day 38 (120mi.)--upstate new york's little wonders:
i appreciated the quiet saturday morning as i left kaleigh's about the same time evan went off to work. a car or truck here and there, one runner on a side road, aside from them, i was alone out in the cool and crisp. a mostly clear sky promised a fine day of riding and if it stayed fairly cool, that would suit me. i headed east out of shortsville and through a couple of very well kept little towns. zig and zagging some, i actually worked my way back to rt 20--the same road jalil and i crossed ny east to west on--for about two miles. i can't say as i remember it except for a ny state fishing access point sign in the montezuma national wildlife refuge.
as i turned north after the refuge to get to rt 31 i noticed a couple of little lawn signs advertizing the montezuma aqueduct run / walk . when i actually got into montezuma, i saw a whole crowd of folks standing around the finish line. nobody was cheering yet so the runners / walkers were probably still out on the course. i took this photo off the internet, but the aqueduct looks really cool. i can imagine that when it was in use it was magnificent.
criss-crossing I-90 brought me into port byron where i found a part of the canalway trail--erie section . i hopped on figuring if the mules could work it, biking would be fast. turns out that over a hundred years of non-use has left it in pretty rough shape. the first mile or so looked like a canal albeit with lots of trees growing in and along it. i stopped and took a picture behind me and one ahead for a general idea of what things looked like now.
after this section, things really filled in and it looked like a stream running through a marshy channel. before we ever left i had read about biking the path but was discouraged by the amount of time on roads, some of them a ways away from the original canal. now i understood why. but, there were still a couple of really cool sights to see from back in the day, just highly scattered.
i passed a collapsed damn with some huge granite blocks in a pile. the actual canal was spilling into a stream at that point and it was hard to figure out how boats came and went with the blocks dividing the stream in two and the canal entering perpendicular to that...
a bit further down rt 31 i came to lock 51 where i stopped for lunch. there were two sides to this structure like lanes on a modern road. with the help of an info poster, i was able to envision how the lock worked and even imagined the huge metal gates opening and closing, catching and releasing water as needed.
i left the canalway path for a freshly paved rt 31 and crossed I-90 once again. from what i remembered of the maps, i thought it was the last time too. i noticed two loaded touring bikers coming toward me and crossed the road to chat. the husband and wife team had just started that morning, leaving baldwin which i would run into shortly thereafter. turned out that with less than an hour on the road the husband had already broken his front derailleur. i couldn't imagine not having at least two chainrings to switch between, but they were headed on for three more days.
in baldwinville i stopped at a tops grocery and stocked up on nature valley bars and a new favorite--breakfast biscuits. maybe i should have waited a bit as soon enough, i was into greater syracuse, complete with huge groceries. there was a wegmans and i remembered kaleigh's dad, ron, taking me in one for my first experience of the super fancy grocery store. i had just finished the nan bread that i got there, and thought about stopping. the heavy traffic and my fresh supply of granola bars kept me pedaling ahead.
i made it through the 'burbs' eventually and rode on toward the south shore of lake oneida. amazingly and wonderfully pleasant, the wind was mostly at my back. i was able to cruise along, quickly getting past the two 'ports' and one 'bay' and into verona where i picked up 365 to rome. i have always loved place names--being on a bike made them all the more fun. a week or so back i slept just outside of denmark and was now biking from verona to rome--in about an hour (from up against the italian alps in the north to down on the western coast of the mediterranean)--e stato veloce!
riding into rome i came to the fort stanwix national monument. it has an interesting history that i knew nothing about but makes sense given the rivers there and the critical "carry" or portage. 365 left rome to the east and i was immediately back in the country. i barely noticed floyd, but maybe that was because the sunset was so colorfully dramatic. i did notice the large fields at a school that seemed just the right place to camp.
i pulled into one of the parking lots and asked some folks running their remote control car if there were picnic tables nearby. they didn't know but suggested i use the bleachers in the fields. as i was pushing my bike over to one, i saw their car come around the back and heard the woman calling me, "sir..." she had found tables and come back to tell me! we ended up talking about my bike trip for quite a while--until the four-ish year old twins started getting antsy. the parents, jim and jill and the boys nathan and james, were really enthusiastic and jim insisted i have a half dozen granola bars...i talked him down to a couple remembering all the ones i had just bought back in baldwinville.
after a big dinner, i pushed the bike over to a darker part of the field and pitched the tent. it was a good day.
day 39 (95mi.)--i feel like i am back in new england: it was early but not dark as i made my way over the heavy dew on the field back onto 365. i pedaled east and soon got to holland patent a very pretty little town, with no breakfast places. i thought about walking around the graveyard and looking for some van beests but settled for riding around the center green to look at the twin churches.
nothing was open in next town barneveld either but as i started out of town i hit the hills that were going to be with me for the rest of the trip. the perk to all those hills made itself known as the sun burned off the fog and exposed the beautiful lakes and fall foilage new england is famous for. i had never been in this part of new york state and was excited to be riding into the adirondacks.
365 and rt 8 were going to be home for the next couple of days until i rolled into vermont. the 'map' had plenty more large hills, big lakes, and vast woods to go over, by, and through.
i came to the west canada creek as it wound through the town of prospect. sitting along the shore was a row of typical new england houses, their white contrasting boldly with the colored maple leaves and dark water. just out of town there was a huge dam built creating the 7 mile hinkley reservoir. the water level was low and i wondered if they commonly let it drop for the winter like they do for goose pond back home. i checked water levels on their website and saw that it is even lower today than it was when i passed by.
i stopped at a gas station-grocery store for some tea and muffins just past the picture above (the dam is immediately to the right where i took this picture). a local told me i would run into rt 8 just after the reservoir. the rest of my miles on 365 and getting onto rt 8 were where my thoughts started to focus on the trash on the roadside. it seemed so wrong that such a beautiful setting could be so wantonly littered.
i also met a group of four bikers out for a two day loop through that part of the adirondacks. i spoke of looking for the perfect site to sit and eat a big breakfast 2. they told me i was just about to get there. a half mile down the road i would come to the west canada creek pull off. it was all they promised plus i got to say hi to a minnesota couple traveling by truck-camper and another couple from north carolina.
well fed, i pedaled up and over a height of land past those lakes and zoomed south, downhill to where two major branches of the sacandaga river joined. rt 8 took off north east (to the sunny right in the picture below), alongside the east branch and for the next 13 miles or so, i climbed through some of the most beautiful woods i had seen, heard, and smelled so far. even going uphill for so long, it was a joy!
the downhill into bakers mills, and then wevertown, gave a clear clue as to which side of the mountain had the money. the roads were all freshly paved coming out of speculator, where the homes were well taken care of and there were plenty of amenities for the numerous tourists. after topping out of the sacandaga drainage and heading down toward the hudson river valley, one could not help notice the stark contrast. abandoned buildings and junk that rural new england seems to collect in their front yards lined the rough pavement and i didn't see anyone that could be labeled a tourist. in fact, it was kind of spooky that i didn't see anybody at all--maybe sunday evenings were always this quiet.
then, all of a sudden i came to a really happy looking park at a bridge over the hudson river. it was so pleasant i slowed and considered setting up camp in a corner. i pedaled past remembering all the times the law had moved me on from such public places like that. not far around the corner, i saw a bunch of random wooden timber frame structures with a great list of woodworking options.
even though it was late sunday evening, joe the woodworker-timberframer advertised, was in his shop and i dropped in to ask about a place to stay. "sure...camp anywhere you want!" people can be pretty generous. we had a good chat about building in general before i shuffled off into the dark to find a flat spot.
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