride at a moderate 'B' pace. My 'A' riding days are over. I've considered riding around the lake but everybody has talked me out of it.

I don't know the good routes, so if nobody is ready to ride, I'd still be interested in hearing about them.

PM or just reply if interested.

zacster

Bump. One more try.

zacster

Bump. This time I'll be up there from 7/4/2018 through 7/8/2018.

I get the feeling nobody will answer again... Amazing I've been on this board for so long.

MikeRides

I'm only about 40 min of Lake George unfortunately I'll be down in NY that week/weekend. Rt 9 is decent for riding, never had a problem with "summer" traffic in the years I've ridden portions of it

zacster

I decided I'm going to circumnavigate the lake, 98 miles totals, but I'll make it a true century. The one part that seemed iffy was going up Tongue Mountain. I'm hearing the road is in really bad shape. I checked streetview on other parts and it looks OK. It does appear to be relatively flat on rt 22 coming down from Ticonderoga to Whitehall and then to Ft Ann. 149 is a short stretch of busy road.

zacster

Here's a ride report.

I started in Glens Falls at Rick's Bike Shop after getting a flat and a torn tire about 2 miles in from my original start point in Cleverdale. That wasn't a good omen. But nevertheless I put a new 700x25 GP4000sII on and it was fine. I took the trail to Lake George Village and started to get into the rhythm of the ride without having to deal with traffic. From LGV I took 9N north and this isn't a great road from there with a narrow and sometimes unrideable shoulder, traffic wasn't too bad though. I stopped in Bolton Landing for second breakfast and reassessed, but decided it was fine. From Bolton north to Tongue Mountain the traffic thinned out considerably and was easy enough, and I was just looking forward to the climb. When I finally started to climb I saw that the grade on my computer was saying 10.1% and that was more than I bargained for but yet I continued and made it to the top without much trouble. The actual grade is around 8%. I put it into my 34x26 lowest gear and spun it out and I would go into my 34x22 to stand for a break. My heart rate stayed low enough and I didn't feel like I was pushing it at all. The road though was in bad shape as I was warned somewhere but not that terrible. Again, I just kept going. After Tongue Mt, the road doesn't really flatten out as it looks and goes up a few more times on the way into Ticonderoga. I stopped for a pastry there and given I'd done almost 50 miles at that point I had no choice but to continue on. At the intersection with Rt 22 there is the sign that says "Whitehall 25." And they mean the next place with anything is 25 miles. There is NOTHING on that road the entire way. It is wide, the shoulder is good after the first mile or two. But there is almost no shade, the cars are buzzing buy at 60+mph, and there is nothing special to look at. At about mile 55 I figured that I'd decide what I'll do at mile 65. After 4 or 5 climbs that were steeper than I thought they'd be, I decided to call my wife and have her come and get me in Whitehall. I told her she'd find me at the bar somewhere having a beer, but as it turns out Whitehall is basically dead. There was one market that was open and that was all I could find, and my wife got there almost when I did anyway.

Now it is a good thing I made that decision because once in the car looking at the road there is no way I'd want to ride a bike on Rt 4 or 149 back to the lake from there. It looked downright dangerous.

The total for the ride I did was 73.8 miles, with 5500' of climbing. Still not a bad day of riding. After the ride we had dinner then took a champagne boat ride out on the lake around sunset.

mattbur

Zac, Nice report on the ride. Not likely to be a ride I'd do but good reading none the less. Better luck on your next ride.

Tony

zacster

I would only recommend riding the west side of the lake, with reservations. The east side is not something I would recommend at all except to say that the road between Ticonderoga and Whitehall is safe to ride with the wide well paved shoulder.

Greenhil