Some More Lake Placid Catching Up

After Ironman ended i stayed a few more days to continue catching up.



Like I mentioned in the last post, I spent time just hanging out at Placid Planet. Shane brought in one of his handmade guitars for me to play. The body is from a old beam out of a friends house in Massachusettes. It plays great. The wood is marred with worm holes which give it some character to look at.


Kelly pieced together a tall-mans-kid-bike. It's a 26" wheeled Schwinn inspired copy from a Giant frame he found. Tall guys can actually ride this thing.



Another long time riding friend of mine owns Placid Boatworks and builds some beautiful carbon fiber boats. It's always interesting to hang out in another kind of shop and to see how he and his crew does it.


One of the main reasons to stick around was to be shown some of the new mtb trails that the guys have been building. The long running tuesday night leaves from Placid Planet. I forgot how different the riding was. I've become used to the flowy fst stuff from traveling out West. Adirondack roots and mud was a slower pace that demanded more technical awareness. Of course when someone flats we all stop. Good commarderie. It's nice to know that sometimes 15-20 people will show up. In the lean years sometimes it was 3 or 4 of us.



After the ride we hit the summer concert series on Main Street park. Actual "young people" music being played out in the open. The town father's must be rolling in their graves.


The Wednesday night ride, which meets by the tree at the beach, has become an even bigger night to ride. It's officially called the "Booze Cruise". Show up with a 6-pack. No one gets dropped. Beer stops along the way. I was told up to 30 people show up but this particular night was kind of rainy. I was so pysched to hear that 30 people come. We tried for years to get rides going like this. I think back then we ruined things by being "racer" types. The crew there now is really behind doing trail work and just enjoying some good group rides.


Rest stop. Crack! Splish!


Another Rest Stop.


And another rest stop.

Leaving Lake Placid I made a few stops too.


Chapel Pond


Beer walls climbing area.


Spent a night at Jim's handbuilt house in North Creek, NY.


Jim and Pooch. It's a great place for morning coffee on the deck.


Thanks for reading! Cheers!

Catching Up in Lake Placid

"In an era of Google Earth, Tom-Toms,MapQuest,Magellan's,GPS, Lonely Planet travel guides to Anartica, and 13 year-olds calling home by satellite phone..from Mount Everest, no less, just how does one become lost anymore?"

-Michael DiGregorio in BIKE

I've been meaning to do some updates lately now that I finally bought a new camera after my other one died. My most recent trip about 3 weeks ago was to Lake Placid, NY for Ironman Lake Placid. I've missed the last two years of Lake Placid due to other NRC races with the road team so I was excited to go back and catch up with my friends and one of the best places in the world. I like that Lake Placid is a little bit off the map. I appreciate that cell phones don't really work up there. I miss living in that small town atmosphere where you pretty know everyone on some level. It's a great place to get LOST. Lost in friends, lost in new trails, lost in good times from "back in the day".

Keep checking back this might take more than one post.


My first stop was to stay with Randy and Lisa. This was actually the fist time I got to meet Jonathon since he was born and like many boys he likes trucks. Randy showed me the trails he's constructed on land adjacent to the house. It was pretty cool to have some ski trail literally right out the back door.


Ken and Julie are the owners of THE BEST BIKE SHOP! If they don't have it you probably didn't need it. It was nice to be invited to the staff party. I spent some hours at the shop since many of my friends were working there and they have a good espresso machine. Kenny was probably glad to see me go and stop bothering the employees.


Placid Planet had a new door that was cool.


And...some big chainrings too!


Liquids and Solids" is a new bar/eatery opened up by some friends. Seems like all us mountain bikers ended up there several times after rides.



I ran into Dusty and Chrissy. Dusty and his sister Lori were some of the first people i met when I moved to Lake Placid in 1992. There mom has been reading my blog! HI!

Ironman week was wet. Not all the time but enough where I worked inside the truck most of the time instead of under the Ez-Up tent. Ironman race day was fun watching Special K, The Schultz, and Devon compete. Keith decided two days before to do it. This was Dave's first Ironman distance and Devon's 2nd or 3rd. Inspiring to see those guys having fun.


Keith


Dave


Me, spectating at the finish from the catwalk on top of the truck.