Day 137 - Lake George, NY

During our planning of the trip, we had assumed that we would leave the hotel or campsite at 9am each day. We were really good at the start of the trip and usually left much earlier than this, maybe this was due to the jetlag. As the trip has progressed, we have been leaving closer to 10am but this morning after a late night and after spending too much time enjoying our balcony in the morning, it was past 11!

Luckily we didn’t have far to go today!

As we left Lake Placid, we drove past some of the other buildings used in the Olympics, including the infamous hockey where the USA beat Russia to win Gold. Everyone in Lake Placid was still talking about this event, there are even stores dedicated to the team where you can buy their kit and t-shirts commemorating the event.

We left Lake Placid and headed towards the Whiteface Mountains. This is where the ski competition in the Winter Olympics took place and is now a ski resort.

Once we reached the ski area, we had a quick look at the lifts and runs but everything seemed closed, I guess they are now getting ready for the snow to come and the new season to start. We then headed towards the Veterans Memorial Highway, a road that takes you up the Whiteface Mountains to a parking area 550ft below the summit where you can take a elevator to an observation tower. We started along the road and then saw a sign for a toll both, we were expecting a charge to use be elevator but not the road! We reached the booth and were told that it would be a $20 charge ($12 for the car and one passenger and $8 for the second passenger) to use the road. We also saw a sign at the booth saying that the elevator was closed. We decided that $20 to go 8 miles down a road when the main attraction at the end was closed, was a rip off so we turned around and headed back to the town.

We were staying in Lake George tonight which is only an hour away from Lake Placid but we didn’t want to just go on the interstate, we wanted to see some of the New York countryside. So we hopped on and off the 73, the 9N and Interstate, mixing up the different roads to get a different view throughout the journey. All these roads, even the interstate were pretty with the first few trees turning in the fall colours against the rivers, lakes and ponds we passed.

We had planned to stop at Fort Ticonderoga to check out the old building and museum but the entry fee was $24 per person, we thought this was a lot too given we’d only be there for a couple of hours so we decided to skip this too.

We finally headed down the 9N and into the town of Lake George where we found the campsite (eventually, after getting lost!) at Lake George Battlefield State Park. This campsite wasn't like the usual state park campsites, I don't even think it was in the state park. It was the town in a little wooded area. There were toilets and showers which were OK but Lee had again done a good job at finding us a nice site, we were at the end of a road with no one around us. The firepit was not great, it wasn't deep enough to have a big fire and there was no grate to cook on so we decided to head into town to explore and grab some food.

The town of Lake George was bigger than we expected and we were surprised by the number of shops along the main high street. We found a bar / restaurant with an outside patio overlooking the lake where we ate an early dinner watching the ducks and the boats.

We spent the rest of the afternoon / evening exploring the high street and walking along the side of the lake where there was an old colonial fort and a boat dock. We were really surprised by how much there was to see and do in this town, in the summer, it must be heaving with tourists.