Today is Sunday, July 27th. I got back from Cape Vincent yesterday afternoon and am leaving for NYC (taking Alex back for their senior year of college) early tomorrow. If I can do a blog about my 5 days up there today it will be great! I am settled in a comfy chair with a view of Lake Ontario and guarding bikes and equipment of some Buffalo Triathlon Club (BTC) members doing a casual “practice” race before their first 70.3 (half-Ironman) races coming up. I am doing the CassadagaMan half-IM next weekend but did my bike and run yesterday, so just swam and paddleboarded today.
I journeyed up to Cape Vincent (on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River just as it exits Lake Ontario) on Tuesday to help out a relative who just had a total knee replacement but whose partner only got a few days off work afterwards.
WOW. IT IS NOW 4 hours later and I didn’t write much…… I chatted with each of the 5 or 6 people as they finished biking or running, and saw a cute puppy and then a coyote pup and then …. I took a photo of the last 2 people crossing the finish line (not the slowest but those who had done the most combined biking and running distances). I got home at 1:30, unloaded Scrat, walked the dog and then …. I’ll get to that later… back to Cape Vincent.
It is an easy 3 and a half hour drive from home to Cape Vincent. The Thruway had some summer construction and too many trucks but the Northway (the 81 from Syracuse to Watertown) is much less congested and pleasant.
Nice parking/camping spot in the front yard with a St. Lawrence River view.
I grilled Chicken and Zucchini for dinner.
My relative was a week out from the knee surgery and was already doing stairs with crutches and mobile with a Walker but still had significant pain. Keeping the knee iced and elevated was important and I was happy to do anything to help out.
Another job I took on was learning to use the fancy auto grinding espresso machine! I can make espresso and cafe Americanos but will need more lessons next time on macchiatos and doing the foam flowers 😉
I could have slept inside the house but the weather was perfect for camping so I popped Scrat’s top and slept upstairs.
It was a very restful night with just the sounds of crickets and the river lapping at the rocky shore.
Wednesday was forecast to have no chance of rain so I wanted to get my long bike ride done.
The Normatek recovery system is billed as “portable” but there are not any airplane trips where I would have enough extra space in my luggage. It’s battery lasts a long time though and plenty of room in Scrat!
After a shower it was a relaxing afternoon in the house. I read my Kindle and watched some of the “Foundation” series on Apple TV before an early dinner and bedtime in Scrat.
I slept past 6 and got myself set for a swim.
Really about 3600 yards (almost 2 miles) as Garmin under-measures.
I did a slow transition to running gear and headed out…..
There was a very nice waterfront town park/boat launch with a bathroom that had showers and a WATER-FOUNTAIN! The streets that went inland had decent hills but not enough to be ready for CassadagaMan’s VERY hilly run course.
While running I saw a Kingfisher perched on a dock, a Cormorant diving for fish and a Blue Heron. While biking I had seen a Juvenile Bald Eagle and deer and chipmunks.
This area has a lot of historical markers regarding the War of 1812.
Scrat is a great mobile Triathlon training camp… and … a bring my own guest room … he has everything except a bathroom and even a heater for winter camping
Here are some photos of me taking the dogs out for exercise which I did a few times each day.
And a short movie 🙂
The dogs are professionally trained (and also continually training and trialing with owners) for hunting and come back (95% of the time) quickly when called (or 5% of the time given a radio controlled collar shock reminder).
Thursday night I went out and got Mexican food (excellent and authentic, place owned by a Hispanic veteran’s family, LOTS of veterans live up there as Fort Drum is right next to Watertown. It was just a 25 minute drive away. There is NO Place though that delivers food to rural Cape Vincent (one pizza place used to). Post-Covid I am so used to food delivery it would be hard to go back to the old days.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Drum
It was going to rain overnight so I accepted the bed in the guest room. It was very comfortable and air conditioned but it felt weird to sleep without the nature sounds.
It was raining when I woke up Friday morning. Forecast said it would stop by 10Am but it drizzled a while past that so I decided not to bike and just make it a rest day. The sun eventually came out after lunch and I took the dogs on a few romps and got my steps in.
I saw a BIG raptor land in the tree next to the river in front of the house. It spooked and flew away before I got close enough for good shot, especially as the sun was behind it.
We were trying to decide where I would go for takeout when miraculously a friend called them to say she was bringing over dinner!
I had finished all the available “Foundation” episodes and watched the premier of “Asohka” on Disney+. I prefer how Netflix and Prime video drop the whole series at once rather than trickling them out once a week as Apple TV and Disney+ do.
It was weird walking downstairs Saturday morning and filling my water bottles and the dogs soooo quiet and asleep in their crates.
In 2020 at the inaugural CassadagaMan only 50 were allowed to race due to Covid restrictions I did 6:13 and 2021 6:07 , had Covid in 2022 🙁 I’ll be happy with 6:15 this year.
I only took one photo on bike and one on run to add to my Strava posts.
After a last walk out back with the dogs I drove home, got back around 4pm.
