willmington notch State park

July 27-29, 2019

Chris has wanted to go to Lake Placid for a long time, so we decided it was finally time to go. We booked a site at Wilmington Notch State Park, knowing that all of the sites there were unserviced, but it’s so much less expensive to camp at an unserviced site in a State Park than it is to have service in a private park. Plus, we generally like the atmosphere in Provincial/State Parks a bit better. We’ve tested things a few times and know that we can do two nights of camping without service. We’re not super diligent at conserving energy, so we decided that we would be cautious and leave on Saturday instead of Friday. This actually was a much better plan because we could leave first thing Saturday morning instead of having to wait until we were finished work on Friday. Neither of us needed to work on the Monday, so we planned to return then.

I didn’t feel especially prepared for this trip. On Friday evening, I put away the awning, made the bed, prepared the inside for travelling, turned on the fridge to cool it down and drained the water tank. Since we were headed to the US, we didn’t really do any groceries and figured we’d just pick up some things once we arrived. The list of food you can’t bring across the border changes often and we didn’t want to have the wrong things in the fridge. We did bring snacks, condiments, water, coffee and cream though.

Stopping for coffee at our favourite - Bridgehead Coffee

One of the things we haven’t managed well is emptying the water tank after a trip. We should be doing this so that we don’t end up with unwanted bacteria in the tank, but it seems to be forgotten each time. Because I hadn’t emptied the tank right away and hadn’t had time to sanitize it (one more thing to figure out!), I decided to bring drinking water from home.

This was our fourth trip of the season and Chris has figured out how to hitch up like a pro! We were aiming to leave at 10 am and we were actually on the road, WITH COFFEE STOP COMPLETED at 9:56! A new record for us! I don’t think we’ve ever left before we intended to - we’re usually at least 30 minutes past the time we say we want to leave!

It was both Daisy and Holly’s first trip to the US, so we wanted to be sure we had all of the proper documents for us (easy) and for the dog and the trailer. As usual, it was quite uneventful. We went over the bridge at Ogdensburg and when we arrived there were only 4 or 5 cars in front of us. We were through in less than 15 minutes.

The drive through New York State was quite pretty. We didn’t take any of the major highways and instead opted for two lane, smaller highways all the way. They were still fairly well travelled, so we were taken by surprise when a black bear ran across the highway right in front of us. We couldn’t have been more than 200 meters from it!

We stopped at Tupper Lake to let Daisy out for a run and for us to eat some lunch. The park was really pretty, with a pathway along the water and loads of butterflies around.

We passed through Lake Placid and went directly to Wilmington Notch State Park, where we arrived mid-afternoon. The campground is small and our site (number 34) was towards the back end of it. There are no electrical sites at this campground so it was filled with mostly tents and a hand full of small RVs/trailers. Our site was at the end where the road turned, so it was quite large. Interestingly, the dump station was just across from us, near the bathrooms, but we didn’t have any issues with this. In all of the Provincial Parks we’ve been in so far, the dump station is on the way out of the park. I actually thought that site 33, right next to the dump station, was the best site - it was huge, very pretty and backed on to the edge of the park, making it super private.

During our stay, the campground was going through a water shortage, so there was no water from any of the taps and the water from the main tap near the office, was on a boil water advisory. Luckily, there was enough water for showers. Otherwise, we had our own water and weren’t put out by this at all.

With no electrical plug in, we had to be careful of our battery use (we don’t have solar, but we do have two batteries). We didn’t need to use a lot of electricity (we could charge electronics in the car while driving to and from Lake Placid), but we did run the Fantastic Fan, since it was pretty warm, even in the mountains! The first night was beautiful, but the second night was much warmer.

It didn’t take long to set up, level and unhitch, so we spent the afternoon enjoying the pleasant weather, reading and listening to the live music that was coming from the White Mountain Ski Resort right next door to us.

We didn’t really stop again after Tupper Lake, assuming we could pick up some things from a grocery store in Lake Placid, which we didn’t. This meant we didn’t have anything to eat for dinner, so we headed into town to find somewhere to eat.

When I booked this site, I noticed it was the weekend of the Ironman Race. We’ve never seen an Ironman before but we knew it was a huge event and were surprised that there was even space at the state park. So, when we arrived in Lake Placid we expected it to be fairly busy. It was very cool to see all of the athletes out and about and you could almost feel the nervous and excited energy coming from them. We walked up the main street from one end to the other and wound up at The Cottage Restaurant, where they had a patio with a gorgeous view of Mirror Lake. The best part was that Daisy was able to sit on the patio with us! The food was delicious, the view gorgeous and the service was excellent! Chris finished his dinner off with some Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream:) I only had a bite of his, since I was stuffed from our meal.

enjoying the view on the dock at the restaurant

We headed back towards the Olympic site to see the transition area and finish line for the next day. Super cool. The transition and finish line are at the Olympic Speed Skating Oval. One of the reasons to go into town was to pick up a few groceries. But without wifi (the restaurant didn't have free wifi and nor did any other place we visited!) or cell service, and not knowing the town, we were unable to easily find a grocery store. We found out later that there is one, but it’s off the beaten path… We ended up buying a few essentials from the gas station, just so we could eat breakfast in the morning! It wasn’t until the next day that someone mentioned we could use the wifi in Starbucks…

Important announcement (I’m sure those supporting athletes were happy for this!)

