Even a place you’ve been a lot
before serves as a good place to go again, especially when you’re hosting an
out-of-town guest. Since Alison had come
in for the weekend to hang out and explore the area, what better way to show
off the Glens Falls region than making a trip up
Prospect Mountain Lake George region, but its close enough. Prospect
Mountain Adirondack Park
Another reason why this is so
popular is having two different ways to be able to reach the top. For those who wish to have a more leisurely
pace (and when this seasonal route is open) to reach the top, you can take the
Veteran’s Memorial Highway . This road starts off of Route 9 (south of the
village of Lake George), crosses over Interstate 87 (aka “The Northway”), and then
snakes up the backside of the mountain.
Alison and I wanted a more sensory
experience, so we took the hiking trail up.
This four-mile trail works its way up the front of the mountain, and is
an easy trail to navigate. Starting
within the village
of Lake George
The Highway was built in the 1960’s
to allow reasonable access to the summit, and costs $10 to take. That goes the cost of maintaining it, but the
hiking trail is free. Rarely have I
driven up the mountain, as most of the time this was a great day hike I took
with the Scouts. But for an out-of-town
visitor, or even a local resident, the view is spectacular. To give you some idea for scale, in the
picture below the snaking road on the left is Interstate 87 (we’re looking
south).
Views like this are worth a little
sweat. But knowing this is easily
available to all during the summer months (when the Highway is open) makes this
something that all should enjoy. We did.
Here was a weekend away, and what
better way to show it off to someone who hadn’t been in the area before. The Adirondack Park has what they call “peak
periods” when the foliage is in full swing, so an Autumn visit to the Lake
Placid was a great way to show that off.
I’d gone directly from the Albany
Airport
Upon arriving, we took some time to
wander around Lake Placid village and soaking
up the international feel of the area. Walking down the streets there’s
the same small restaurants, ice cream parlors, and used book stores you’d see
in most communities, coupled with shops selling official Olympic-themed
souvenirs. Keep in mind this is not a big city; it never has, but a small
town that’s had the opportunity (twice) to be focus of the world’s attention.
Some places in the Adirondack ’s see their population double during the
summer with the influx of tourists, and then become a ghost town during the
winter months. Lake Placid is not that.
Because there are many competitions which are done here (which are
necessary to even qualify for an Olympic team), athletes are always here.
Although they’re the largest number, it’s not just Americans.
People from all over the world still come to train here. What
better way to be inspired than at a place where history’s been made?
Talking to the vendors, there is
some concern present about the upcoming 2002 Winter Games to be held in Salt Lake City .
Once the games are over, they’ll now be a larger, more accessible city,
that people could go to train at, and the local merchants wonder if some who’ve
previously come here will now go to SLC instead? It’d make more logical
sense for those on the West Coast to go there, but those on the East I think
would still come to Lake Placid . SLC
might have newer facilities and infrastructure, but a larger city also means
more things which are potentially distracting. I don’t think the store
owners’ fears are unfounded, but I don’t ever see Placid being no longer used. The
venues used for the previous games are still just as usable today.
One example
is Whiteface Mountain Adirondack
Mountains . Other visits I’ve taken to this area have been in
the summer (when everything is very green), or in the winter time (when
everything is covered with a blanket of white).
One thing we found was the ski-lift
was active, so we were able to ride that to the top. Jeanne had the video
camera out, taking sweeping shots of the foliage-covered peaks. I told
her not to drop it, because once it stopped rolling down the face of the mountain,
I doubted we’d be able to locate it. Whiteface Mountain Memorial Highway up
the backside of the mountain (which was currently closed for the season,
otherwise we would’ve gone up there).
The other is what is called “Little
Whiteface,” which only rises up about 3,600 feet. This contains a small
plateau area around the top of the ski-lift, and an observation section in
order to view the surrounding area. It was a little breezy up here, but
not to the extent that it was at the summit. I grew up in the mountains,
and spent many times hiking some of these during my time in Scouts, but I never
get tired of looking at their beauty. Beyond
the observation area, there wasn’t much up here, especially as there were no
events currently going on. Even though it would’ve taken a half-hour or
so, being able to walk down the mountain sounded like a fun idea. The
lift-operators thought so too, but they discouraged it, as they didn’t have the
resources available to keep an eye on every person who wanted to do so.
There was an interesting place
nearby that I wanted to check out, and as we still had some of the afternoon
left, it made perfect sense. A short distance down the road (in the
direction of Lake Placid village) was High
Falls Gorge. As the Ausable
River
The catwalk goes downriver for a distance, while descending
closer to the water’s edge a bit, and then crosses over to the other side.
At that point it snakes back upriver, and brings us back to the ground
level a short distance from the building we started this trek from. The
walk through the trees, with the roar of the nearby falls filling the air, was
nice.
One of the things I did here was
purely for amusement purposes, as Jeanne was video-taping the trip to be able
to show her friends back in Maryland what the Adirondacks looked like. After taking a few
sweeping shots to establish the size of the gorge (and figuring out the zoom
feature), I started commenting how much I’d like to go for a swim. I
quickly moved the camera off from Jeanne in a sideways motion, and aimed it
over the catwalk, with was followed by a quick extreme zoom-in. Keeping
the turbulent water in frame, I then proceeded to rock the camera around while
making gasping sounds. This only lasted a few moments before I smoothed
out the shot, panned back, and returned Jeanne (who was standing there
laughing) to the frame. That little bit of footage should be fun for her
friends to watch later.
We then
returned back to the hotel, and got cleaned off for an early (and light)
dinner. I’d gotten tickets to watch an exhibition game of the U.S.
Women’s Hockey Team, and we spent a little bit of time in the Olympic Museum
before it started. There weren’t too many people in the arena this
evening, so it was pretty relaxing to be able watch the event, although the
pulse of the crowd was missing from the games I’d normally go to. Just
sitting in the stands was an awesome feeling, as this was very place were the
underdog U.S. Men upset the heavily-favored Soviet team back in 1980 (known as
the “Miracle on Ice”). I watched that game on TV, because I couldn’t get
anywhere near Placid when games were taking place. I still have the
commemorative poster I go a few months later with the tagline of “America ’s
Greatest Moment.”
The exhibition was part of the
process of deciding the final roster of the team that’d be going to SLC, and it
still a fierce match. Once the game was over, some of the players were
sitting at a table outside the Herb Brooks Arena so they could sign autographs.
I’ve run into famous people before (both on the local level and national
scale), and I tend not to shove my camera in their face. It’s nice to be
a fan, and let them know you think of them as a person too. I’ll look
forward to watching their performance in the games coming up in a few years.
We had to check-out the next
morning by 11 am, but Jeanne’s flight didn’t leave until 5 pm, so we had a lot
of time to kill. On the drive back to the Northway, we passed (the Adirondack Museum ,
at Blue Mountain Lake Saratoga at the Parting Glass ate up a good
chunk of that time.
Back at Albany Airport
So this was just a weekend trip to
scratch the surface of the wonders what were in the Adirondacks .
Even though I’d be returning to college part-time in January, we talked
about me coming down in the spring or early summer. Jeanne lived close to
Burkittsville, the town which was supposed to be the setting for The Blair
Witch Project, so we thought it might be fun to explore the area around
there.
For current information on the places visited:
Veteran’s Memorial Highway : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_Mountain_Veterans_Memorial_Highway
US Women’s Ice Hockey Team: http://www.usahockey.com/Template_Usahockey.aspx?ID=22896&NAV=TU_02
“Miracle on Ice” (1980 Winter
Olympics): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nfgTJaT_Vs
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