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Jun. 27th, 2022 09:29 amA few highlights on the weekend ride to Lake George R designed, but not quite a whole ride report, partly because I wanted to post this image:
This was about the third thing we noticed when we pulled in the long, wide driveway looking for a campsite, already after dark. First was the long wide driveway going out to a bunch of numbered lanes, like at a tollbooth, with a sign telling you to stop and register in the office, which looked closed (again, it was not early). Second was a dedicated parking lot for golfcarts full of hundreds of golf carts, and a small swarm of golf carts driving around. Then third was a raging cabana party centered around a pool and fake skull mountain, blasting some probably live band. Website pic is daytime. At night, there are changing different colored lights in each of the orifices. Ditch camping suddenly started to sound very good to me. Reading the site now, showers are $6, RV sites about $100/night, and I'm sure the tropical themed drinks in plastic novelty cups aren't cheap either. This was after bailing on camping at Lake George after wanting some distance from the giant floating yacht party that was generating all of the luxury car and luxury off-road vehicle traffic in and out of the park. Super not interested in rich people parties but educational to go from the yacht flotilla to this little golf cart swarmed artificial universe.
The signle-brake single-speed Salsa was picked because it had more recently gotten a mechanical go over and in theory it had rear eyelets and the GT didn't. The disc brake was swapped out for one that had served me well for a long time then got Loctite on the adjustment bolt as a bonus. Now its bottom bracket creeking went from I-think-a-little-now-and-then to a lot and burned up half the brake pad and found myself going down steep winding hills not knowing what was around the bend while frantically twisting the barrel adjuster out to try to get enough brake to slow down, then pushing the bike up hills. I also didn't adequately pack for primitive camping, with stuff like TP or adequate water. Given the insect level (swarms of biting flies and mosquitoes), the large tent was a good call on R's part if we did ditch camp. We baked a plan of boiling waterfall water to make coffee with in the morning and for more drinking water then, as when we got to Lake George, we were each down to one bottle and a bit of gas station OJ. We stole water from the spigot on the back of a Boy Scouts camp building R saw on the way in and after checking a few camp sites, made it all of the way back to the lock 40 miles from home for a quiet sleep, minus the rushing of water through lock leaks.
After lots of riding with other people then a good amount of riding by myself, I'm now insufferable to ride with. By myself, I get not to deal with a lot of situations that really came to bug me. Anyone riding with me now has to deal with that accumulated annoyance. Some things, I am not flexible on.
This was about the third thing we noticed when we pulled in the long, wide driveway looking for a campsite, already after dark. First was the long wide driveway going out to a bunch of numbered lanes, like at a tollbooth, with a sign telling you to stop and register in the office, which looked closed (again, it was not early). Second was a dedicated parking lot for golfcarts full of hundreds of golf carts, and a small swarm of golf carts driving around. Then third was a raging cabana party centered around a pool and fake skull mountain, blasting some probably live band. Website pic is daytime. At night, there are changing different colored lights in each of the orifices. Ditch camping suddenly started to sound very good to me. Reading the site now, showers are $6, RV sites about $100/night, and I'm sure the tropical themed drinks in plastic novelty cups aren't cheap either. This was after bailing on camping at Lake George after wanting some distance from the giant floating yacht party that was generating all of the luxury car and luxury off-road vehicle traffic in and out of the park. Super not interested in rich people parties but educational to go from the yacht flotilla to this little golf cart swarmed artificial universe.
The signle-brake single-speed Salsa was picked because it had more recently gotten a mechanical go over and in theory it had rear eyelets and the GT didn't. The disc brake was swapped out for one that had served me well for a long time then got Loctite on the adjustment bolt as a bonus. Now its bottom bracket creeking went from I-think-a-little-now-and-then to a lot and burned up half the brake pad and found myself going down steep winding hills not knowing what was around the bend while frantically twisting the barrel adjuster out to try to get enough brake to slow down, then pushing the bike up hills. I also didn't adequately pack for primitive camping, with stuff like TP or adequate water. Given the insect level (swarms of biting flies and mosquitoes), the large tent was a good call on R's part if we did ditch camp. We baked a plan of boiling waterfall water to make coffee with in the morning and for more drinking water then, as when we got to Lake George, we were each down to one bottle and a bit of gas station OJ. We stole water from the spigot on the back of a Boy Scouts camp building R saw on the way in and after checking a few camp sites, made it all of the way back to the lock 40 miles from home for a quiet sleep, minus the rushing of water through lock leaks.
After lots of riding with other people then a good amount of riding by myself, I'm now insufferable to ride with. By myself, I get not to deal with a lot of situations that really came to bug me. Anyone riding with me now has to deal with that accumulated annoyance. Some things, I am not flexible on.
