Day 8 – Cumberland Bay State Park, NY (Zero Day #1!)

U-2016-8-28 – 

Start: Cumberland Bay State Park

End: Same, Cumberland Bay State Park
On the Way: Saranac River, Plattsburgh, Cumberland Bay

Miles: 0 (Milepost: 148.5)

Map: 4

Weather: Overcast, with maybe 30 minutes of downpour!  YES!  MORE!  PLEASE!

I’ve had to do it numerous times in my life, but I don’t think it will ever get any easier to kills time in a small town.  I mean, heck, I grew up in a town of 300, so I should have this ingrained, but when I don’t know whose land is whose and that I won’t be taken for a vagrant for stomping around the neighbor’s woods, it’s tough.  My combined wants of avoiding police suspicion, avoiding attention from creepy strangers, and avoiding spending lots of money always make it a super-awkward time.  Not to say I don’t have things to do: I could easily occupy myself with an entire day of reading or doodling or Internet or napping.  It’s just doing it for a whole day in a combination of parks, coffee shops, and library (when it’s open, booo Sunday hours…) that attracts unwanted attention.

Chocolate and books and lounging in the riverside park.  (Also, note how incredibly low the Saranac is: no way would I be getting a boat down there!)

The Co-op had Taza chocolate--made near where I live in Somerville, MA!

Anyway, it was a boring 0-mile day, waiting for the PO to open.  I don’t want to do another of these for a while: just makes me anxious, since Maine awaits and the deep of autumn is coming.  Tomorrow, I’ll paddle back across the Bay to Plattsburgh, lock up the boat at the dock near the NFCT kiosk, jet over to the PO to open it at 0830 sharp, dash back to the boat before all my gear is lifted (hooray, urban docks), then head out into the waves of Lake Champlain at the exact wrong time of day.  If it’s too dangerous, I can always park along the shore and wait for ~1700, when the Lake generally calms down across the board.

Chatted with Teton some more, since he also wanted to wait another day to do an early morning assault.  He’s got lots of good long-distance trip experience and tips to go with them.  He’s also writing a weekly column for the Portland, ME, newspaper while on the Trail.  Talk about multi-tasking and living the dream.  I oughta pick his brain about how I can land that kind of gig…

Its officially been one week since I embarked from Old Forge.  I want the next couple of weeks to go just as smoothly.  I can’t help but think of folks at home.  Brambleberry seems to be ticking along.  This weekend was orientation at MIT, and it feels weird not to be there in black, leading freshmen astray.  dRachel, my former roommate, is starting grad school in Hawaii and must be feeling even stranger.

Things Learned:

+ You can spend a lot of time quibbling and worrying about beta information and its accompanying data.  Sometimes the impetus of just hitting the Trail and gathering momentum will serve you much better.

+ Plattsburgh likes to think it’s real historically important.  Every other block had a placard about what British atrocity happened there during the War of 1812, or so-and-so war hero lived here.  At the same time, they have a bronze statue of Samuel Champlain literally towering over his native guides, discovering the Lake.  How one has the nerve to “discover” something a group of people lead you to is beyond me.

Oh, Sammy.  Your biggest assets were having a gun along and being European.

English gardens maintained outside of the British Officers' Quarters.

The house had a commanding view of the river and Lake, which is presumably why it was selected.

Trail Magic:

+ Met an Ecuadorian bricklayer named Luis.  He asked me why I didn’t shave my legs.  I asked if he was “a local” and he said, “No, I’m not crazy.”  As in, he’s not loco.  It was a funny moment.

+ The library left its wifi on, so I sat outside underneath the "closed" sign and tried to interpret water level charts via the screen of my Smartphone.  Not very successfully.