October 1st, 2009 pt.2

No point in waking up the steed.  Border guard was right there to greet me.  I walked the steed over to the gate feeling a wee bit apprehensive.  Looking the way I do, I thought it’ll take some explaining to do before they let me in the country.  Luckily enough the border guard has a cousin who owned a KLR and wished me well on my journey.  Phew!  I wasn’t in the mood to strip down naked and have my butthole probed.  The guard also informed me that it had snowed in the Adirondacks the night before.  Wonderful.  So there I was, back on the steed as I entered the land of the free; American flag waving up high in the air.  I could not help but to belt out “Born in the USA!” as I rode down the foreign pavement.  Weather was still grim, but luckily the rain held off for the most part.  Rode through Watertown and made my way in the Adirondacks.  I had planned to camp out for the night there, but where exactly I had no clue.  I figure it’ll come to me as I head deeper into the woods.  By the time I had entered the state park my fingers were frozen I could hardly move them.  The rain didn’t help much also.  I pulled over to a rest area to heat up some lunch.  I packed a Primus Gravity II multi-fuel stove and a basic 2-person chow kit.  Works like a charm.  As I waited for the soup to boil, I kept my fingers nice and toasty on the muffler.  Body and soul recharged, I kept pushing onwards through the light rain.  By 19:00 it started to get dark fast.  I was just north of Saranac Lake and needed to set up camp fast.  I pulled off onto an electrical post path that cut through into the woods.  A bit of off-roading, but nothing the KLR couldn’t handle.  I saw a truck parked by one of the posts and wondered if this was a good idea.  I’d hate to set everything all up only to be told minutes later I had to high tail it.  Should I or should I not?  That was the question.  All of a sudden out in the woods somebody started hollering at me.  Uh oh.  It turned out it was a hunter hunting for deer.  He was kind enough to direct me to free camp sites not too far from here.  Nice.  It was pitch black by the time I got there and I didn’t bother with whether or not I was at an actual site.  I just knew I was in the area.  Pitched the Eureka Mountain Pass tent and packed my gear in.  Watched a few episodes of Entourage from the iPod to wind down and called it a night.



Where I camped.  (Picture taken the next morning)

Living off the land.

No Thermarest at this point.

A cold sleepless night.