I got up to take Daisy out for a short walk and popped by the campsite office to find out more about the Ironman. They were able to tell me which roads were closed and what some of the routes were. As luck would have it, our campground was right on the route, at about 50 miles into the bike ride. Since it was a two loop ride, cyclists would be passing by twice during the day. The elite cyclists started coming by at around 9:30 am (!), so we grabbed our coffee and cameras and went out to cheer them on. Our spot was at the top of a climb, so nobody was flying past us. It made it easy to get some great photos. As with any race, it’s so easy to pass a lot of time just cheering people on! It was past 11 am when we finally went back to our site to cook some “breakfast” (bacon and egg sandwiches from the gas station)!

These athletes were super focused, but the odd one would smile or give a thumb’s up!

even Daisy was out cheering athletes on!

Getting out of the campground wasn’t easy, so we decided to just hang out, reading. Chris decided to go for a run just as it was getting pretty steamy outside. Luckily, the sun wasn’t out much because it was HUMID! Those poor bikers. He ran about 12 km and just as he was finishing, the rain came pouring down for about 5 minutes, but it didn’t seem to cool things down at all.

We meet the most interesting people on our travels. When I went back to watch the bikers again, I met a man who had stopped and decided not to finish the race. He was on his 7th Ironman, but hadn’t done one since he was 47, which was 12 years ago. He knew he was struggling and felt he hadn’t done the proper training, so decided to stop. He was quite taken by Daisy. He had his own Cavalier King Charles Spaniel for 10 years and told me how much he had loved his dog.

Once Chris had recovered from his run and showered, we decided to go into Lake Placid. Many of the cyclists had completed their two loops and were heading into the marathon. The road into Lake Placid was closed, so we took the long way around via a few detours. It was pretty neat seeing the cyclists biking towards us! We parked on the outskirts of Lake Placid, walked towards the main street (where we popped by Starbucks for a drink and some free wifi so we could check in with the kids) and then headed to the Olympic site to watch the runners finishing the race. We spent more than 2 hours at the Olympic Speed Skating Oval, where we watched and cheered the runners crossing the finish line. WOW. These were some elite runners. We were watching finish times from about 10.5 hours to 13 hours. An Ironman is a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile cycle and a 26 mile run. These elite runners completed the swim in about 1 hour, the cycle in about 6 hours and the run in about 4 hours. As we were about to leave we met an athlete and his family, who asked me to take a photo. He didn’t have a phone and her’s had died, so I got their contact info and sent it to them. This was his third Ironman and he had finished right around the 11 hour mark. So impressive! And it was interesting to hear about the race from a racer’s perspective.

amazing to watch them cross the finish line!

We were getting hungry, so we left the race to grab a bite to eat. Lake Placid Village was pretty busy with racers and spectators and we were limited because Daisy was with us. We settled on take out slices of pizza from Bazzi’s Pizza, where we could sit outside on their picnic tables with Daisy.

After eating, we headed back to the car to return to our campsite. We didn’t realize we’d have to take the detour back and there were a few moments of panic when we realized we were dangerously low on gas. When we bought our car, we decided to splurge on the navigation system, something we’d never considered before but we knew we wanted to travel in the US and Canada with the car and trailer where we might not have service. Well, thank goodness, because it was able to tell us exactly where to get gas, which was not on the route we were driving. It could have been a not so pleasant situation otherwise!

We didn't end up getting any hiking in during this trip, because of the Ironman Race, but we really enjoyed our time in Lake Placid! Next time, we’ll try for a few hikes.

Both of us used the showers at the campground. They were pretty good - not quite as clean as many of the ones I’ve used at Ontario Provincial Parks, but reasonable. Chris said that his shower on Sunday was good and hot, but I took mine on Monday, mid-morning and while it started out hot, it turned warm part way through and stayed that way. It was hot enough outside that a warm shower didn’t bother me at all.

Enjoying my morning coffee under the awning

We took our time packing up and were ready to go right at the 11 am check out time. Although, when Chris hitched up, one of the weight distribution bars seemed a bit loose, which seemed odd. He took the time to switch the bars from one side to the other, but it was still loose on the same side. We must have been at a weird angle or on some uneven ground, because once we moved a little, it all seemed fine. The dump station was across from us and while I dumped, he checked to be sure everything was good.

Just before this trip, we went to one of the local RV stores to pick up a few supplies. One of the things on our list was a clear elbow to use when we empty our tank. We used it for the first time this trip and it was really neat to see everything come out (this stuff doesn’t really gross me out!) and good to know when it’s really finished draining.

Our drive back to Ottawa was sunny and uneventful. We stopped in Canton and took a walk along the Grass River Heritage Trail. The walk along the side walk to the trail was HOT, but there was a nice breeze on the pretty trail. We grabbed a bite to eat and got back on the road. The border crossing was easy once again and we arrived home later in the afternoon. We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Lake Placid!

The mountains and the streams were amazing!

Next up… Our first long trip!! We’re going north for a little over a week to Manitoulin Island and Tobermory/Bruce National Park! We’ll have a quick stop in Sudbury on the way there and in Uxbridge on the way home.

Ottawa - Wilmington Notch State Park - Lake Placid - Ottawa

Towing: 542 km

Driving: 110 km

Battery: 12.3

Fresh Water Tank: 45% Used

Combined Grey/Black Water Tank: 50% Full

** We didn’t use the shower in Holly during this weekend, which explains why our fresh water tank was still so full and our Blank/Grey Tank was only half full. We used the fantastic fan on low the first night and medium the second night.

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willmington notch State park

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