Around Lake George

[gerisullivan]

Three padded envelopes needed to go out in today's mail and I was looking forward to the 1.5 mile roundtrip walk to the Post Office. Alas, events of the day conspired and there wasn't time to walk and still get there before closing by the time I finished the cover letter and packaged everything up.

I considered leaving my car at the Post Office, walking home and then walking back to get it. That seemed a bit on the silly side even for me, so I used the opportunity to walk in a different direction instead. From the corner of Monson Road and Hwy 19, I headed south on 19 toward Tedore's and Lake George. There's still the sign on the door saying that Tedore's will reopen under new ownership on April 1st, and no sign that it did so, or that it will open again anytime soon. That's not a big deal to me -- I only go there about once a year. But I would like the local economy to support more business rather than less. I hope Tedore's reopens soon.

Leaving the Tedore's parking lot, I walked down the road to the town beach and Wales Cemetery #1. From the beach, I looked at the size of the lake and found myself wondering how long it would take me to walk around it.

It turned out to be 1.5 hours at a leisurely pace including a 10 minute break at Sichol Beach after the first 30 minutes and a few short stops and brooks and other sights along the way. Sichol Beach has been the second (and much nicer) town beach for a few years now and I'd been wondering exactly where it was. It used to be privately owned by the members of the Sichol Colony Beach Association, who bought into the beach as part of the purchase of their homes. They got screwed by their management company -- it pocketed their beach assessments and never paid property taxes on the beach itself. That was the source of much contention at the first and second town meetings I went to. The town took legal possession of the land; the owners sued the town...and lost.

I thought I was about halfway around the lake when I found the beach, but I didn't bargain with just how much of Hwy 19 I'd end up walking along once the lake road reconnected to it. Hmmmm. I'm glad I brought a bottle of water along. Mid-70s is a gorgeous walking temp, but the sun was downright warm during several stretches of the afternoon's exertions.

Several people were fishing from the spot where the lake comes right up to the edge of Hwy. 19, and I passed a family walking over to the lake for a picnic. The swim suits on the girls seemed overly optimistic, but it's hard not to be optimistic on a day like today.

I asked one of the fishermen what they catch, telling him I knew about the Pumpkinseed's, though I misremembered their name as Pumpkinheads. Oops. He said Calicoes, mostly, (aka Calico Bass), though he didn't mention whether they were white, black, or both. Apparently another couple caught a 14-15" Pickerel. Just big enough to turn nasty when you go to take it off your hook, he said.

I drove my walking route before heading home, just to see how far it was including the little side trips up Walker Road and down to Sichol Beach. 3.7 miles. Sweet. A further check of my pedometer confirms that yes, indeed, I do have a 30-inch step, or something awfully darned close to it.

It's a good thing I was walking around the Lake George in Wales, and not the one in upstate New York.

The walk was enough to remind me that my black walking shoes are well beyond their freshness date. I've been aware for awhile that I need to replace them -- it's taken decades for me to understand that just because walking shoes aren't visibly falling to pieces it doesn't mean they're not worn out. Certain kinds of foot pain indicate they're no longer up to the job. (Other kinds of foot and body creaks and pains remind me that I haven't been walking regularly of late, but some are clearly shoe-specific. Okay. I can fix that. With luck and perseverance, I'll fix the walking regularly part of the equation, too.

Chicken is cooking in the rotisserie. I used a commercial rub for chicken and lamb -- garlic, rosemary, spices, and lavender. It's smelling good.....

Comments

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

It might have been Saturday. We're in a week-long weekend. It's actually longer than a week. We're pretty weak too, except Sarah. Anyway, it was the trip to Southwick's Zoo, and it was a loooong day, so you were probably pretty well out of it. We had an extra ticket. (Still do, actually -- since we had passes, we didn't stand in the line to buy tickets, and nobody collected them from us. Ethically, we'll throw three of them away, or else just lose them in a pile of stuff somewhere.)