The Mohican Ticonderoga Ride
July 9, 2006

When I first read about this ride in Adirondack Life, I thought I
had to do this, it sounded like fun. Ride up and take a nice boat
ride back.
But I had no idea what I was truly in for.

First I am inexperienced biker. I don't mean I have never been on a
bike before. As a kid I went everywhere on a bike. But I hadn't been
on a bike in 25 years. Not even for a ride around the block. I had
never even ridden the bike I used before. It was a new Mongoose
mountain bike, which I bought several months ago. But I never had a
chance to ride it before 7/9/06 because I work 6 days a week and all
the rain we've been having here for the last couple of months. I
also had just broken two toes on my right foot the day before.

The day before I had called the Lake George Steamboat Company to
reserve a ticket for the ride back. At that time the woman told me
only 6 other people had called besides me. She told me I didn't have
to reserve a ticket. She told me the price for me and the bike would
be $18.50 for the ride from Ticonderoga back to Lake George.

On 7/9/06, I arrived shortly before 7 am, which was the start time
posted on the Adirondack Spokes website (
http://www.adirondackspokes.com/ ). Parking was normally $5 for the
day in the lot owned by the Steamboat Company. But the bikers were
only being charged $3.

There I met about 7 or 8 people, inlcuding a family of 5, all of
whom had never done this ride before. We all left at about 7:00 am,
heading north. All of them, including the kids, left me far behind
in no time at all.

And all during the day people I hadn't seen before were passing me,
inlcuding a couple from Arizona on a tandem bike who passed me on
Tongue Mountain. All of them were very friendly. Some asking how I
was doing as they passed.

The ride was harder than I had imagined it would be despite having
not ridden in years. A lot of it it was due to the bike I was
riding. It wasn't set up for this type of a ride. It was too big and
too heavy, and the gearing was just too low. I couldn't make good
time even on the flats. I had a problems with leg cramps and charlie
horses too. Due to this I walked about half of Tongue Mountain,
pushing the bike.

Coming through Hague I was nearly hit by a woman in a green BMW. She
made a left turn onto 9N and came across the white line nearly
clipping me. I could almost touch her right mirror. Even as she
passed me she was still swerving towards the curb. She also nearly
hit several boys walking down the street towards me.

After Hague I was starting to become serioulsy concerened that I
wouldn't make the boat on time. We had to be at the dock in
Ticonderoga by 11:30 to catch the boat. If I missed the boat I was
going to have to call home and wait several hours for someone to
come pick me and the bike up.

There is a small store on 9N, which is on the right going north
about 1/4 mile past the Essex County line. I can't remember the name
of it, but I highly recommend it to anyone traveling through that
area. The people there were incredibly friendly and bestowed upon
me, a stranger to them, one of the greatest acts of kindness I have
ever been witness to.

Being dehydrated, I stopped there to get a very large drink. As I
was paying for my Gatorade I asked the woman behind the counter how
far up the road was Alexandria Avenue, which was where I had to turn
off 9N to head over to the docks. I knew that once I got to
Alexandria I still had about 2.5 miles to go. I was looking at my
watch when I asked and it was already 11:10. The woman told me it
was about 4 or 5 miles. I said, "Oh, I'm never going to make it on
time."

She asked me what I was talking about. So, I told her about the bike
ride and that we all needed to be at the dock at 11:30 in order to
catch the dock. She told me not to worry about it. She had her
daughter throw my bike in the back of her SUV and she rushed me off
to the boat dock. She was incredibly nice and funny. As we pulled
dwon the driveway to the dock, we could see all the bikers. She
pulled over out of sight and said to me, "I'll pull over here so
they won't see that you got a ride." I thanked her for what she did
and gave her some money for gas. She didn't want the money, but I
insisted.

I went down to join the bikers as the Mohican was coming into view.
I found the people who had started with me and was telling them the
story of what had happened to me. They all thought it was a pretty
good story and they laughed. Nearly everyone of them were amazed
that I had made it as far as I did with the bike I had. As one man
put it, I was driving 2 bikes, due to the weight. They all were
giving me advice and tips. Some of these people thought I had been
crazy to even try it with my bike.

When we boarded the boat there were 25 of us. I've been told that
even more people do it on August 13th than do it on July 9th. The
boat ride back was just over 2 hours. It was nice and enjoyed by all.

It was a great experience and I'd be happy to do it again. But
probably not with the same bike.