I May Be In Sleepy Hollow

 We may have cycled back to the 1820's and the time of Washington Irving. As we left our motel and headed to New Paltz, we passed a school called Ichabod Crane high school and saw signs for Rip Van Winkle bridge. I sure hope that I don't meet mysterious Dutchmen and fall deeply asleep in the Catskill Mountains.

For the most part, the wonderful trails that we've experienced in the past couple of days have continued.  I have been struck by the amount of enjoyment that we've had as a direct result of New York State having invested in cycling infrastructure.

Today's ride was 64 miles with over 95%, or greater, in separated cycle paths making the journey safe and fun and reducing confrontations with automobiles.

We have left the Erie Canal behind us and are now traveling south along the Hudson Valley with quite a bit more climbing that we have had when following the canal and crossing the very wide Hudson river. The views from the high river bridges are spectacular.

I had a minor mechanical issue today on the road. I couldn't take care of it with the tools that I had with me and fortunately Frank was able to pick me up in the SUV and take me to a bike shop in Kingston. A place called Kingston Cyclery. An unassuming shop where I was met at the door and explained the issue. Knowing that I was on a bike tour, the mechanic took my bike into the shop and with no drama, was able to professionally resolve the issue and get me back on the road while we traded touring experiences. 

I was fortunate on several accounts; first that Frank could pick me up in the SUV, second that I was able to locate a quality bike shop with my smart phone, third that it occurred during business hours, forth that the shop was able to put me at the head of the line to fix my bike and finally that the shop was not too far from the route that I was able to navigate back to the bike trail and continue the ride. Sometimes you just need to count your blessings. In addition, I met another rider on the trail that helpfully pointed me to a great restaurant at our destination, New Paltz, called Main Course. A place that I would highly recommend.

Today's Photos

Good-Bye Castle, It Was Fun

 It was fun being a knight for a night, but the road is calling and we need to mount our trusty steeds for the road is calling us. We did have time for one final photo.

As we stepped outside, the ground was wet from an early morning shower. The air was cool and damp. The weather forecast showed a low probability of rain and off we went.

We picked up the trail where we left off yesterday and the with and the beautiful trail went on for miles and miles.

Chuck, with his sharp eyes spotted a blue heron on the other side of the canal bank and with a bit of patience, I was able to grab the shot of him looking for his morning meal.

At this point of the canal, it's really wide. So wide that a spillway was constructed to raise the height of the canal so that a lock could be installed. If you look closely, the spillway is under the 3 support arches and the canal water spilling over the spillway. the canal lock is between the 2 vertical buildings on the lower center of the photo. Both of them are marked with a number 8. The canal lock gates are between the 2 vertical buildings

As we were leaving Albany we were required to take a detour next to a highway in order to cross a bridge. The experience was a bit unnerving to say the least.

We arrived at the Blue Spruce Motel in Valatie NY at about 4:30 in time to shower and start this blog before we went into town to have dinner. Tomorrow is going to be another  70 mile ride and we plan on being in the road by 8 AM. The weather is likely to be similar to today with overcast clouds and a chance of rain. The next day, Saturday, is likely to be sunny and warmer. Below was the prediction for today and it was fairly accurate.

Today's Photos

I Wanna Stay In A Castle

  With a group of 6 riders and one SUV, someone needs to move the SUV and shop for lunch supplies and today that was me. I took the morning shift. Stopped at the market and picked up the lunch essentials and scooted to the designated lunch stop (about 1/2 the way through the ride) and waited for the other five riders to arrive. The lunch stop was in Saints Johnsville at a marina (more of a boat landing) on the Erie Canal. The riders started to roll in close to noontime and we picnicked under some shady trees with a beautiful view of the canal.

Douglas was taking the afternoon shift of the driving and I headed off with Chris on to Amsterdam NY about 31 miles. The winds were light and the sky sunny with puffy clouds. The main attraction was the trail. Over the years, many train tracks have been abandoned and we're fortunate that many of them have been converted to trails for walking and cycling.

You can spot a rails to trails path because it will run in a fairly straight path and generally gentle grades. As a plus, the temperatures were in the low 70's and a mild breeze. I love the feel of the breeze flowing over your arms and legs as you move. Similar to the feeling of water as you swim. I'm sure that you have heard of runners high as the endorphins kick in and I'm sure that the endorphins were kicking in today. 

Today, we were scheduled to stop at Karen's ice cream, about 6 miles from the ride end. It's located on a quiet highway that is very popular as we just had to stop in. While other riders had ice cream, I opted for a chocolate malted. It was only 4 PM and dinner was a couple of hours away, so I ordered a large.

