Author: Greg Pezoldt

Today is a rest day due to rain and to visit with the Lewises. It is my last planned rest day for the trip, knock on wood. Only a bad weather day will result in another rest day at this point.

Al and I drove around the area seeing some of the sights. Among them was a trip up through Franconia Notch to see the “Old Man of the Mountain”. Or rather the site where this iconic rock formation USED to be. It fell down due to cracks, erosion and gravity in 2003. It was still interesting to see even though the mountain was obscured by clouds and it was raining and very windy. By the way- a very bad day to have spent in a bike. Glad I wasn’t doing that today.

Normally I would include some trip stats as part of a Rest Day report, but the end of my trip is only 4 riding days away now. I will give a complete trip summary at that time.

Today is the 100th day I have ridden the bike on this trip. 100 Hundred Days! That sounds a little crazy when I say it out loud, even to me.

I took off this morning without breakfast. I wanted to get to North Woodstock at an early time of the day so I skipped it today. Probably a mistake but off I went anyway.

After riding 9 miles, I crossed the Connecticut River into New Hampshire.

The road I rode on after crossing did not give a very good initial impression of New Hampshire roads. It was a county road that was very rough and turned to gravel and dirt after a while.

After following the Connecticut River north for about 10 miles I turned east again and followed the White River.

I followed the White River for a long time until I began another climb into the beginning of the White Mountains. It wasn’t a bad climb at all, but I had not eaten enough and I was starting to feel the effects of that decision. I had to pull over at one point to regroup. Fortunately the top of the climb was not far away from that point. Then all that was left for the day was a quick descent down to North Woodstock and I got there around 2:30.

In North Woodstock, my old roommate and co- house owner in Simi Valley, CA Al Lewis came and picked me up. He and his wife Myrtle has recently moved to Thornton, New Hampshire and I was going to visit with them for a day.

It was so good to see them and I completely understand why they moved to New England. They live in a really nice place in the world and built a wonderful house.

It is supposed to rain tomorrow so we agreed that it would a good idea to spend the next day as a rest day. And I got to visit an extra day. AND, I could rest an extra day before tackling the last major climb of the trip too.

This morning I got breakfast again at the Swift House. I had fruit and oat meal. I would need some food this morning because I had some serious climbing to do this morning. The most serious climbing I gave done since Colorado.

The temperature really cooled off from what it had been for the last few days. Apparently, the last few days had been flirting with all time high temperatures for this time of year. It had seemed pretty nice to me; what did I know about the local climate and what was normal or not. So today was MUCH cooler. I mean put on the long underwear and long fingered gloves cooler. It was also welcomed since I was going to tackle the Middlebury Gap this morning. A little bit here about local use of the language. In the West, we use the word “Pass” where we cross over mountains in a low point. In Vermont, apparently they say “Gap” and in New Hampshire they say “Notch”. So I am riding over what I would call a Pass this morning. It is a 1500 foot climb which is nothing to sneeze at. It will take some effort and by all accounts has some very steep portions along the way.

But before all of that I got to talk to Dan Brown, the owner if the Swift House over breakfast. What an amazing person. He is an adventure enthusiast and very interesting to talk to.

I invited him to come to Wenatchee some day and I really hope he does. I would really like to return the favor he gave me.

The beginning of the climb up to the Middlebury Gap was “as advertised”. It was really steep but for only about a half mile. Then the grade moderated and was fairly reasonable to ascend. I made the top in about 90 minutes only to find that they did not have a sign to announce the top of the Gap.

Luckily I have been to enough of the top of passes that I know when I am at the top! Plus, there was a “downhill” symbol to verify it too. And the downhill was fun. It had been a long time since I had really gone DOWNHILL. I mean on a bicycle to be clear.

Well, That was all well and good, but I still had riding to do after the big climb. It was big rollers after that and it took a toll on my quads muscles after a few hours. I was headed for the town of East Thedford and I was going to get in late. Partly because I had a few distractions along the way.

I kept taking pictures of the scenery, checked out more Covered Bridges and even had to talk to the Dartmouth women’s cross country ski team who were doing some dryland rollerski training on one of the hills I was climbing up in the late afternoon.

I did get to East Thedford in plenty of time to get settled in though. That was good since tomorrow was going to be another big day.

This morning, I am excited. It is going to be a big day for me on a lot of different levels.

This excitement is even more enhanced because the weather continued to be superb. Sunny and no wind again. And my tent was only slightly wet from the morning dew.

I had 16 miles to ride to the town of Ticonderoga, NY. It was a hilly ride and I had not eaten ANYTHING in the morning at all. My body was craving some food all morning but I soldiered on regardless. It was only 16 miles after all.

Getting to town, I found the Tourist Information Center to get some questions answered. I was interested if the old Fort Ticonderoga from the Revolutionary War was still intact and nearby. It was.

I went by the fort but did not go in. It was fairly expensive, but more importantly needed most of an entire day to see.

