Another fabulously gorgeous weather weekend in the Adirondacks! I was happy that John was home this weekend to be my biking buddy 😀 This was the Travers weekend at the track in Saratoga, so we wanted to avoid that traffic/people mess. Lake George had a car/boat show, not to mention we were just at the lake on Thursday, so we decided on Schuylerville and Espressohuis. John plotted out a route for us to go to make sure we got in 40 miles. I don’t know why, but it doesn’t feel like a long enough ride unless we get to at least 40. I know, please smack me. John said he added an extra road to our route that didn’t seem too hilly to bump up the miles (cue dramatic music).
We stopped early in the ride about 6 miles in for a light lunch:
Egg bagel sammie! Not many pictures for a bit. We really just cooked along without stopping from here for another 15 miles. Since I thought the rest of the ride would be mostly gentle hills for the ride home, I attacked all the hills on this part of the ride, trying to maintain a minimum speed on them for a challenge.
Then a stop for a stretch. Another historical house and marker:
Around mile 25, we ended up in Schuylerville!
We sat on the deck to enjoy our treat:
My drink and peanut butter cuppie!
This cupcake is actually pretty small. Very good, but I wish it was just a tiny bit bigger! I do like coming here for our snack, too. The owner is very nice. After relaxing, we headed towards home and the new extended ride.
We turned down the new road. Sometimes I get anxious feeling when going a new route since I have no spatial relation to how long it is or the road conditions, terrain, etc. This road was rolling hills and farmland. We stopped our bikes and it was so, so quiet. I have never been on a road so quiet. There was no traffic noise at all – only the noise of insects and birds.
Then I see this ahead. I was all, “Aw, hell no!”
It doesn’t look as bad in this picture as it looked in real life. I was really balking about going up and kind of wanted to turn around and go back home our normal way. See, you can’t see past the trees there and I just knew that the hill kept going (and I was right). I had almost hit a wall with the new road and being a bit tired, but decided to go ahead and tackle it. We were around 35 miles on the day at this point. About 1/4 of the way up, I was thinking there was no way I was going to get to the top since I was already in a low gear. How slow can you go and not fall over, right? Pretty slow, it turns out LOL. I finally put my head down and just ground it out. Wobbled to the top, whew! I told John that had I known about this hill, I would have had 2 cupcakes. 
It did afford us with a nice view, though.
You can see forever.
I was really discombobulated, though. I could not quite wrap my head around where we were in relation to home, but it was pretty. There were more rolling hills until we got dumped out just outside of the village about a mile and a half from home. John said we didn’t end up quite where he thought, so we must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. One last climb to home and I was complete toast LOL!
Ride stats:
Total miles: 42.5
Average speed: 12.9 mph
Top speed: 29.7 (eek!)
Calories burned: 1374 – although with the hill work, this is probably low.
Oh yeah, I know exactly what that hill was like! I can’t figure out why hills look so much less steep in pictures. Anyway, bravo on you for actually making it up the hill.
Wow, those pictures of the distant mountains are beautiful. Hope it made the climb worth it. Yes, that cupcake did look pretty small.
I just started laughing at you saying – “aw, hell no!!” You definitely should have had 2 cupcakes!!! I’m pretty sure I would have had to walk up that hill – great job gutting it out!!
I appreciate your hill, even though the picture doesn’t show how steep it was (they never do) – I also appreciate your sentiment of wanting to turn around and take a different route! Good on ya for making it up, especially on tired legs!
Oh I hate those big hills at the end of a ride, congrats on conquering it! That view was well worth the effort. What a fun day.
He made you work hard for your cupcake this time 🙂 You did great! Lovely bike ride.
About the rose cottage on my blog: yes, people actually live there. It definitely is one of the most beautiful houses I ever saw.
so so so pretty and a reminder–to me at least–sometimes wrong turns somewhere are the best thing.
xo
Do you think you’ll ride that route again? Hahahahaha!
Maybe, a faint maybe LOL
I love when you take us on your rides – such beautiful scenery & quaint homes!!!! I am with Miz too – the beauty with that wrong turn! 🙂 I was getting tired readin this though like I was riding! 😉
I can barely bike up teeny hills – that one would have been walked up. Ha!
For a brief moment I thought the town was named Espressohuis and I thought “that’s the kind of town I want to live in” lol. 🙂
In the end, I’m betting you were happy you conquered the hill though. Good for you!
Amazing day for a ride. So pretty.
That hill made the cupcake worth it, didn’t it 🙂 Ok. So not
while you were struggling up the hill but at the top. Didn’t conquering
that thing feel SO GOOD?! Way to go.
I have never had a sense of direction since we moved to our town 13 years ago – I always lived due west of Lake Michigan and could always use the lake as a grounding point. Hooray for 42 miles – just three more and you guys would have biked your ages! 😀
I’m impressed with your speed!
Wow! That is awesome. Those are some beautiful sites along the way. The cupcake looked so good!! I’d love to go on a nice long bike ride like that. I’ll get a road bike some day (right now I just have a cruiser bike).
We have hybrid bikes, but you do need to have at least a hybrid for the long trips.
Kudos for taking on the hill from hell! (No thanks to you-know-who, who apparently attended the Christopher Columbus route-making class.) 🙂
Love the what’s blooming post, and wow…you showed that hill who is boss!!! Have a great week Lori!!