During my time off between jobs I wanted to squeeze in a second short ADV trip; the Adirondacks BDR-X loop had just launched earlier in the year and was supposed to be an easy, pavement-heavy adventure route that was only a few hours away from Hartford on the highway. Instead of starting at option 1, I planned to start from a campsite that was geographically closest to CT in Caroga Lake, about halfway through Section 5 (out of 6). The sections were pretty uneven in length, with some as short as 75 miles and one 165 miles which made it hard to break out the route cleanly into thirds by section. With relatively little research I just divided the 700-mile route roughly into thirds, booked some sites that seemed pretty evenly distributed, and hoped for the best.
The forecast was supposed to be pretty mild, with daytime temps in the mid-70s, overnight lows in the 50s, and a pretty steady chance of rain all week. I kept the packing list pretty light, but I did opt to bring my rain shelter for camp and bring my camera (which fit perfectly in my new Enduristan tank bag). The bike setup was pretty much the same as the last few rides I did on the Norden, including the 80/20 Dunlop Trailmax Mission tire that I had to install on the road after my flat in Virgina last year — since the route was supposed to be pretty mellow I figured a street-biased adventure tire would be just fine.
Day 0: CT to Caroga Lake, NY
I decided to have a lazy morning and just bomb it out to my first camp site on the highway. Other than a brief downpour on the highway there was not drama and I made it to camp in Caroga Lake by 4pm. I’d forgotten that most NY camp grounds don’t sell firewood, but at least there was a private camp store just across the road with bundles. There was a few scattered showers the first night, but camp was pretty quiet since it was a weeknight after school started back up.
Day 1: Caroga Lake to Vermontville
I started off relatively early in the morning after I’d realized a minor lapse in planning; I’d eyeballed the route into thirds but the campsite distribution wasn’t quite even. My first day would end up being over 270 miles and start with the only optional hard section of the route, Tannery Road. Despite being listed as an alt-harder Tannery Road ended up being pretty fun and mild; mostly rocky with a few deep puddles to dodge and a decrepit bridge to cross through a swampy portion.
Section 6 picked up right at the end of Tannery Road and was surprisingly dirt heavy. There were a few paved roads through some resort towns that reminded me of a mix between northern Wiconsin and the White Mountains in New Hampshire, but a lot of the day was on fast gravel & dirt roads with the occasional sandy section thrown in. I kept decent pace because of the mileage but the sand definitely slowed me down and I did try to remind myself to stop, take pictures, and enjoy scenery. I ended up running across another adventure rider — a self-described “rain bird” from Florida riding a 690 Enduro — and we leapfrogged each other most of the day.
I also paid the fee to drive up the private road up Whiteface Mountain, where the weather cooperated enough to get some great views over the Adirondacks to end the day. I opted not to walk the rocky trail to the very top in my riding gear, especially with the afternoon disappearing quickly, but it was still worth the time to ride up.
The long mileage kept me from camp until after 6pm; the last-summer sunset of 8pm and a threatening rain forecast lead meant that I skipped buying firewood and just had a slightly chilly night under my rain shelter at the mostly empty camp in Vermontville.
Day 2: Vermontville to Old Forge
I was on the road around 8:30 to get Day 2 started, which immediately began with a powerline/ATV trail running between the road and Rainbow Lake on the way into Saranac. A lot of the track was fast and flowy, but there were a few sections with very deep sand. I was able to ride or paddle through most of it, but I did end up losing the front end when braking for a very steep, very sandy descent. I was a bit comforted by the fact that there were tracks in the sand from other riders who had done the same before me, which also got me wondering if I’d come up on other riders during the day.
There were great, twisty roads into and out of Saranac with a minor detour for some roadwork before picking up the dirt again around noon, and the day stayed mostly off-pavement for the rest of the afternoon. A lot of the tracks were way more rugged than I was expecting based on the BDR’s description of the day, with lots of rocks, sand, and some punchy hill climbs. Eventually the route turned left onto a road that looked very dug up and loose, similar to logging or heavy machinery damage. Turned out the narrow track was being actively graded (and wasn’t marked as closed). The loose surface was a bit sketchy to feel confident on street-biased rear, so speeds came way down as I worked my way through and then past the grader as it worked when I eventually came to it.
