2012 Summer trip to Lake George New York (Day 2)

Written by Nature, Tania, Video

We began the second day by grabbing some breakfast at the Travelodge. They served rock hard bagels, toast, cereal and other basic breakfast items. We decided to explore route 9N. We purchased some gas and headed north. We drove to Hideaway Cottages (where Tania stayed with her family a couple of years ago). Soon after we made our way past Lake Luzerne and saw Rockwell Falls. On our way back to Lake George we decided to stop by a lumberjack statue to snap a picture.

Before we knew, it was already time for lunch. We went back to the village to grab some lunch. We decided to eat by the lake again since that was why we were there. We walked down toe the lower left side of the lake and walked long the side. We found a beach and some boat docks next to it. The lake was constantly moving boats. There were boats for parasailing, touring, fishing and speed. We decided to eat at The Boardwalk Restaurant in order to see what more the lake had to offer. Also, the breeze made the meal ever more refreshing.

We left the restaurant to find that it was a bit cloudy. We immediately tried to grab some dessert and make our way to the car. We stopped at Lake George Baking Co. It is a bakery located 1 block away from Canada Street. All the baking was made inside the bakery. This meant the food was very fresh. I purchased one chocolate chip cookie and one pastry while Tania had an apple danish. After the sweets we decided to go for another drive. I’m not sure which direction we drove in, but we somehow ended up on the Riparius Bridge. This bridge crosses the Hudson River. It was then that I suggested to Tania that we take some more pictures. We were amazed at how clear the water was, and I therefore decided to take a shot of the water. I also had the idea of taking a picture of Tania looking confused at the fact that we were on the Hudson River.

Tania had called here family to make sure that everything was alright and we kept on driving. What came next was very surprising. We found a railroad track. Our route followed the train track. We made a couple of turns and shortly stumbled upon an abandoned train. We immediately stopped along the side of the road and began exploring. I was a bit scared someone might jump out at us, but my curiosity kept me going. Tania was also quite interested, but she kept scratching her feet (twigs were scraping here feet). We shortly made our way onto the train cart and that’s where the real adventure began.

Everything was rusty, dusty and seemed as though it had not been used for quite some time. We were very eager to see what was on the train. We entered the train in the kitchen car. One side of the car was a dark and web filled hallway, the other side had a silver kitchen. I was surprised to see that there were still appliances in it. We continued our way to the nest car stumbling over loose parts on the the floor. Next, we made it into an empty cabin. We weren’t sure what it was used for, but the wooden trimmings and large windows made it seem like the cabin to have been in during its operational days. After this, we headed towards the third train car since our entry. This one seemed like the cabin for viewing the surroundings. It had a lot of space and the seats weren’t for long term seating. We noticed a wheelchair at the end of the cabin. We fearfully approached and wondered what it was doing there. There were brooms and other items towards that end of the train, and we quickly decided not to go further (after fearing someone might pop out on us). The following train car seemed like the mass passenger cabin. It had several blue seats facing the direction the train would have been moving in. I shot a video of us exiting the train, and we then decided to take some pictures once we were out.



As I took the pictures, I was thinking of those soldier going off to war shot while his “lady” cried to see him leave. When we started shooting the light was in my favor (highlighted us and just filled in the surrounding area), but as time progressed our spotlight began to fade. It was then that we decided to head back to the car and continue on our road. We kept driving and came across another rest stop along the Hudson river. Since Tania was in flip flops she took a dip. Once again the water was crystal clear. It was sad to know that this clear water could not flow all the way down to Manhattan.



Tania’s iphone was running out of batter (about 12% left), but we were still high on gas. Therefore, we decided to get lost somewhere. We drove a couple of miles to Indian Lake. We asked the guard what time they open the following day and how much it was to launch a kayak. He gave us the information and we headed back to our room. As we were pulling out of the parking lot we saw a deer. This was a bit unusual (for me at least) since I saw it in the parking lot. It came out of the bushes and ended up next to all the parked cars. I took a short video and we headed back.



Those “Deer Ahead – 5 miles” signs actually came in handy. On our trip back, we almost ran into a deer with its fawn trying to cross the street. Luckily, our Aveo had brakes which could possibly stop the car. We stopped and watched them both cross the street. We continued on route 8 and drove past Lake Pleasant and Sacandaga Lake. In about an hour or so we were back in our room. We watched some TV to find our eyes shut within a couple of hours.