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.
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