Great Sacandaga Lake Loop

The full loop around Great Sacandaga Lake: from Northville you take North Shore Rd, the curvy part, through Edinburg to the Conklingville dam, come back on South Shore Rd through Batchellerville and Fish House, and close the loop through Broadalbin, Mayfield and NY-30 along the west shore. It's 65 miles, mostly with the lake in view and no repeated road. The Copeland covered bridge in Edinburg is right on the way. There are diners in Northville, on NY-30 and in Broadalbin.

Great Sacandaga Lake is man-made: the dam at Conklingville was finished in March 1930 to control the floods on the Sacandaga and the Hudson, which had hit towns downstream as far as Albany. All or part of ten communities went under the water, including Batchellerville, Fish House and Conklingville itself; about 1,100 people were moved, along with 24 cemeteries and 3,872 graves. It was called the Sacandaga Reservoir until the 1960s, when the new name was chosen to draw tourists, and it runs about 29 miles long and up to 5 wide.

On North Shore Rd in Edinburg, the Copeland Covered Bridge crosses Beecher Creek right above a small waterfall. Arad Copeland built it in 1879 with a queenpost truss; his family gave it to the Edinburg Historical Society in 1997, and today it carries only people on foot. Northville, where the loop starts, sits on a peninsula with water on three sides, and there are diners there, on NY-30 and in Broadalbin.