DAY 62--Friends along the way

Had another foggy morning start, near the river, but eventually it burned off. We spent the day continually climbing and descending many sharp hills along the Connecticut River. The fall colors are spectacular!
About halfway through the day we met up with Ross Goodwin-Brown, a high school friend of ours who had ridden out to see us. He rode with us the rest of the day (well, he rode well ahead of us for quite a bit of it) and we had a great visit.
We made it through Vermont and into NEW HAMPSHIRE! It's just as hilly here as Vermont. Saw a couple of covered bridges along the route. The nice thing about riding the back roads is that they are quieter with less traffic and often a beautiful route. The downside is that the roads often are not maintained very well, and of course they don't attempt to ease up the grade like they do on major highways.
Today was the warmest day we have had in quite some time, and with the exertion of all that climbing, by the end of the day we were looking for ice cream. There was none to be found in Orford, the small town where we were camping, so we rode across the bridge back to Fairlee, Vermont, where we found an excellent little ice cream stand.
Ross stayed around to enjoy dinner with us (our usual sandwiches from the cooler) before taking off.

DAY 61--We love you, Granny!

Started off in a foggy mist, into beautiful hills. The trees are in full autumn color now. We took a short ferry across the river to VERMONT, state #10! We had a nice chat with 3 Harley riders who were also taking the ferry. Vermont seems to be even more scenic (hilly) than New York. For the first time on the entire journey, both of us finally got down to our very lowest Granny gears (1/1) to get up Middlebury Gap.
We have been fortunate with the weather so far. It is usually cool when we take off (around 45-50 degrees) and gradually warms up throughout the day. This makes for an interesting routine each morning as we try to decide what to wear. We always have bike shorts/yoga pants and our biking shoes. Beyond that, we have some combination of biking socks or wool socks, short sleeve or long sleeve jersey, long sleeve t-shirt over the jersey, waterproof jacket, short-finger or full-finger gloves, wool cap under our helmets, warm biking tights/pants or waterproof pants, neck warmer, waterproof/warm booties over our shoes, and sunglasses.* As we ride along, we gradually remove layers as it warms up and load them into the pannier or bungee them to the bike. Today Lonna lost her beloved biking tights when they jumped ship somewhere along the way (probably on one of the fast and bumpy downhills).
We camped slightly off the route near Rochester in a lovely National Forest Campground.
*We were very lucky with the weather being warmer than we had expected it to be by this point. We never had to use our winter gear--fleece vest, ultra-heavy gloves, etc.

Lonna's favorite sign.

DAY 60--Scenic!

Still in New York, in the Adirondacks. We thought we had it made when we got over the Rockies, but the hills here, while shorter, are definitely steeper. And there are a lot of them! You may remember from a previous post that "scenic" to a cyclist means "hilly". We are certainly in a scenic area! We stopped at the Adirondack Interpretive Center along the way. We are enjoying the lakes, rivers, and woods.
Camped in North Hudson.

DAY 59--The Adirondacks

Took off into the rolling hills. Spent a lot of time riding next to the river, through woods with increasing fall colors. We are in the heart of the Adirondacks now. Such a beautiful area! We even sat in Adirondack chairs to eat our snacks. We stopped at a library, which was in an old stone building built in the 1800s. We also stopped at a bike shop so Lonna could get her bike tweaked. And of course, in our effort to eat more, we stopped and picked up groceries (baked goods and cheese) along the way.
Some of the small towns are a bit too touristy, but at least they mostly still have little independent "Mom-and-Pop" type stores rather than big national chain stores.
We camped at the Eighth Lake State Campground. Apparently they couldn't be bothered to name the lakes, so they just numbered them.
Since it is getting dark so early, we were able to enjoy a small campfire before retiring.