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Top of Whíteface

My campsite - #37 - at the Adirondac Loj campground

Heart Lake

Reporting "live" from the Adirondack Loj, Lake Placid, New York.

I arrived at Adirondack Loj at 6pm last evening, reporting for the weekend so I can participate in events of the Lake Placid Symphonietta tonight, a concert dedicated to hikers and hiking clubs in the Adirondacks. The symphony attracts professional players from all over the world and the night should be great.

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Devastated in Walton

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Bikers for Breasts -wild color!

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Lunchtime - BMW MOA

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Breakfast! Five hours sleep and ready to roll.

Friday morning.

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Getting ''exhausted'' at Max BMW's tent. Burlington, VT

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My site at the BMW MOA rally - Burlington, VT

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A sea of (BMW) cycles - BMWMOA RALLY - Burlington, VT

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Memorial flowers on bridge over Interstate 88 at the site of the deaths of two tractor-trailer drivers on June 28th. What was once a culvert became a raging river during a 14 inch rainstorm, tearing a 100 foot wide gash in the highway, swallowing the rigs whole. The culvert is now in the process of being replaced with a bridge, the construction of which you see in the background.

A sample of the destruction caused by flooding on June 28th in Walton, New York. All of the devastation in the region was caused by a torrential rainstorm over a 2 day period that covered the Susquehanna Hills with more than a foot of water. I went to the area with two of my colleagues to assess the damage to school districts and to help them chart their course of reclamation and reconstruction.

Home Again

Great ride, great comraderie. We did 158 miles today through some of the most beautiful countryside in the country, on some of the greatest roads for biking. Tom said it was his longest bike trip in 30+ years of riding and he enjoyed riding the cruiser.

After enthusing ove rhte wonderful ride, I asked Tom how many times he had ridden this far in a day..."never." Well, Tom, I've got to say I will always treasure my memories of this day together, as I treasure our friendship.

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Wilmington, Vermont

What would a hot summer's day ride be without a stop for ice cream on a shady porch?

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Hogback Mountain, Vermont

The archetypal "tourist trap," located along Route 9 in the Green Mountains of Vermont. As can be seen from the motorcycles, Tom and I weren't the only ones who decided on riding today. Our combination of motorcycle types - mine, an enduro; Tom's a dresser - drew lots of lookers. The BMW even gets stares and comments from the Harley crowd.

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Taking a break in Brattleboro, Vermont

The temp soared to about 90. Riding was great; resting and drinking were necessities, lest dehydration get the better of us.

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Curt and Tom - Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts

Change of pace - brother Tom Hatcher drove from Averill Park this morning to meet me at my house so we could take a long awaited ride together through the New England countryside - Tom on my Vulcan and me on Orion.

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Ain't she sweet? '46 Chevy

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Lilies in My Yard

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Bruised!

Some bruise, huh? I've been here at Albany Med for two days, watching my bruise stabilize. The bruising is the result of a fall three weeks ago, though it didn't appear until Tuesday, the 4th, spreading rapidly, aided and exacerbeted by the effects of the prednisone I take for myasthenia gravis. After a second CT scan this evening and examination by five residents, I'm tentatively expecting to leave tomorrow.

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Television

Passing the minutes in a hospital room; I NEVER would've guessed I'd be reduced to ''I Love Lucy'' reruns. Live from Albany Medical Center Hospital.

6:30PM update: I was finally removed from the ER suite at 5:30 and taken to Room 504 of the hospital. CT scan showed 2 or 3 broken ribs (#8 and #9) - in 2 places each, front and back - but no significant bleeding anywhere other than the obvious bruising I suffer over about 5 to 10 percent of my right side. The docs want to keep me for a day or two to keep a check on my hematocrit level which has dropped from 40 to 25 (but remains stable). I told the young resident I'd prefer to be out riding my motorcycle. He said he agreed. There are so many critically ill patients here - I not among them - and really want out. Maybe I'll leave in the morning and go to work. I need to.

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Here I am again at AMC!

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Bridge of Flowers - Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts

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Glacial Potholes - Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts

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My monthly pilgrimage to Shelburne Falls

Orion, parked

Bridge over the Deerfield River

The Main Drag

Shelburne Falls Coffee Roasters

I've come to really enjoy day trips to this artsy-hippie community along the Mohawk Trail in northwestern Mass. It offers all the amenities - and shopping - a guy like me wants. I come into town and make a circuit of my regualr galleries and shops. I hooked up with a local healer who prescribes Goji juice, a healthgiving drink from the Himalaya, and maintain my supply from her shop. I also buy all my dipilitories at the local market. Finally, I relax with a cup of coffee at Shelburne Falls Coffee Roasters. Joining in the 21st Century, the shop offers wireless internet access so I can post to my blog in real time while I sit and sip.

The weather prediction is for severe thunderstorms, wind and hail. Can't linger.

Read more about Shelburne Falls.

