Our goal for today was to travel to Crown Point, a small town on the western side of Lake Champlain. This is the starting point for three one-day rides through the Adirondack Mountains and Vermont, which is on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain.

Our map of the area around Cortland is so densely dotted with small towns there is hardly room to print their names. There is no obvious route through them, so we set the GPS to take us via Speculator and Indian River, two towns deep in the Adirondack Mountains.

The past few days have had signs on the roadways warning us to slow down for Amish horse and cart.

Initially we travelled on NY 13 before taking NY 20. In the little town of Morrisville we stopped at the Highway 20 roadside diner for breakfast - our usual fried eggs, bacon and toast. You can't go wrong with those, but you have to specify how you want the eggs cooked, what type of bread you want, and select the bacon option over ham or sausage. When hungry it's nice to stop in a place that doesn't dissapoint. This morning's fare was particularly good, and the coffee excellent too.

Our route took us through Utica and Poland. Soon after, the farms and towns abruptly gave way to forests dominated by pine trees, but with many other species we can't name. We were in Adirondack Park, but the mountains were nowhere to be seen past all the trees lining the roads. Frequently we found ourselves riding alongside lakes small and large. We stopped along the way to give our backsides a break before riding into Speculator where we refuelled the bike and cooled off with drinks and icecreams. The lady in the store took one look at our gear and gave us a tourist map of the area. We were grateful for a little direction.

It had remained overcast most of the day which makes great riding in summer. The road to Indian Lake at times went close enough to the lake to offer spectacular views - well, glimpses really - we were travelling quite fast and the gaps in the forests were narrow.

The GPS took us along some back roads, none more exciting than County Road 24. This dipped and turned just like route 666 did yesterday, but this was tighter and bouncier. I kept the Beemer in third and fourth gears and wound on the throttle. This bike loves to rev, and whuile I never got near the red line (at 8500 rpm), it really powered along and we enjoyed an exciting ride after a month or so of riding mostly flat, straight roads across the mid-western states.

We stopped for drinks in the Timberwolf Bar at Schroon Lake. The rain we had expected today never eventuated, but temperatures were again in the mid eighties and the humidity sufficient to make it unpleasantly hot when we stopped riding.

Crown Point was a very quiet town. There is no motel there, so we rode 7 miles south to Ticonderoga. There is a huge memorial on the roundabout in the centre of town.

 The first two motels we stopped at were outrageously expensive, but the third was reasonably priced. It had  large well equipped rooms. It did not take long to orientate ourselves and settle in for the next three nights.