Waitin’ On the Thunder

7 July 2009 Wilmington, NY through the Adirondack Mountains to Hamilton, NY 195 miles

Pictures L to R: Highway through the Adirondack Mtns.; Olympic Stadium at Lake Placid, NY; Bare Bottomed Trees; Storm Pictures of Tupper Lake-these last three pics were taken within a two minute time frame--if you look closely at the last one, you can see the rain hit the pavement.

It’s official…We’ve been in our first “severe” thunder storm of the trip. Compared to this one, all the others were just light rain, or the mere fringes of bad weather.

All was going well as we traveled through the beautiful Adirondack Mountains with the numerous lakes and rivers. Something odd we noticed, and our picture does not show the whole extent of it, but many of the trees along the highway appear to be stripped bare on the lower trunks. We are guessing that maybe the force of the snow blowers removing the snow off the highways does this…? If we have a NY follower out there, maybe you can let us know!

We drove through the upscale resort town of Lake Placid where the 1980 Winter Olympics were held, and were soon getting sprinkled…no, actual rain…on and off for the next 10 miles or so. This was unfortunate, since it derailed any plans to stop and shop…or just walk around the town. Just after passing through Tupper Lake, out of nowhere we were in hard, solid rain. We are usually pretty vigilant watching the weather forming, but this one came from behind us, and the mountains obscured the dark mass. Within minutes the lightening was flashing above us as the thunder boomed. Our poor little wiper just couldn’t keep up! We ultimately pulled over and waited out the driving rain (about 15 minutes). After this first storm cell of the day passed, we were hit by four others on and off… medium to heavy rain—not the center of the storm—until we were out of the mountains and more into the foothills. We finally stopped for dinner and got a hotel room in Hamilton, NY, home of Colgate University founded in 1819, were we could watch the next few storms move through the area from the comfort of the room.

The Adirondack Mountains are absolutely beautiful, and New York State has numerous campgrounds available…we’ll just have to come back another year to see what a summer day is really like. I think it got up to the mid 60’s today…and Dave told me we wouldn’t need a jacket!