A big surprise occurred when we arrived at our hotel, the Amsterdam Castle. It's a very imposing structure located high on a hill looking every inch of a medieval European castle. Built in 1895 as a National Guard Armory and after extensive renovation, it's a hotel and private residence. Click on the link at the bottom of this blog to view the interior of the castle. The rooms are huge and filled with art of all types. 

Tomorrow morning we'll be heading out early at about 8 AM and planning on stopping in Schenectady for breakfast. The day will be a 70 mile plus day and we want to get a good head start.

If you would like to view the collection of our daily routes, you can click on the following link and follow us all the way to Manhattan:

https://ridewithgps.com/collections/3426853

Today's Photos

What a Nice Day For A Ride

What a nice day for a ride. Today we traveled from Syracuse to Utica. Nice bump of climbing at the beginning of the ride, then flat for the remaining part of the ride. After the first 8 miles of the ride it was mostly on quite and flat trail riding mostly along canals. The wildlife was abundant as we toured. Chuck spotted a bald eagle resting in a tree overlooking a canal and Douglas spotted many fish and a muskrat. Maybe the eagle was looking for a fish for his next meal?

We stopped for a morning coffee at the 17 mile mark and spent about 30 minutes sipping coffee and munching on danish before heading off to lunch at the 31 mile mark. Chuck was waiting at a nice shaded picnic area with the lunch fixings. We still had approximately 30 more miles to go, so we shoved off for more trail riding.

We crossed the canal several times including a couple of crossings at canal locks. We came across a marker stating the location of the start of the original canal in 1817 (the war of 1812 only ended in 1815). As I may have mentioned before, besides the original canal, the canal was enlarged and re-routed twice more in 1862 and 1918. Who knew that cycling could be educational?

About 7 or 8 miles from the end, we stopped for some drinks and snacks (we really weren't in hurry to end the ride) at a Dollar General. In this neck of the woods, the Dollar General stores are more common that 7-Eleven stores. From there, we jumped onto a trail that followed the canal almost all the way to the motel. This evening, it's a Red Roof Motel.

Tomorrow we head to Amsterdam, about 66 miles from Utica. To me, it's amazing that we will have covered 329 miles in 5 days on these spindly spindly machines with skinny tires and having a ball doing it. We'll be at about the 1/2 way point of the 10 day ride with more fun to come.

Today's Photos

Paradise on Two Wheels

 Almost all days on a bicycle are special, just some days are more special than others and today was one of those days. As we started out from Palmyra the temperature was just a bit brisk at 59 degrees, the sun was shining with a promise of blue skies and almost no chance of rain. 

I was anticipating that it would warm up fairly quickly even it was a bit chilly at the start, I left my jacket in Chuck's SUV.  From the Best Western hotel it was a bit over a mile to re-join the canal trail. The hard packed trail had dried out from the showers yesterday with only a couple of isolated puddles that we could easily maneuver around. The canal was on the right and at one point had opened into a fairly large lake. At eleven miles we pulled off the trail for a morning espresso and danish but were a bit confused when the coffee shop was closed. We knew that there was another shop ahead in Lyons so we headed off. But it too was closed. Finally it occurred to us that it was Memorial Day and it would be difficult to find anything open. Nothing to do but press on.

It had warmed up by now and everyone that had started off with jackets had removed them and stashed them away. Shortly after 27 miles we popped out of the trail and on to Route 31 where we had some climbing in front of us. The road was smooth with only a few cars as we just zipped along. If you take a look at the ride trace below, you will note that the flatter portions are where we are following the canal and where there are bumps and climbs are where we are not adjacent to the canal and are climbing a ridge that the canal had bypassed.

Lunch was a bit pass 41 miles and we were ready for something to eat. Frank had driven the SUV to lunch and picked up additional lunch items and Chris was going the drive the SUV to the hotel.

After lunch we were following the original route of the canal that was built in 1812 (the canal was rebuilt, re-routed twice more with the final updates made in 1932). The original route and second route has fallen into disuse with many portions choked with plants. Some older routes have been turned into parks and outdoor museums.

Shortly before 3 PM we pulled into the town of Jordan and much to our surprise we the trail cut through a park filled with bands tuning up, floats making last minute preparations and crowds of people. We had stumbled on a Memorial Day parade that was minutes from starting. I stopped, took some photos and proceeded. At one point I crossed a street that was lined with people expecting the parade at any moment. So of course, I couldn't just cross the street, I needed to go down the street in one direction before heading back in the other direction while waving the entire time. After that I exited the street and was on my way.

It was many miles down the trail that I caught up with Chris, Mike and Douglas as we had become separated when I stopped to take the photos at the parade. At this point the trail was still in excellent condition and the temperatures were in the low 70's and the ride only got better and better.

