St. Lawrence County, NY Road Meet - November 4, 2012

[cu2010]

You know the deal with me- last-minute switch to Sunday and I'm in, otherwise, it's a no.

[vdeane]

Given that, and that right now it's just myself and Dr. Frankenstein, I'll make the following proposal:
Move to Sunday 11/4 if:
-Nobody who is not available for Sunday RSVPs (by Monday?).
-Dr. Frankenstein doesn't have a problem with the move
-The weather forecast for 11/4 (which should appear tonight sometime) isn't bad (though the 15 day forecast looks fine)

[Alps]

Move it to Saturday the 24th and I'm in Oh well.

[vdeane]

I won't even be in St. Lawrence county on 11/24.

That said...

Rochester mini-meet?

[Alps]

I won't even be in St. Lawrence county on 11/24.

That said...

Rochester mini-meet?

I won't say no to propositions suggestions

[vdeane]

We're officially Sunday 11/4 now.  The Facebook page is a little screwed up thanks to daylight savings; it automatically moved everything backwards an hour because of it, and it's not letting me change the time back!

[vdeane]

Update with the NY 56 S curve: the new alignment just opened.  As such, it should be possible to stop and walk on the old alignment, hopefully with the old bridge still in place.

http://northcountrynow.com/news/colton-s-curve-bridge-opens-traffic-department-transportation-says-070272

[vdeane]

Meet photo on the Jones Road bridge in Hopkinton
Left to right: Carl Tessier, Valerie Deane, Jessica Labrie
Not pictured: cu2010

We met up at the Village Diner (after Carl's adventure with Potsdam's methods of street signing) and by consensus decided to just start with the tour since everyone had snacked earlier and it was crowded.  We went up NY 345 and took a look at the stone arch bridge in Madrid.  We continued on to NY 37 to view the old alignment that goes underwater, now a parking area.  From there, it was further down NY 37 and on NY 131, passing by the St. Lawrence Intake Dam and taking a quick detour through the tunnel under the Eisenhower lock.  Clinching NY 131, we continued east on NY 37 down the divided highway.  Fortunately, cu2010 decided to go down NY 37 onto the St. Regis Reservation in neighboring Franklin county, because the CR 45 bridge was closed and we could see it from the road.  We turned around and went past the border station onto a local road for a look at the south channel span of the Seaway International Bridge (north channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXz3E1M3INA (starts at 5:43; past toll booth at 7:36); south channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xadzp19Uz44).  We went down to the CR 42A abandoned suspension bridge via dirt roads and too a few photos of the decaying bridge (the asphalt deck is now very thin with many holes).  We went back to NY 37 and headed west to NY 56 and south to NY 310, where we made a quick jog to River Road and headed south to the abandoned bridge in Raymondville (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5orgDulWu78 at 2:09; from the other side).  We made our way back to NY 56 and onto CR 48A to stop at the Yaleville one lane bridge.  From there, we meandered back to NY 56 and turned onto Dry Bridge Road, which had a one-lane wooden bridge over railroad tracks.  We went down county and town roads to West Stockholm, which has yet another one lane bridge.  We continued down town and county roads to Parishville to look at the old gorge bridge, now a pedestrian bridge used mainly by college students to go cliff jumping (also, as noted by the sign, the first bridge built by white men in Parishville; yes, the sign really did say that!).  At this point we decided to make an impromptu trip down to the Jones Road bridge.  This bridge is on a gravel/rock road that sees very little traffic in the Adirondacks.  After a look at the scenic creek and taking the meet photo, we doubled back to Parishville (that road has many large rocks in it and is not maintained after Nov. 1) and headed down back roads in the Adirondacks to NY 56, noting that a yellow yield sign got replaced with a stop sign before the meet, and that there was snow on the ground.  Once at NY 56, we headed north past what was the S curve, though the grading on the edges was too steep to walk the old alignment.  We turned onto NY 68 in Colton, and took it and CR 29 and CR 27 to Canton (the bridge on NY 68 is still out and CR 27 has a bridge with a cosmetic arch on top).  Passing through the recently reconstructed US 11 in downtown, we stopped at a covered pedestrian bridge used by SUNY Canton students.   From there it was back to Potsdam via US 11 and dinner at Sergi's.

Also: there is a possibility of a second St. Lawrence county meet focusing on Ogdensburg and Gouverneur next April.

[Dr Frankenstein]

It was a very nice and interesting meet despite the small attendance, in a region that is, albeit somewhat isolated, gorgeous.

After dinner, Jessica and I continued to Watertown for some shopping. We then came back to Ottawa via I-81/ON 137/ON 401/ON 416. I left her home at 10:30 PM and got back home at 1:30 AM (got slowed down by some impromptu railfanning; in hindsight, it wasn't such a good idea, now I'm sleep deprived.)