Stop 3: Thousand Islands, NY

To start with, Thousand Islands is a bit of a misnomer. We are staying at the 1000 Islands/Association Island KOA. In typical KOA fashion, KOA has named itself after something that is probably 50 miles away (not complaining - we did look at a map before we booked). In the past, we've stayed in the New York City North KOA (in the Catskills), The Washington DC West KOA (Blue Ridge Mountains) and the Chicago West KOA (a 20 minute drive to the station and a 2 hour train ride to Chicago) so we're well aware that they do this.

KOA owns all of Foundation Island which is in Henderson, about halfway down the Eastern end of Lake Ontario. The Thousand Islands are at the Northeast corner of Lake Ontario at the entrance to the St. Lawrence River. As you can see from the following map, the Island and its causeway play an important part in protecting Henderson Harbor from Lake Ontario's storms.

At various times, this island has been a retreat for Ford executives, a YMCA camp and a training base for Olympic sailors.

Our trip here was about 180 miles due West over the Adirondacks. The foliage colors over the mountains were magnificent. The truck handled the grades as if they weren't there so we were very pleased.

The causeway and bridge out to the island is a bit intimidating. It's single lane most of the way and you definitely wouldn't want to be going the wrong way when trailers are departing (in the morning) or when they are coming in (in the afternoon). We're going to leave the island to go get lunch and gas so our timing should be perfect.

Our trailer, right on the edge of the lake. That's the causeway across the water.

The back of Kristen's head.

View to the left from our chairs.

And the view to the right (the causeway).

We walked around the island at sunset. There's a lot of haze from Irma. We've been fortunate to have no rain. It's been pouring at home.

We successfully ran the gauntlet to go get some lunch. Here are a couple of pictures from across the bay. All were taken from the pier in front of a restaurant in Henderson Harbor where we had a wonderful lunch.

Just to the left of the building, the KOA and, farther left, the causeway.

A closeup of same: The big gap is the causeway with the KOA on the right.

Looking the other direction (farther down into the bay) from the pier.

 -JC

Stop 2: Lake Placid, NY

A successful 200 mile trip moved us along to the Lake Placid/Whiteface Mountain KOA where we're spending 2 nights.

The trip could have been much shorter but our book that warns us about very steep roads warned us away from the shorter routes across the Green Mountains and around the Southern end of Lake Champlain. Instead, we drove Northwest to Burlington and up the East side of the lake. Almost at the Canadian Border, we turned Westward across the Champlain Islands and then headed down the New York side of the lake to our destination.

The foliage at home was just starting to show hints of Fall Color. It was a little farther advanced in Vermont but, here in the Adirondacks, it's a good 3-4 weeks ahead of home. It still has a ways to go until its peak but the colors are beautiful.

Our outing on our one full day here was to the town of Lake Placid. Lake Placid hosted the Winter Olympics in 1932 and in 1980 so our first stop was to see the only obvious Olympic related structure in town (most of the venues were scattered up and down the Adirondacks).

This structure houses the 1932 ice rink and the Olympic Museum.

A very abstract representation of the Olympic rings.

This is probably the Olympic Museum. The flags were a good clue that it was related to the Olympics somehow.

Kristen on the ice (or at least where the ice would be if there was ice).

Next we wandered around in town near the edge of Mirror Lake and then had some lunch before returning to the trailer.

The various businesses did a pretty good job of blocking the view of the lake. I snapped this first couple of pictures from the porch of a coffee place:

Next, I caught a flash of color through the gap between 2 buildings. I got as close as possible and took this picture:

 Finally, a couple of pictures from our lunch table:

Maybe you can see the hint of color on the hillside and at the water's edge.

You can definitely see the color in this closeup.

 -JC-

Stop 1: Quechee, VT

This is an upstate New York trip but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to add the Vermont sticker to our map of states that we've trailered in.

I'm pleased to report that, after sitting in our driveway for the last 25 months, Baby came through the first 179 mile leg with flying colors. All systems are working fine. It's also worth noting that this was our first time towing the trailer with this truck. It also did fine.

We're spending 3 nights at the Quechee/Pine Valley KOA. We drove through Quechee on a previous car trip and marked it as a spot that we wanted to return to.

The fishing pond at the KOA.

The main event for our first full day here was a hike in Quechee Gorge. The gorge was carved by the Ottauquechee River and is know as "Vermont's Little Grand Canyon".

On the hike from the visitors center to the trail.

Still on the way to the trail.

 Once at the trail, we turned right to head up to the dam at the head of the canyon. The trail was on the rim of the canyon but the canyon was so narrow and deep that we could only hear the water at the bottom.

Backtracking, we took the trail downstream to a point where we were out of the gorge and near the water. Again, we couldn't see down into the gorge from the trail.

Looking up into the gorge from the bottom

Kristen and I both got new hiking sticks. Mine has a bear on top and her's has a moose.

Saw these interesting mushrooms along the trail.

We finished our first day outing by further exploring Quechee and by having luch at the restaurant at the Simon Pearce glass factory.

On our second full day, we visited Woodstock for lunch and some shopping. On the way there, we parked near the bridge over Quechee Gorge and took a couple of pictures from this much better vantage point.

Looking upstream (towards the dam).

Looking downstream.

Stream that passes through the center of Woodstock.

-JC-