Rob and Jethro do Upstate NY in a day

So here we go again! Pictures will follow this evening....

Rob and I met last Friday morning at 6:30am for our mini tour of upstate NY. We crossed the border and headed due south through Adirondack State Park. The plan was to simply get lost on the smallest roads we could find while heading in a generally southern direction. We stayed west of Lake Placid as we would our way around the lakes and over the flowing hills. It’s much like Muskoka actually, I was surprised. We stopped for breakfast in Tupper lake which is a tiny tourist town that appears to be busy during the summer . At the tiny café we ran into a bunch of “wild hogs” who were on their way to Loudon New Hampshire for a biker rally of some kind. Naturally they thought we were also heading to the same event and were disappointed when we informed them that we didn’t even know it was on. LOL.

After filling up we headed south on hwy 30 to Spectator and then down 8 and then 10 with the objective being to arrive at a special loop located south of I90. It was around 3pm by the time we arrived at 163 and started the special loop, which was published by Aerostitch Clothing as one of their recommended rides. At this point we were around 400kms into the trip and the weather was threatening. Huge thunder heads were all around us and I was sure that we were going to be getting wet soon. Since we had finally arrived at the loop I pushed on down 166, 28, 7 and eventually catching hwy 51 where we finally made the turn back north. Hwy 51 was beyond amazing! Small towns separated by flowing hills and fields and the occasional huge hill with switchbacks and flowing streams following the roads. The last twenty miles coming into Mohawk made the whole ride worthwhile. We probably dropped a couple hundred feet (felt like a thousand) with hundreds of sharp turns and beautiful views.

Mohawk felt like the end of the trip actually. We stopped to fuel up and realized at that point that it was near 5:30pm and home was a very long ride away. I was ready to hit the super slab and lock the cruise control on 75mph to get home quick but Rob was insistent that he wanted some more twisties (insatiable). We found a compromise in the form of hwy 12 / 28 and headed north to Lowville which is just south east of Watertown. A break for some Subway was in order not to mention a chance to rest our bodies and streach a bit. It was also a good time to text home so they knew where we were and that all was well.

The final push took us north on hwy 812 to Ogdensburg. It was a two hour run against time as the sun fell in the west eventually leaving us in the dark as we arrived all covered in smashed bugs. Crossing the border went smooth and we motored north to Kemptville and the safety of Tim Hortons where we took a final breather to sip a coffee and chat while I removed the intercom from my helmet that Rob had loaned me for the trip. He has a pair of Scala Rider G4 headsets that really work well. Having communications during the entire trip really added a dimension to the experience that I hadn’t enjoyed previously. It was like having a chat over coffee for 15 hours but it also provided and extra measure of safety as two sets of eyes see more than one and on several occasions we were able to advise each other of dangers that lay ahead or cops seen hiding in various locations. I need to get one of these soon!

I arrived home at 11pm which made for a 16 hour + day and a total of 900 mostly twisty road kms. Not a bad day in the saddle.
:hss:

OK you photo whores, here are a few pics to enjoy.
This was the scene when we arrive at the start point. There was a whole bunch of dual sport riders from the states preparing for some semi off road adventures. They claimed that there were one hundred of them staying at a local camp ground and they were all off to tear up the Canadian country side.





Then Rob showed up on his already bug splattered 1200.



Here we are after a couple of hours of random riding somewhere near Governor. We both had GPS units in our tank bags but preferred to map read as it adds to the adventure.



This was how it looked when we finally arrived where the loop started.



Half way through the loop my Hamster bladder could go no further so I stopped for a wee. Then I caught this shot of Rob doing something horrible to the local flora.



I killed my share and went through two visors to boot!





And that is the end of the story.......

Stay tuned for the next adventure of Rob and Jethro...

 

Not jealous, not at all....
Sounds like you had a great time!

 

Thanks for a great day Jethro, felt like a mini vacation with corners thrown in.
Nice right up, makes me want to play hooky again soon.

Cheers,

Rob

 

Glad you snow birds can get out and do some real riding :thumbsup:
I hope pictures coming real soon or this thread would be............I will save this for later. ound:

 

Wow! It takes me a week of riding to do that much. Sounds like a great day out!

 

Hey Jethro when I look at the first couple pictures I thought you are on one of those Dual sport :wink:
The Canuk sure love adventure bikes. You should head sound with Randy one of this day so we can rideotstir:

 

Sorry to jump in Jethro but Scub got me all excited about those bikes again.
Scub, they were those KTM Super Enduro's; 950 cc's of knobby tearing, pavement ripping stupid power in a fairly capable chassis. Good thing Jethro was there to stop me from trying to trade one of the Americans even up for the 1200, I would of regretted it in the morning.

 

Wish I had known you were coming down near my neck of the woods. I would have given you two twisties to have fun on. Grew up on both of them. Rt 51, The Ilion Gorge, 7 miles of curves and the Frankfort Gorge, Rt171. I know there are videos of the Ilion Gorge of bikes going down the road, don't know about the Frankfort Gorge though. Glad you had a good time in my area!

 

Hey Rob
Those bike are getting me excited as well they are a beast. They can take you where ever you want to go as long as you can handle it. They are a great Enduro bike no doubl and they are too much for me to handle. You should get one and ride down so I can take you to Baja otstir:
Sorry Jethro now back to the original program
Robclo;404008]Sorry to jump in Jethro but Scub got me all excited about those bikes again.
Scub, they were those KTM Super Enduro's; 950 cc's of knobby tearing, pavement ripping stupid power in a fairly capable chassis. Good thing Jethro was there to stop me from trying to trade one of the Americans even up for the 1200, I would of regretted it in the morning.[/QUOTE]

 

Would love to Scub, I've always dreamt of a Baja adventure although the 2.2 kids, wife, job and white picked fence are an enjoyed hinderence at this paticular point in time. Jethro's gave an accurate depiction of me having an "insatiable" need to ride. I went without for almost 20 years and am still trying to make up for it.
All my best to you Scub, must be difficult having to sit out for awhile, hope you're healing well. Us Canadians can relate.........damn snow.

 

you guys were pretty much in my backyard..
damn it i need to get the bike inspected

 

Did you bought a new bike or did you found one around the curb side? ound:

 

Thanks Rob I will try to be good and patient not sure for how long.......
As many peeps advise for me to take it easy and slow......easy to said then done. Seat in the traffic each day for hours is not fun I can fly home on my bike less than third the time.
Cannot wait till Nov so Toe and I can explore Baja :drinkers::funky:

 

Gonna try to twist Jethro's arm hopefully before August to head back down. A little more east, closer to Lake Champlain, there was a few awesome roads; 6, 7, 8 I think? It's been a few years, not sure if I could find them again. Would be good to have some local knowledge if you could make it. Thinking a Thursday might be a good day to play hooky and beat the traffic?

 

you guys were pretty much in my backyard..
damn it i need to get the bike inspected

Crusty creatures quote thing would'nt werk, oh well, what a slacker ound: