We’ve had our tent for about a year and sometimes find it difficult to get a restful night sleep. Last night, however, we slept like babies...babies who sleep really well. We could have slept longer but wanted to get on the road to our next destination. Before leaving Cooperstown, we stopped at the Price Chopper (upstate New York’s Giant Eagle) to grab a to-go lunch for later in the day.
When we were looking for things to do between Cooperstown and the Adirondack Mountains, we discovered the Erie Canalway Trail, a 250+ mile rail trail that runs along the historic Erie Canal, connecting Lake Erie to Albany. In the future, we would like to come back to bike the whole trail, but today we just did about 17 miles - from Little Falls, NY east to Lock 16. At lock 16, we watched a yacht heading west on the canal enter the lock and rise up 20.5 feet to continue. The process was painfully slow but interesting to watch. Chad raised the question of it is free or if there is an EZpass for the canal. The trail itself was so-so, but we imagine that the history of the area and getting to see all of the towns along the way would make it a cool adventure.
We ate our Price Chopper lunch after the ride and then headed onward into the Adirondacks. When Chad was a young teenager, he vacationed in Long Lake, NY with his best friend and his best friend's family. The experience stuck with him, and we thought it would be a great place to spend a couple of days.
We got a tent site in Lake Eaton Campground - right on the edge of the lake. As we arrived, the sun was making its afternoon decline and turned the sky and lake into evening. People were swimming and kayaking in the lake, cooking dinner on their camp stoves, and enjoying the beautiful summer weather. Chelsea couldn’t help but to wade into the lake, which was like bathwater. After setting up our site, we headed into town to order dinner and explore Hosses Country Market - a store that literally sells everything.
We ate dinner back at our site and then took a stroll around the campground, which was beautiful as the sun set over the lake. Chad made a spectacular fire (one that cavemen would be envious of), and we enjoyed its warmth while drinking hot chocolate and admiring the clear starry sky, trying to find satellites as they go by and hoping to see a shooting star or two.