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Old Man River

While difficult to see in this picture, the Hudson River flows south just behind the DEC building in the center of the picture. The Hudson carries all the runoff from Adirondack drainage and the Schoharie system of the NYC reservoirs, as well as the Mohawk River drainage. Central NY has been deluged with rain over the past four days and all the eastern runoff must flow to the Atlantic through this one river.

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After the Storm

We've become accustomed to extreme weather here in the northeast. Today's five inch deluge of rain over the Susquehanna hills of central New York lead to the flooding of rivers, villages and caused the collapse of an interstate highway bridge, killing the drivers of the two tractor-trailers that plunged into the swollen waters. In Albany, we too had heavy rain and the Hudson River was near flood stage all afternoon.

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Mr. William's Maple Tree - Pittsfield, Massachusetts

Maples are the archetypal trees of New England, iconic and grand, they still produce the sap from which thousands of gallons of maple syrup are produced each year. This particular individual was the focal pointof a picture I made about ten years ago of it and its owner, Mr. Williams. Since then, the house in which Mr. Williams lived, which was situated behind the tree, has been demolished to make way for an extended runway for the airport across the street.

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John Million - ADK Board Meeting

An up-to-the-minute report from the Member Services Facility of the Adirondack Mountain Club in Lake George, New York. John Million, Operations Director, gave an update on the operations of the club.

"Clark's New Ride"

Son Clark has decided to give my 1986 GoldWing Interstate a new home. Despite its age, this motorcycle is in gorgeous shape and barely broken in at 29,700 miles! Enjoy, Clark. This picture was made on my Northeast American-Canadian tour last summer in northern Maine.

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Thunderhead - Albany, NY

Throughout the era of photography - both film and digital - photographers have used all sorts of oddball and homemade equipment to capture images. Lately, I've been thoroughly enjoying capturing snapshots with my cell phone. The image rendered is rather crude, yet there is a certain something alluring.

It still all comes down to composition and light.

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Forever tinkering with windshields. Orion's latest.

I have paid my tuition over the past year to learn how to make a motorcycle long-distance travel-worthy. The biggest gain to comfort can be made by improving the airflow around and over the rider. Nothing works better than a large windscreen, carefully sized, placed and angled. With modifications to a discarded screen from an old GoldWing, I was able to create the ultimate protection for long-distance riding on my new bike.

Over the past week, my myasthenic symptoms have dramatically abated, to the point where I'm now able to eat hamburgers. A midweek fall on my ribs has been a minor setback to my recovery, but even the pain from the event is subsiding and I'm moving around much better now.

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Orion on Greylock

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Mount Greylock Memorial Monument

Bascom Lodge - Mount Greylock

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Americade! New Givi trunk for Orion.

I had a marvelous time among the other bikers and vendors at Americade. There is always something to learn about the sport and always something available to make your bike safer or more comfortable. Here you see the new trunk I had fitted to my new BMW. This will allow me to remove the side cases from the bike except for long-distance travel.

I spent hours traveling around the Adirondacks before going to Americade, enjoying the countryside I have come to know and love so well. The bike gives the place new definition and meaning.

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Bus stop - Albany

A short half-block from my new parking, the bus goes to the Empire State Plaza.

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Parked - Albany

This is my new parking spot at the "Pastures" lot in Albany. After 13 1/2 years with NYS, I finally got a state employee's parking spot. I love the new space because it's clean, patrolled and under cover - a great spot for my new machine.

The Episodic blog
Below are a few pictures from this past Memorial Day weekend. I've been really running around the past month on my bikes. This weekend, I rode my Vulcan 455 miles on a camping trip to the Adirondacks, circumnavigating much of the park, on a route I first made 19 years ago on my touring bicycle. It was exhilerating too be doing the same trip, enjoying the same places as then but doing it at a quicker pace.

On Saturday night I camped at the Adirondack Mountain Club's Loj campground after making a surprise visit to our north county facility. This, too, was part of my itinerary 19 years ago on the bicycle - and the trip during which I became a member of ADK. The rest, as they say, is history.

This week I am trading in my beloved BMW motorcycle for a newer - and more backroad-worthy - enduro touring bike, a 2001 BMW R1150GS. A picture is below.

Oh, almost forgot about my health. I'm on a steady path to recovery. I'm diligent about taking all my medications and having a monthly "oil change" (plasmapheresis). My voice and swallowing are still very much affected but everything else works at 95 percent of normal. Not bad considering where I was 5 months ago, unable to walk 100 feet! Today I even mowed my lawn, a task I was psychologically terrified to do. But I was indeed ready and up to the chore and the lawn looks great.

That's it for now. Enjoy the pictures below.

Adirondak Loj, Great Room, Beautiful Refinished Floor!!!
Lake Placid, New York

Restored "Haunted House" - Rt. 125, Middlebury, Vermont

My New BMW - 2001 R1150GS - Replacing "Pegasus, below"

Tupper Lake - Adirondack Park, New York
This is a redux of a scene I took 19 years ago on my first bicycle tour of the park

"Pegasus" - 1996 R1100RT - swapped for GS, above

Mother and Daughter from Montreal, on tour of Adirondacks

Home for a night at Adirondak Loj campground