From Tom:
We rode home last night from dinner in the dark to set our tent up behind the Hilltop Grocery. Waking up, everything was soaked from the heavy dew.
We ventured into the grocery store bright and early to grab a coffee. Interesting to see what locals show up early on a Saturday morning. Many locals showing up with trucks on trailers. Turns out there is a fair going on down the road with a tractor pull.
We packed up and headed east with the destination of Raquette Lake, 60 miles down the road. The ride was beautiful with rolling/curving hills throughout the Adirondacks. We stopped at Old Forge which was Nashville on steroids for a quick lunch. We arrived at our hotel at 3pm, Raquette Hotel and Taproom. This entire town is in one building: Grocery, Hotel, Tap Room, Post Office, and Laundry. It is right on the lake. We walked into the taproom and asked for a room and cold brewski just the way they did back in the day. Instead of surrounded by cowboys, we were surrounded by local New Yorkers enjoying the lake on the weekend. Several of the locals said we need to do the dinner cruise on the lake.
Just imagine us sitting outside the taproom enjoying wonderful conversations with everyone asking about our trip. At 5pm, we ventured down to the docks to investigate the cruise. It launches at 5:30 and is a 4 course meal. We were still in our bike clothes at this time and hadn’t even been up to our room which was upstairs over the bar. We said “sign us up” and we hustled up to take our bags/bikes up to the room, get dressed and get back to the boat for the 5:30 launch. We made it back in time and the captain’s wife said we made quite the transformation over the past half hour. The captain blew the horn and we were off.
Captain Dean gave a great history lesson as we toured on the lake. The captain explained he and a crew hand built this boat over 40 years ago and it took over two years. It is now a family owned business with his wife and three children as part of the crew.
Back in the day this lake is where the Carnegie’s and Mellon’s had their summer camps (homes). We were all summoned to head below, that dinner will be served. Our table mates were visiting their summer camps on the lake and had their 88 year old mother with them.
The boat went right by their camp and they pointed it out and explained you can only reach the house by boat and there is no electricity to this location of the shore. During the winters the lake freezes to 4 feet thick and the locals travel by car or snow mobile over the lake.
I could ramble on for quite awhile about the cruise since it obviously was a highlight of our entire trip. Going from camping in the weeds behind the convenience store to sitting in a beautiful boat being served a 4 course dinner on white linens; we have experienced it all 😁.
We returned back our hotel room, showered up and called it a night. What an absolute great day.
Keep Calm and Pedal On 