New feature!

I'm in Lake Placid now. One of the things I especially love about being in Lake Placid is riding my bike. Unlike my usual suburban deal, here there are very few traffic lights and even the roads are miles apart, so you can have a wonderful, long ride without ever having to even slow down, much less stop.

I'll tell you about yesterday later, but today I rode to Wilmington, the town closest to the Whiteface ski area. It's about 12 miles from here- downhill the whole way there, uphill the whole way back. But today I had to take a detour on my way, because there's stretch of back road, called River Road, that runs from the ski jump area outside of town 4 miles to the main road to Wilmington. This is my favorite place to ride a bicycle for a bunch of reasons, all of them having to do with its natural beauty, its quiet, and a faint but noticeable spruce forest smell that is always there.

As I was riding along, it occurred to me that in all likelihood, this would be my favorite moments of the day, which leads to my newest feature, Favorite Fifteen. What are your favorite fifteen minutes of your day? Today mine was this piece of what ended up being a 31-mile bike ride. The road is rolling hills, first through farmland, and then with the woods on one side and a river on the other. There's a school and around a dozen houses along the road, and a designated fly fishing spot. Today I saw 2 cars the entire time. Sometimes there are a few more. It doesn't matter.

The main road is not too shabby either, with (I think the same) river on one side with mountains beyond it and woods to the right.. Eventually you see a chairlift on top of one of the peaks and you know you're getting close to the ski area. It's kind of behind you when you're traveling northbound, but I got a quick peak. After that, it's into Wilmington, a scruffy little resort area highlighted by North Pole, home of Santa's workshop and a road that goes up near the top of Whiteface Mountain.

I've taken that road before. It goes up. And then you park, where someone built a small castle for some reason (vanity, in all likelihood) that now has a snack bar and bathrooms. You can then either climb up to the top (1/2 mile trail with a 200+ foot vertical) or walk through a long, spooky passageway and take an elevator. Yeah, an elevator in the middle of a mountain. Amazing views from the top on a clear day.

But for me it's just a turnaround, and the climb back to Lake Placid (about 800 ft. vertical) was harder at the beginning because of a headwind, but easier at the end than I remembered. You get a clear view of the ski area in this direction. They're always interesting to look at out of season. Took a bit more than 2 hours of riding overall. But that fifteen minutes on River Road were the peak.

Yesterday, my Favorite Fifteen was a kayak ride with my daughter. Mirror Lake is very nice. Pretty small, maybe a mile long and a quarter mile wide, with no motorboats allowed. It's quiet, and smooth and, well, mirrory. I love being out in the middle of it and just looking around and breathing the air, and doing it together was wonderful.

Anyway, I will keep reporting on my Favorite Fifteens and will ask about yours when I see you.