At the end of that road there were two adventure riders from Vermont, Kieran and Mark, having a rest and snack break; we chatted for a bit before I took off and hit a dead end where a bridge was out. I turned around, flagged Kieran and Mark, and we road together for a bit while we navigated the a detour. They paused to put on rain gear as the scattered showers that we’d been riding through most of the morning started to become steadier. They stopped at the same Stewart’s that marked the end of Section 2 and we chatted for a bit over some pre-made sandwiches for lunch.
The weather cleared pretty well for the rest of the afternoon for the short Section 3 and the tracks got easier and more flowy at the end of the day, eventually ending in some great pavement around some the lake resort towns of Inlet and Old Forge. I came across a memorial for a crashed rider out in the woods and I played the leapfrog game a bit with Kieran & Mark as we finished the day.
When I was stopped for photo in the afternoon, I’d also caught the glint of a nail head in my rear tire. I decided the chance the rest of the afternoon since the tire was still holding air but plug it when I got to camp. The notoriously thick carcass of the Trailmax Mission ended up being too much for the ultra-lite plug kit I was carrying, and both the reamer and insertion tool broke off at the handle when using them. I asked around at camp, but sadly no one had a plug kit I could use and I ended up MacGyvering a solution with a pair of vise grips. That ended up holding up over night and I picked up a new plug kit at the local NAPA before I took off the next morning.
Day 3: Old Forge, NY to Hartford, CT
After the excitement of day 2, I took advantage of having signal at camp and read the section descriptions on the BDR website. It sounded like Section 4 was going to be pretty spicy, but the remaining bits of Section 5 I had to ride would all be pavement. I took off pretty early on Wednesday morning to make sure I had time to run into town and get on the road.
After a brief bit of pavement out of town, the gravel started early along a ridgeline with a ton of wind mills. I came across a group of riders with very light kit on some dual sports, including a modded DR-Z400 that look very similar to the pre-tower build of mine. I passed them initially, but after a few photo stops they remained ahead of me for most of the day. There were a few bombed out sections of the route with some deep puddles and a couple of roads that were “closed” to car traffic but on the route that added some spice to the morning, but for the most part it was pretty tame and I kept good pace.
At some point in the afternoon the road ahead of the route was marked as closed, but after the series of “road closed” signs I’d encountered all morning I just skipped it and rode on. After a few minutes, however, the group on dual sports came from the other way and informed the that there was some active tree clearing happening ahead and the work crew wasn’t happy about seeing riders on the closed road. We turned around and I tried a marked two-track in my GPS before hitting a locked gate and having to do a brief paved detour.
I stopped for a quick lunch at a gas station (where a local made sure to inform myself and another rider going the other way that we weren’t allowed on the private ATV trails), I prepared for Houlahan Road, which was specifically called out on the section description as being challenging and had a GPS waypoint for a water crossing. While it was definitely on the rougher side for a main route segment it was nothing compared to the loose, rocky tracks that had been on yesterday’s route. There was multiple permanent signs for a closed bridge, which I assumed was what the water crossing waypoint was for but surprisingly the bridge was intact and just blocked by a cement barrier with enough room to squeeze past on a motorcycle. The watercrossing as a disappointingly tame puddle where the road went between two ponds, and after that the section was on easy gravel roads until it ended in Boonville.
I stopped for gas at the end of the segment and ran into Mark & Kieran again, who had apparently been just ahead of me most of the day. The group of dual sport riders came into the town shortly after, so apparently I’d ridden past them on my detour despite having to turn around. It was only about 3pm by the time I finished, and since the remaining miles I had of Section 5 were supposed to be all pavement I opted to just ride home instead.
Overall It was a great route and, despite the high pavement content, surprisingly challenging in parts. It wasn’t anything that had me wishing I was on the smaller 501, but there were definitely times I wish I’d had knobbier tires. In retrospect the three day plan was pretty aggressive, at least with how I’d broken out the mileage. On the other hand, I think 4 days might have been too relaxed for my riding style, so I think just better distributing the miles would have worked out. I had no way of knowing the Engduro tire plug kit wasn’t strong enough for the Trailmax’s, but given their reputation for being super still and wearing like iron it’s not shocking in retrospect and I’ll carry a full sized kit with me on the Norden going forward.