Motel rec's in Schroon?

My partner and I are heading up on winter backpacking/ice climbing trip to Pharaoh Mountain in a couple weeks.

The plan is to drive up after work on Friday and motel it, hike in Saturday morning and do the climb, camp out near the climb Saturday night and then hike out/drive home on Sunday morning.

Looking for any suggestions on cheap/clean motel's in the Schroon vicinity. (Hague might be an option, depending on which trailhead we use.) Since we're arriving late on Friday and checking out early on Saturday, we won't have need/use for the pool/sauna/game room/WiFi/HBO/masseuse, etc.

Amenities be damned...give me inexpensive!

I've stayed at the Maple Leaf Motel in Schroon. It was clean and the price was not bad.

In my winter peak bagging heyday we often launched our trip from Davis Motel in Schroon Lake. Rates were cheap ($50/ room +/- 7 years ago).

Mapleleaf and Davis are my stds. Drake closes for winter. Wayfarer is another option though I have not stayed there.

You might consider Ticonderoga, which is closer to Pharaoh than Schroon. I've stayed in the Circle Court (http://www.circlecourtmotel.com/) which was cheap and okay and the Stone House Motor Lodge which was cheap. There's also a Super 8 and Best Western.

Not sure what your requirements are, but.....

There is a wonderful couchsurf host in Chesterville. If you go to www.couchsurfing.com and log in and search there, you'll see it. It's Jack's farm and he is great and his farm is awesome.

Maybe I mean Chestertown...? I can't recall!

The Davis Motel in Schroon Lake may be closed. Cam and I stayed there one night in July, but the new owner had plans posted for turning the property into some kind of fancy resort. The old place was still there, of course, but it cost me about a hundred dollars to get a room with a kitchenette. I think it was ten bucks less for a plain room.

We usually stay at the Maple Leaf too, but it was full that weekend.

Right next to the Maple Leaf is a place with little cabins where Susan and I stayed once. It was closed last summer while it was being fixed up, but could be open again by now. Can’t think of the name.

There’s also a place downtown off the main drag toward the lake called, I think, the Starlighter. Miserably hot in the summer without air conditioning, but it may be all right in the winter, if it’s open.

There are some bed-and-breakfasts at either end of town, and more motels south of downtown. Never tried any of them.

Fill up your car’s gas tank before you leave Vermont, if you’re coming in that way.

Raymond said:

Right next to the Maple Leaf is a place with little cabins where Susan and I stayed once. It was closed last summer while it was being fixed up, but could be open again by now. Can’t think of the name.
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Dun Roamin' cabins. Still closed and For Sale.

John H Swanson said:

Dun Roamin' cabins. Still closed and For Sale.

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Schroon Lake is a funny place. My wife and I stayed there once. Felt a lot like a Twilight Zone episode, like parts of the Catskills do. At one point the town tried to sell all of itself to a resort developer.

But it does have a Stewarts for that disgusting early morning breakfast sandwich when nothing else (always the case) is open for breakfast.

daxs said:

But it does have a Stewarts for that disgusting early morning breakfast sandwich when nothing else (always the case) is open for breakfast.

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Driving in the dark from Long lake on the way to the upper works, that disgusting sandwich, along with a huge coffee, is heavenly!

Super 8 Ticonderoga

Daniel Eagan said:

You might consider Ticonderoga, which is closer to Pharaoh than Schroon. There's also a Super 8 and Best Western.

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I stayed in the Super 8 at Ticonderoga the night before a 5-day snowshoe backpack in Pharoah last March. About a 20 mile drive from Pharoah Crane Pd Road Parking Lot. OK motel, about $80 for a single with no previous reservation or discount. Things in Schroon were pretty busy because of the ice fishing contest.

Walt

J Dub,
I'll be at Pharoah Mt. (Oxshoe Pond) Presi weekend.Maybe I'll see you there.


ps: I just heard you stole my bindings.

John, I think Dun Roamin’ is on the other side of the road. It’s Rowe’s Lake Breeze Cottages that I was thinking of. And I guess that other place I thought was the Starlighter was actually called Starry Night Cabins.

Most of the rooms at the Maple Leaf, if not all, have a kitchen-like setup, so you can heat up water for oatmeal or zap some frozen food. There used to be a restaurant called The Sugar Bowl which opened at 5 a.m., but it’s gone now. It had closed for a few years, then reopened, but now it’s completely gone. As of August 2009, anyway.

Pitkin’s Restaurant is our dinner place, but it doesn’t open for breakfast until eight, I think, which is too late. Open for supper until nine during the summer and fall.

The Mt. Severance Grocery Store is marginally better than Stewarts for an early morning breakfast. Open at 6:00 a.m. in June, not sure about winter hours. They are on the west side of Route 9, up the hill from Drake's.

Thanks for the recs, all y'all!

We're booked at the Maple Leaf for Friday night, and will be hitting the trail to Pharaoh ice early on Saturday morning.

Have fun. It's a long walk (or ski) for a fairly short bit of climbing, but it's worth doing at least once.

Pharaoh assault

Hope to see your trail report.
Walt

J.Dub said:

Thanks for the recs, all y'all!

We're booked at the Maple Leaf for Friday night, and will be hitting the trail to Pharaoh ice early on Saturday morning.

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