Due to exceptionally cloudy weather it is still too dark out for the Caretaker to go for his morning row so he will take this time to continue on with the numerous "rescue" stories from three weeks ago. Later in the day, after having helped out the boaters who hit their prop the Caretaker decided to take his bike over County route 11 via his vehicle and go for a bike ride up River Road along the Schroon River. His original plan was to bike up to the next cross road at exit 25 on the Northway, but upon arriving there he decided he wanted to keep on keep'n on and so followed the Schroon River up to the next cross road at exit 26 on the Northway. He figured he would have himself some soft-serve ice cream there and then turn back, upon arrival he decided he didn't want soft-serve ice cream from the shop there and instead decided he would carry on to the town of Schroon Lake and have himself some soft-serve ice cream there. The road from here on into Scrhoon Lake is macadam with a concrete shoulder that is just as wide as one lane of the road, so a rather broad shoulder relatively speaking but between the road and the shoulder is about a one inch gap, being on a road bike with very narrow tires the gap is something to be mindful of if ever one needs to cross it.
So the Caretaker pedals on towards the town of Schroon Lake with out much event, on the last downhill before town the Caretaker sees two young kids up ahead of him on bmx style bicycles, they're somewhere between the ages of 10 to 14. Having been on the road way longer than originally intended the Caretaker felt no need to go out of his way to pass them so the Caretaker just carries on with his casual pace, the kids where peddling to gain speed. Shortly there after the Caretaker sees three pedestrians walking abreast in his direction, they're taking up the entire shoulder. After looking behind for cars the Caretaker leans over towards the road and hops his bike over the gap from the shoulder to avoid the pedestrians, he wasn't too pleased with their lack of willingness to share the road. After passing the pedestrians he then leans back towards the shoulder and hops the gap again, at this point the half the shoulder becomes a raised sidewalk and the shoulder between the road and the sidewalk becomes much narrower. Where the shoulder narrows the Caretaker checks behind him again for any oncoming traffic, when he turns back around he sees up ahead of him a bmx bike down and one of the kids on the ground ahead of the bicycle. Given the hill and the speed the kids were going when he last observed them this had the potential to be a bad scene.
The Caretaker stops his bike, "you okay?"
Kid, "yeah, I'm okay."
He was then walking around a bit after having picked up his bicycle.
"Is your bike working?"
"I think so... Wait, is my mouth bleeding?"
"It looks like you have some blood there but it is not bleeding."
"Oh, okay, thanks."
His friend then came back towards us, the kid who had fallen got back on his bike and began to pedal slowly.
The Caretaker had no idea what sort of medical facility there is in town so he asked them if they lived locally or outside of town, they said they lived in town and so the Caretaker decided that he wouldn't be of much more help from this point on and the kid was carrying on pretty well on his bike so the Caretaker got back on his bike and peddled on into town, where he learned that there is no soft-served ice cream to be had in the Town of Schroon Lake. So he settled for hard ice cream and then peddled back the way he had come, round trip was about 38 miles. Now this isn't really a "rescue" story in that the Caretaker didn't really do anything for the kid because the kid managed to get through the wipeout mostly unscathed, a few cuts, scratches, and bruises, but, it is one of a few incidents that occurred in a short period of time that started the Caretaker thinking that maybe it was him that was either causing or attracting these accidents to happen. More to come tomorrow.
If all goes well the clouds will clear out by tonight, word is that due to severe solar activity there is a chance to see some Northern Lights, last night was a bust due to the clouds, maybe tonight.
Before there was the blog the Caretaker sent out posts via e-mail, the following is from the Caretaker's second year of living year round on the Island:
Island Ice Report for 4/2/2007.
No report today, just photos.
--The Caretaker
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