Ralph
[ralf] verb (used without object)
1. What I did last night outside of the tent; right outside of the tent, as in between the tent and the rain fly.

noun
1. What Chris now calls me.

Chris didn’t handle it very well; he could be heard muttering, “You’re safe now, helmet,” as he moved it away from the splash zone the following morning. Not to mention the fact that we had locked our food up in the campsite garage to dissuade bears from visiting us, and I then provided a nice incentive for them to stop on by. Chris said I was snoring at one point after the incident, and he was sure it was a bear right outside our tent.

We’re not sure why I got sick, but our theories include: bad hot chocolate and four consecutive bug bites on the back of my neck (unfortunately, I haven’t gotten any super powers yet).

Before we left the campground, another camper came by our site and gifted us a bunch of snacks for our trip! He must have sensed that I’d had a rough night.

From the campsite, we rode past a bunch of numbered lakes: Eighth Lake, Seventh Lake, etc. Apparently they got tired of naming them.

We stopped in Inlet, NY at Pedals & Petals, a bike and flower shop. We both got new chains, since we stretched ours out going over all of those dang mountains. We also grabbed a sandwich for lunch at a deli across the street and ate in the sunshine by the lake.

In the afternoon we emerged from the Adirondacks, so now we can say we survived the Whites, the Greens, and the ‘Dacks!  The mountains of New England and New York were beautiful and made for enjoyable, albeit difficult, riding.  We are looking forward to what comes next, but we will certainly look back fondly upon this first segment of our route. 🙂

For a good portion of the day, we found ourselves riding along a country road beside the Moose River.  We took a short break to stop and wash off our sweaty faces in the cool water.

In Booneville that evening, we stopped at a Stewart’s for ice cream. Chris called a campsite seven miles west, in West Leyden. When asked if they had any available tent sites, the lady on the phone was terribly confused: “This is a convenience store,” she told him. He explained that they were listed on our map as a campsite. “You can camp out back down the hill,” she said. So we did!

Trip Stats, to date (Day 8)

• Raquette Lake, NY to West Leyden, NY
• Daily mileage: 60.6mi; Trip total: 461mi
• Daily riding time: 4hr 59min; Trip total: 40hr 19min
• Daily ascent: 2,415ft; Trip total: 27,386ft