Chapter 14: Planning Ahead

Day 8: Saturday, July 1, 2017

49 miles

Lake St. Catherine State Park, VT, to Ticonderoga, NY

These are our wet riding clothes from the storm we got caught in yesterday. And, look! Is that the sun shining through the trees? Looks promising, doesn't it?

Rob and I like to start each morning knowing we'll have somewhere safe and dry to lay our weary bodies after the day's riding is done, whether that's a cozy bed in a luxurious country inn or a sleeping bag inside a tent protected from the vagaries of the weather. But we don't want to lock ourselves into anything. Because the beauty of traveling fully self-supported is that you never know what magic, good or bad, lies waiting for you.

It was only the first day of a two-week trip in Nova Scotia, many years ago, when we met some people who told us we had to go to Kejimkujik National Park. I bet you've never heard of it; neither had we. Being smack dab in the middle of the province it was nowhere near where we were heading. We'd gone to Nova Scotia for the coastline, after all. But we were told we had to go there, so we did. Kejimkujik is a park of backcountry lakes, no motorboats allowed, a paddler's paradise, with canoes available for rental. It turned out to be such a special place we've returned three times. If we'd had a strict agenda we would have missed out on some beautiful camping and paddling adventures.

So when we plan a trip, rather than make concrete plans we prefer to just make sure we have options available. The happiest circumstance is looking at a map and seeing campground symbols sprinkled randomly all over it like confetti and knowing that bicyclists are never turned away. Our trip in Prince Edward Island last year was like that. 

In planning this trip we definitely wanted to get to Montreal. After that our plans were totally up in the air. Maybe we'd go to Quebec City. Quebec has a network of bicycle routes so we had lots of possibilities. But we at least wanted to count on a place to stay in Montreal so we took a stab at figuring out when we might arrive and booked a room for a couple nights. And the cancellation policy was flexible. Getting there we had plenty of options available, including a night with a warmshowers.org host, staying with friends near Burlington, Vermont, and camping. 

But we've learned to watch out for holiday weekends. We found three state parks near Ticonderoga, but when I checked the reservation website there were only a few campsites left for Saturday night. And I couldn't get an assurance from the New York state park people that they wouldn't turn us away if we showed up exhasuted at six o'clock. 

Making a reservation online would cost us $35. Rob and I talked it over and decided to go for it, thinking that, even if we didn't use it, the money was buying us peace of mind. We booked a site at Crown Point State Park. It was the only campground reservation we made this trip.

Knowing our evening plans were all set, we slept in and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. The day showed promise, with patches of blue sky overhead.

While Rob packed up the tent I pulled all the wet clothes off the clothesline. When I'd hung them up last night I wasn't so foolish as to think they would actually dry. But it seemed like a good place to put them. We both had a dry set of riding clothes to wear so we just packed up the wet stuff. We'd be staying with friends tomorrow night so we could do laundry then.

"My shoes are still soaked," I said. "I wonder if it is even worth putting on dry socks." But I had a clean, dry pair so what the heck. Surprisingly, my feet felt very cozy even inside my wet shoes. 

By the time we got on the road, around nine o'clock, storm clouds had moved in.