Deep New England
TRIUMPH ATLAK HONDA’S NEW LITTLE BIKES UNADILLA PRO MOTOCROSS
Deep New England
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AUGUST 2018 • BACKROADS
You would think heading to Americade for a few days would be old hat for us after all these years – but nothing goes super smoothly now, does it? So after packing, I remembered it would be a good idea to get the Garmin routes I created on the desktop onto the laptop, now stowed in the top case of the BMW. Wow, a lot of compound words there. Listening to WXPN letting Joni Mitchell sing about “the bright white lines on the freeway” I loaded everything up right on the bike. Heck, I started this story at the same time, and with the July issue just put to bed this morning we were on a road trip already – even if we were not putting the side stands up till the next day. We were ready – No regrets, Coyote! Northward Ho to Americade
words and images: Brian Rathjen
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We blasted up to the Kingston region and then took the Thru and Northways towards Lake George. The plan was to mimic part of the Appalachian Trail, which we were constantly crossing, and make our turn-around point at the Trail’s northern terminus at Mount Katahdin. But, first we made time north to Lake George. Along this way we had a riding experience that we have never encountered before and, hopefully, will never see again. About a ¼ mile ahead of us on the New York State Thruway, a semi pulling a load of recycled garbage, with a not so well secured trap covering the back, was heading under the next overpass. As Maxwell Smart would have said… “He missed it by that much!” From our direct vantage point of 70 mph and closing, all we saw was the explosion of the top of the truck colliding with the bottom of the bridge. Debris, crap and garbage ejected in a cloud of white smoke and dust and the road was littered with fragments of boxes, cardboard, plastic bottles and packaging. There was a mass slow down from us, the two guys on Harleys behind us, and the rest of the traffic heading north. Shira’s only comment after ‘Holy Shit!’ was that she was glad he was not driving a car carrier. With that Shira informed me we were going to be making a little side dash for lunch and frozen dessert at the only brewery and ice cream parlor I have
BACKROADS • AUGUST 2018
Page 27 friends that we never get to see often enough and always hope to run into at this rally. Bouncing around the World’s Largest Touring Rally
ever heard of, just south of Americade in Glens Falls – Cooper’s Cave; just what the doctor ordered. Bodies and bikes refueled, sugared and caffeinated we rode into the rally that was still fairly light on this Wednesday. We got our wristbands and took a quick stroll around the new Tour Expo - which is now found alongside Fort William Henry. We liked the new layout and found it easy to park, navigate and find the vendors we were looking for. Our new go-to hotel up this way is The Melody Manor, in Bolton’s Landing. We used this last year for the Fall Fiesta and found it to be a charming place, with stupendous views of the lake and far enough from downtown to make for peace and quiet. It’s the new Backroads North at Americade. Not far from the hotel is the Algonquin restaurant where we met up with
We were up and out early on this Thursday Americade morning as Shira would be joining MSF Coach and owner of Big Apple Motorcycle School Diane Ortiz for a Ladies’ Coffee Club a gathering of female rides from all points in the motorcycle world to discuss pertinent motorcycle and riding issues that women, in particular, have to deal with day to day. A good hour covering a lot of topics - some old and done to death and others fresh, new and interesting. Diane has held this for a number of years and if you are female rider, or a male rider that looks to support the ladies on two wheels, we highly recommend this way to start the day. We did a second stroll through the vendor area before meeting friends to take a tour of Fort William Henry right at the bottom of Lake George. The fort, built in 1755, is at the scene of one of the biggest conflicts in the French & Indian War and the massacre by the Huron tribe following the siege, which saw the British surrender to the French, was the basis for James Fenimore Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans. For all the years we have come to Americade this was the first time we
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toured the recreated fort (the French burned the original to the ground after handing the British to the Hurons). Interesting and informative – it is a deep part of the history of this region and it is hard to contemplate of the violence and mayhem that occurred here hundreds of years ago, when you are taking in the fun that is Americade. We spun up to Dirt Daze that is held a number of miles away at the Painted Pony Ranch in Lake Luzerne. We spent s bit of time up there with the ADV crowd before lunch beckoned and we headed back north to rest up for the night’s activities which included a thing that they were calling Americade’s Knights of the Round Table – a gathering of industry insiders to talk tall tales, amusing stories and discuss motorcycles in general. On the panel were Emcee Fred Rau, Dave Higendorf (editor at Motorcycle Consumer News), Ken Condon (instructor and journalist extraordinaire), Alonzo Bodden (comedic genius and, evidentially, Grom devotee), Shira and I. We were curious to see how this all went, as it was new and a bit different
AUGUST 2018 • BACKROADS
for Americade. As it turned out we drew a good size crowd - mostly made up of Backroads’ peeps and total strangers we had paid money to that afternoon just to show up and be congenial or at least not terribly rude to us – so it all worked out well and the topics ranged far and wide. In truth it was a fun night and we hope they do it again. Pizza was found on Canada Street that night before the required stroll round the busy thoroughfare that was now hopping on a Thursday night at Americade.