It wasn’t supposed to rain last night but about 11:30pm I could hear drip drops starting to fall on the top of my tent. Everything was button down tight so I just rolled over and went back to sleep . . . however everything was wet in the morning. Only a 25 mile ride today to our home for the night, and our layover location, Old Forge, NY. Most of us didn’t get going until about 8:30am when the sky clouded over preventing us from further drying our tents and rainflys . . .

Dan, the owner of he Brown Barn Campground, is a great guy and spent time with us last night including giving us a tour of his old barn. Here was a slab from a tree someone had placed a horseshoe around it when it was a sapling. Time marches on and the tree eventually encompassed it!!!!

Today we will be continuing to climb. We’ve climbed about 3,000 feet each of the last two days as we have gone up and down riding through the mountains eventually only gaining about 600 feet of elevation at the end of the day. But  . . . we are going up into the Adirondacks’ . . . and today we rode on the parkway into Adirondack park.

. . . lots of nice locations and scenic viewing along the way . . . and then it started to rain again!!!!. One of those rains where is it going to stop . . . or should I stop and put on my raincoat? I chose the latter, because it was began to rain steady and it was only 52 degrees!!!!

Got to remember to look down . . . which I did this morning and saw this little fella, a red spotted newt,  walking across the road . . . beautiful!!!

Did you know:

The Eastern (red-spotted) newt is a widespread, native salamander of New York State and eastern North America that can live for 12-15 years!

Larvae live in water and use gills to breathe; however, juveniles (also known as “efts”), become land dwellers and develop lungs to breathe air. The adults also breathe air, but become aquatic once again.

The Eastern (red-spotted) newt secretes poisonous toxins, and the eft’s bright coloration serves as a warning to predators.

Eastern newts use specialized chemicals to find food and attract mates.

Newts help reduce mosquito populations by feeding on their larvae.

. . . some of his relatives were not as fortunate in their road crossing endeavors!!!

. . . talk out carving out your own little piece of heaven from the woods!!! Recreational land, with no water frontage, seems to be going for about $3,000/acre.

. . . as we got further into the park there were more and more fire wood stands. Because of invasive insect issues, most parks will not let you bring in firewood from an area greater than a 25-50 mile radius. Easy money for the local’s . . . good college fund project for junior!!!

The partners of the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program collaborate year-round to stop the spread of invasive species and mitigate their impacts in order to protect these precious natural resources and the human communities they support. Guess which nationwide environmental group is a member??? Click the ‘partners’ hotlink above to find out!!!

In the Old Forge/ Thendara area there is the Adirondack Scenic Railroad (sort of like the North Freedom train rides available NW of MSN) taking passengers’ through the woods on 1-2 hours trips.

. . . as I biked past they were just hooking up an engine to a string of passenger cars . . .”All Aboard!!”

We are staying at the Country Club Motel, so named because it’s across the street from a golf course. It stopped raining and those of us who were in, sat in the chairs (Adirondacks, of course) and soaked up the sun . . . then it clouded over again!!! However, the next five days are supposed to be sunny. We will use the one tomorrow to explore the Old Forge area.