Sometimes you will start a ride, looking forward to the next coffee or bite to eat, but there are magical days when you just don't want the day to end and as we winding down our last 5 miles or so and started to enter the outskirts of Syracuse, we just didn't want the day to end. It's this kind of day that you live for and want to get back on the bike to do it all again.

For those of you keeping count, we add two more "port" towns today, Weedsport and Port Byron.

Today's photos

Here a port, there a port, everywhere a port port

We must be cycling through the state of "ports". Yesterday we cycled though Lockport and Middleport and today started in Brockport, Spencerport and Fairport plus more "ports" to come. I guess I need to do some Canal history research, but my first guess is these "port" towns were established to support the building of the canal and stayed to support the operation of the canal. If we come across a canal museum, I'll see if my first hunch is correct.

Regarding the biking conditions, today was a bit warmer, starting in the low 50s and warming to the upper 50's. A great riding temperature, even if you do need a jacket.

There are six of us on the ride and we're using Chuck's SUV to carry our bags, picnic supplies and people when necessary. For example, we used the car to shuttle us to our motel in Brockport when our reservations in Albion fell through last night. So that means that one of the six riders need to move the SUV as the ride progresses. This morning Douglas drove the SUV to the picnic stop and I drove the car to this evening's hotel in Palmyra.

Tomorrow we head out to Syracuse, about 71 miles. We'll see if we can get in earlier than than the first day out of Buffalo.

Today's "Epic Ride Weather" summary is in the following image.

 

Today's Photos

Late Start, Late Finish

The first day of any tour can be a crap shoot. All sorts of issues can prevent a smooth and timely departure. This tour was no exception. There are six of us all rendezvousing from multiple parts of the country; 1 from the East Coast, 3 from the mid west and 2 from the West coast. One of the riders, Chris, was scheduled to fly from San Francisco yesterday (Thursday), but airplane mechanical issues prevented him from arriving until 10 AM this morning and by the time he arrived and had the bike ready to go and everything packed into our SUV, it was close to noon. Today's route was planned on being 65 miles. With the late start, we knew it was going to be a late finish.

So with the threat of rain and temperatures in the upper 40's we headed off. Of course everything is becoming more and more electronic and recently my biking buddy in California Richard introduced me to this nifty tool called "Epic Ride Weather". It will reach into your ride planning tool of choice and based on your start day and time, it will predict the weather conditions along your ride including temperature, precipitation and wind. Comparing the actual conditions and the "Epic Ride Weather" predictions, I would say that the predictions were very close to what we had experienced.

The late start prompted us to skip our planned coffee stop at 16 miles and continue on to our lunch stop in Lockport at 34 miles. We reached Lockport at about 3:30, too late for the planned coffee shop, but Chuck had found a restaurant called "Big Ditch Brewing Company". After a nice lunch, about 4:30, we headed off to Albion, our destination for today and about 30 miles. If we want to get there by dark, we would need to hustle. The road surface for the remaining 30 miles was packed gravel and with the recent rains, in some spots there were puddles that needed to be avoided, but still a fairly good surface to ride on, even with my road bike with skinny tires.

We were about 10 miles from Albion and the sun was getting low in the sky when we received a call from Chuck who was driving the SUV. He had arrived at the hotel and called us to say the there was a mix up in the reservations. The hotel had expected us yesterday, not today. Even worst, they did not have any openings this evening.

The plan was for the 5 riders to meet Chuck at the hotel in Albion and in the meantime Chuck would make some calls to find alternative rooms. A hard task at 7 PM on the Memorial Day weekend. By the time we arrived, Chuck has found a Motel in Brockport, about 15 miles further along the Erie Canal. After a couple of car shuttles and getting a bit to eat, we finally arrived at the hotel at 10:30. A late start and late finish indeed.

You count your blessing and tomorrow we'll get up, have breakfast and have another great day of cycling.

   

Today's photo album

The Clock Is Ticking...

 Four Days out and the clock it ticking.... All the motel reservations are made, plane reservations completed and now the final packing is in progress. I dropped off my bike with UPS last Thursday (5/15/25). I made the shipping arrangements with BikeFlights to deliver the bike to my hotel in Buffalo. It's scheduled to arrive tomorrow. I have an electronic tracker on the bike and it shows that it's currently in Syracuse NY, about 150 miles from Buffalo. Looks as if it will be waiting for me. The location trace that my bike has taken is in the image below:

I'm getting excited to depart. I have 3 cycling trips scheduled for this summer. The second will be to cycle the San Juan Islands in the Pacific Northwest. We'll be flying in and out of Seattle. The third will be an European trip starting in Paris and terminating in Milan. This will be a summer of travel.