This was not our best day, starting with ripping up the lawn in Plattsburgh and almost destroying the cars chassis. We thought it would be quick and easy hour drive to the North Pole. It was a mid-week move which Steve hates, so taking a lunch break, we drove down I-87S, after all his next call was an hour and a half away.

What we really hadn’t considered was half of this drive was over the mountains. We made it to the campground with 20 minutes to spare, except we missed the entrance, had to drive down the next street, unhook the car, and Chris belted back to the registration office to check in. Chris yelled to Steve, “site 93,  I’ll meet you there.” Steve took off with the camping escort and made it in time for his call. Chris in the meantime couldn’t find site 93, which turned out to be 1/4 mile down the road on the other side of the street. Wheew!!!!!

So we made it the North Pole Resort in Wilmington NY

Nice wooded and spacious pull through site. Pretty good space between sites also. Not very good WiFi or AT&T 4G speeds, It’s situated 5 miles from Whiteface mountain, and we were parked in the woods, so connectivity was very spotty, but we managed.

Pretty nice pull through in the trees ( no satellite)

Nice gravel roads and pretty wide

The Adirondack mountains and countryside are beautiful. The Ausable River and its tributaries flow all around this area, and due to a very wet spring and summer, the rivers were flowing rapidly

Lake Placid

Lake Placid is site of the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympic Games. The town was full of winter resort shops, for bobsledding, skating, skiing, not your typical high street shops. A very picturesque little village, with alpine lodges and Swiss chalet type buildings overflowing with colorful window-boxes.

Saranac Lake

This area must look really beautiful in winter, all houses have logs piled high in the yards and on porches, ready for their wood stoves.

We ate at RF McDougals, a local restaurant on the river, and thought what a cozy place it would be after a day of skiing, with hot toddy’s all round.

We’ve both done our time in living in these winter climes and prefer visiting in summer.

While in the area, Chris visited Ausable Chasm.

The chasm is fed from Rainbow falls and Ausable river, and empties into Lake Champlain. It’s a sandstone gorge approx. 520 feet thick, and about 2 miles long first seen in 1765

This is part of the trail around the chasm. There were many people repelling and rock climbing around us

Then Chris signed up for rafting trip. Not known for her expertise in white water rafting, she took the plunge ( metorphorically speaking) She has a reputation of falling out of rafts at the mere mention of a rapidHere we go loading up. This has been the launch site for boats for 200 years when they used wooden boats for transportation

Off we go! Camera had to go back at this point, so she could grab her partners leg

Next day it was off to the ski slopes of Whiteface Mountain

View of Lake Placid from the highest access point

These are the Whiteface Mountain slopes, those on the right are the Triple D, as in dangerously steep.

Steve’s family owned a dairy in this area, in Keesville, for many years, and there appeared to be many “Signor’s” still living locally, just no idea where idea they fit on the family tree.