Laurie and I went to Lake Placid over the weekend for an international skating competition known as Skate America. Competitors from all over the world compete in the four disciplines. Thursday was a practice day. Friday through Sunday there was competition.
We had some down time each day. We drove up on Thursday morning and watched practice most of the day. However, competition didn't start on Friday until 7 pm so we had the day to explore Lake Placid.
Obviously Lake Placid's claim to fame is hosting the 1980 Winter Olympics. This is the site where Al Michaels exclaimed "Do you believe in miracles?" after the USA hockey team shocked the Russian hockey team.
What surprised me most was that at the heart of it, Lake Placid is really a ski and outdoors town. It is in the heart of the Adirondacks with many mountains over 4000 feet surrounding it. There are hundreds of miles of hiking trails within an hour drive. Not only that, Whiteface Mountain is a ski area that can be seen within sight of town. I read that Whiteface has the longest vertical drop in the east. It is where the skiing events were held during the Olympics.
Between paying tribute to its Olympic past and relying on outdoor adventure to keep the economy going, it felt very much like Lincoln, NH to me but with a very large Olympic skating venue.
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| Memories from the USA vs Russia hockey game |
The one thing we planned on doing was go to the Olympic Museum. We spent over two hours there. There is a lot of memorabilia but also a lot of reading. Many of the artifacts are from athletes that competed. By far, the coolest artifacts were from the hockey team. Jim Craig's pads and stick were there. Mike Eruzione's elbow pads were on display as was the net from the game. Jim Craig stopped and amazing 36/39 shots on goal.
The other thing I found extremely interesting was Eric Heiden winning all five medals in speed skating. Most athletes are either sprinters or do distance. For Heiden to win everything from five hundred to ten thousand meters is mind blowing.
Besides the Olympic Museum we walked around town. The weather sucked and the only day that didn't snow on us was Saturday. Luckily the snow did not stick on the sidewalks or roads on Thursday or Friday so walking was still fairly pleasant.
We tried to look at views of the surrounding area but the low clouds, fog, and snow made looking at mountains virtually impossible. Right next to the down town area where the Herb Brooks Arena and the restaurants and shops are is a lake. You would think it would be Lake Placid but it was a pond known as Mirror Lake. Lake Placid is just up the road a quarter mile or so out of town. We stopped at Lake Placid on Saturay and had a short break in the clouds. The water was crystal clear and I would be drooling over Smallmouth Bass if it was a month earlier and twenty degrees warmer.
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| Lake Placid |
Back in town we had to get lunch two days. The prices are what you would expect from a ski town. We got a pizza one day that was good. The other day we got a sandwich at a sub shop called Big Mountain Deli and Creperie. ( There are 46 mountains over 4000 feet in the Adirondacks. There are 46 sandwiches to choose from. Each sandwich is named after a mountain)
There is a walkway around Mirror Lake, though some of it is on street walking. The views would be beautiful if it were clearer outside. During warmer weather you can rent canoes and kayaks. There is a toboggan ramp that is right next to the lake. It looks like when the lake is frozen over you zoom off of the ramp onto the ice.
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| Mirror Lake looking toward the town of Lake Placid |
Outside of town is a ski jump, the one used at the Olympics. You can see it from the Olympic Center . There is a gondola up that people can get tickets for. However, it closed for the season before we arrived.
Obviously, we went up for the skating but had a nice time in town. The Olympic Museum was great. The sandwich was a little small for my appetite but amazingly delicious. Those mountains got me interested in hiking them and I may go back.
There was a legit snowstorm during the skating on Sunday. When we got out of the rink there was an inch of snow being blown by 40 mph winds. We had to deal with thirty mile/hour driving on roads with a speed limit of fifty five for an hour. Luckily, when we got to lower elevations in the Lake Champlain valley it stopped snowing for the rest of the five hour ride home.
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| Toboggan slide |
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