Riding the Adirondacks



Route 17 is a four lane divided highway that follows the Delaware up to Deposit, NY. Views of the Delaware and the small towns scattered along it are nice but the size of the road gives it more of a commute feeling than anything else. I’m anxiously waiting for rt. 8 north out of Deposit which isn’t too far away. As I branch off of 17 and onto 8 there’s a guy with a sport bike on its center stand on the other side. He’s on a cell phone and I figure if he bothered to lift the bike up on its center stand it’s not running. I wanted to stop to see what was up but it would have been difficult for me to cross over grass medians, etc. to get to him. He was talking on the phone so I figured someone was going to come to his rescue.

Rt. 8 starts off as an old highway which has as many cracks in the pavement as there are in the old Rt. 8 signs. But soon the road gets smaller and you go through some of the most beautiful farmland you can imagine. The state speed limit signs say 55 but everyone is going 65-70. It seems to go on forever up to Utica but you’re treated to trips back in time as you go through each town along the way. The town speed limits are only 35-40 and I’ve been told more than once to do what the sign says. I had no problem with that since these towns are time capsules that made me want to just stop and hang out for awhile. There was no time for that though but I did enjoy the 35mph for a bit as I took in the sites and snapped a few pics. Along the way you see an occasional abandoned house being swallowed up by over grown trees. As I ride by I think about who may have lived there and why it was the house was forgotten? I also noticed that abandoned houses and shops up here are not boarded up. In another place these buildings would be torn apart if they weren’t but these towns are still living in a period where they don’t have to worry about things like this.

The start of Rt. 8 off of 17.




Gotta love this house! I couldn’t tell if anyone was still living in it but the lawn was being maintained.




At one point I got behind a couple of slow cars so I figured I’d do some left hand tricks with the cell phone while riding. (Don't try this at home)


Gone Fitch Inn (yup, open for business)
















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