Day-8 Sep-12-09

Our ride today took us from Plattsburgh NY to Lake Placid NY. We covered about 185 miles. This puts our ride total so far this trip at about 1965 miles. The rain held off, and we had a great day, with partly cloudy skies, and temperatures in the low 70's !!

We left Plattsburgh today and rode south, following the shoreline of Lake Champlain. We continued along Champlain, all the way to the southern end of the lake. I was surprised to see how hilly the terrain was along the lake, as I expected the area to be mostly flat land. When we hit the southern end of the lake, we made a last minute adjustment to our plans, and decided to head over to Fort Ticonderoga to see the fort and take some pictures. Well, the odds were in our favor, and they were hosting a special event at the fort this weekend, a Revolutionary War encampment/re-enactment. Not only did we stumble upon the special event, but we arrived at the right time of the day, as we had about an hour to tour the actual fort and then a battle re-enactment took place. I was really surprised at the number of people involved in the battle. They had tons of soldiers with black powder rifles, and a number of field cannons (they shoot 3 pound balls). They also had participation from a group of soldiers way over on the opposite side of the lake!! The group was located on the top of Mount Defiance, about 1 mile away, across the lake. That group of soldiers was firing off 12 pound (BIG) cannons, and large mortars. As those units fired away, you could actually feel the percussion from the blast. So, our plan for a quick look at the fort turned into a pretty interesting 3.5 hour visit. Here are some photos of the fort, and the battle re-enactment.

The park entrance.

A view of Lake Champlain from inside the fort. The tour guide indicated that the fort cannons could easily reach out about 2 miles, so any ships running through that area of the lake were well within the range of the forts cannons.

Some of the forts many cannons...

Some of the barracks...

Sleeping quarters...

Other misc fort photos..

Here are a number of the battle re-enactment shots...

The re-enactment group will be at the fort for the entire weekend...

After leaving Ticonderoga, we headed over to Lake Placid, taking some really nice back roads on the way. The road conditions here in NY have been MUCH better than in VT!

As we worked our way toward Lake Placid, we passed through Wilmington NY, and got a good look at the front face ski runs on Whiteface mountain. Whiteface is were the actual alpine skiing events took place during the 1980 Olympic Winter games. As we drove into the city of Lake Placid, we got a quick look at the giant ski jumps.

Lake Placid is 1 of only 3 places to have twice hosted the Winter Games (1932 and 1980). The 1980 games were also when we witnessed the "miracle on ice", as the US hockey team defeated the USSR, and then went on to win a gold medal !! An interesting fact from the wiki page, indicates that during the 1980 Olympics, Lake Placid Middle/High School was issued an alcohol license. The school served as a private bar during the Olympics. It is the only high school in the United States to be issued an alcohol license.

By the time we arrived at the hotel and unloaded our luggage, it was too late to visit any of the local sights in Lake Placid, so we'll have to do our sightseeing tomorrow morning.

We will get some better photos tomorrow, so for now, these will have to do...

While driving down the road, Lennie had a hard time getting a good shot of the ski jumps. You can barely make them out in the photo below...

Notice the for sale sign near the dune buggy? Perhaps he can use the money he makes from the sale to fix up his roof ???

Home for the night... The Lake Placid Courtyard by Marriott..