A canoeing trip planned in November 2008 became reality in October 2009 as six OHCRA members made the 10-14 hour drive from Ohio to upstate New York. Trip leaders Larry and Sophia have been making the trip for years after they attended an Elderhostel near the Floodwood Outfitters in 1996. They left early Saturday morning heading to Old Forge NY and a hotel. The others, Ted, Tony, Harold and Laurie started on a slightly different adventure.
Ted picked up Tony and his canoe trailer and they arrived at Laurie's home on Friday evening. Harold lives close by and after "triaging" the gear, the four went to the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad for an "Ales on Rails" excursion. For $48.00 they received five Oktoberfest beers and food paired to the flavors of the beer. As the train pulled from the station, all the interior lights went out, for the entire trip. It was nice since darkness was coming on and this way they could still see the country side and a full moon was even rising. The servers used flashlights and the light from their cell phones to serve the 72 people on board their car. A guy named Bob was celebrating his 60th birthday and the whole car joined in the party with him. After the train ride, Harold took everyone to the Amvets Club where cornhole was played. Bedtime came around midnight.
The four were up at seven and rechecked the fully loaded canoe trailer and now fully loaded vehicle. For only four people they sure had a lot of gear! After breakfast in a local restaurant, they were on the highway at 9:30am in Ted's Toyota Highlander Hybrid suv. A real nice ride with decent gas mileage. Eight hours later they pulled into the Nicks Lake State Campground, 2.5 miles outside Old Forge N.Y.
After getting camp set up, they went into town and met Larry and Sophia for supper at the Knotty Pine restaurant. A birthday candle was provided by Sophia and stuck into a left over dinner roll and the gang sang happy birthday to Larry, who was celebrating his 76th birthday that very day.
Prices in the area are very high as the whole place is tourist based and we found out later that tax is 8.5%. The Adirondacks are roughly at 43-44 degrees latitude and it gets dark much quicker than in Ohio, especially in the thick forest. That also helps the leaves change color earlier and as luck would have it; the whole area was at PEAK FALL FOLIGE. It was so beautiful.
View Pictures From the Ale Train
View Pictures From Traveling & Dinner