69   Friday, November 7   Woodgate, NY

I'm out of the Adirondacks. If you look at a map of New York state (a 
reasonably good map), you will see that most of the north-eastern quarter 
is taken up by a large park -- the Adirondack State Forest. The 
Adirondacks themselves are a mountain range, basically an extension of the 
Canadian Shield down past the St. Lawrence. For whatever geological 
reason, they are quite a bit larger (higher) down here, so it was neat. A 
lot of it could have passed for parts of BC. This was good, maeing the 
last 2 days "up-and-overs." That's just my term for a day that unfolds 
exactly as it sounds. I start in a valley, go up and over a single large 
hill/mountain, then end in the next valley over. Most of BC was like that. 
I like them because although it takes most of the day to get to the top, 
it's very rewarding getting there, and then you get a half-hour/20 mile 
(30km) downhill coast to end it off. I actually make pretty good time on 
those. The only problem is that it *is* a park -- 250-300 miles on a side 
(400-500km), and as such is quite remote. There are only 4 or 5 decent 
towns in the entire area, so I will spend an entire day with not much in 
the way of "human habitation". Also there is very little traffic through 
here. Since entering the park 3 days ago, I doubt I passed more than about 
a hundred vehicles (except for in the few towns). On a few occasions, I 
was wondering if the road was actually closed, and I had just missed the 
sign that said as much. Ergo, it can be quite lonely. Reminds me quite a 
bit also of Northern Ontario in that respect. However, I am now out of 
them, for better or for worse, and back into "civilization". Over the last 
few days, I have been making quite good progress... about 130 miles 
combined. I hope it keeps up. Unfortunately, the forecast is for rain 
tomorrow (although at the moment, it is a clear, starry, cloudless sky. 
hmmmm....). So I may be slowing down a bit. We shall see...