So after going by the fort, I needed to take a ferry across Lake Champlain to the other side of the lake.

The ferry was small and was just a short 5 minute trip.

Just like the last ferry trip I took from Mackinac Island, I was the only passenger on board. I asked the boat captain if I could pilot the boat explaining that I was qualified by prior experience, but they were having none of it this time. So I just sat back and enjoyed the short trip across the lake.

One reason that I declined to actually go into Fort Ticonderoga was that I was anxious to get to…..

Vermont! Lake Champlain is the border between New York and Vermont.

Vermont is a new state for me. By that, I mean that it is new for the trip, but also that I had never been to Vermont ever before.

Next, it was to ride to Middlebury, VT. Middlebury is a classic New England town full of old English style architecture and history. I arrived early in the afternoon so I could explore a bit. First was a visit to the local bike shop to check and top off my tire air pressure. Next was to ride the “Covered Bridges” alternate route to see Covered Bridges of course. The guys at the bike shop informed me that the Covered Bridge on this route had burned down a couple years ago, but there was another bridge that was close to town to see.

There are covered bridges around the country, but they are classic New England landmarks.

By then, it was getting late enough that I could begin to wind down. I still wanted to ride about 5 more miles and camp in East Middlebury, but I wanted to visit the 2 Brothers Taphouse. There I had a few beers (which seems to be a theme for the ride) and have some dinner too.

About 6:00 I decided to head for East Middlebury. Double checking my directions, it turned out that the campground was about 5 miles out of town leaving me with about 10 miles to cover. At that point I decided to reconcider this decision and consider just staying in Middlebury. The main campground in Middlebury was also several miles out of town and not really an ideal situation so I settled for plan C! There was another option to stay at the Swift House Inn B & B which also offered camping (like the Blue Mountain Lake Inn did). It was right in town so very convenient. I called ahead to verify that I could camp there and they said it was fine.

When I got there, the staff person informed me that the owner of the Swift House was offering me a room instead of camping. This sounded like a good deal for me, a no brainer even so I jumped at the offer. I asked how much I still owed for the night and was told that the room was comped. WHAT! That was not right. It turned out the owner, Dan was a cycle tourist and did this occasionally when there was room at the Inn.

The Swift House Inn is without a doubt the nicest place I have ever stayed at in my life. I am still not sure how this really happened to me but it is just another example of the goodness in people that I have come across. Talking to Dan, he said that he wanted to pay back the kindness that was offered to him when he toured the country. I told him that I felt the same and that I owed the universe a lot of payback now too. Dan apologized ( with a laugh) for making my debt now even greater.

This morning, along with a heavy dew again, I woke up to ……. breakfast! The place I camped at last night was a Bed and Breakfast so I got breakfast even though I was sleeping in my tent. Fruit, granola, and some apple quiche. That was a treat.

I got an extremely late start today. Besides waiting for everything to dry out, I had to change a flat tire. Flat tire number 6. Still not bad for all the months and miles I have ridden.

My legs feel pretty good today. That is good since there is a pretty long hill to climb right out of Blue Mountain Lake that was a good test for them. After the hill, it was more rolling hills and rural riding in the Adirondacks.

In the Adirondacks, you could realistically call the terrain “mountainous”. They are not big, tall mountains, but still mountains. I don’t have to ride OVER them until Vermont however. Just through them for now.

Just outside of the very small village of Newcomb, I crossed the Hudson River. It was not very impressive this far upstream. More like a large Creek than a river, but still a New York landmark.

I have to make some decisions today on how far to ride. I could go all the way to Ticonderoga and a 71 mile day or stop short. I opted for stopping short in the town of Severance, NY. Severance has a Post Office and that is about it for services, but they have a campground.

I stopped short today after 55 miles because of the spacing of the camping opportunities in the next couple days. It made the most sense to stay in Severance to avoid an extremely long or extremely short day tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a fun day and better because of this decision.

Camping behind the Hilltop Market worked out nicely. I was right there this morning to get some breakfast. 2 donuts and some OJ.

It is going to another sunny day of riding. An amazing day to be exact. No wind and warm.

If I though my legs were tired yesterday as I started today they screamed at me. I had to invoke one of Jens Voigt’s (a retired racer from Germany who has many great quotes) great sayings today. “Shut Up Legs!” I am not quite sure they heard me. They would make it though. Today was going to be a “moderately” short day. Less than 60 miles to Raquette Lake.

My legs were screaming at me this morning because I was going to ride into the Adirondacks. The hills leading into this beautiful area of New York were short but STEEP. I used some pretty low gearing to tackle them.

To get there, I followed the Moose River for most of the morning.

The Moose River Road ended in the “town” of McKeever where I planned to have lunch. It turns out that McKeever is nothing more than a point on a map. No services at all. So I had to ride another 9 miles to Thendara to look for lunch. Thendara and the neighboring town of Old Forge are in the heart of the Adirondacks and the Sunday tourist activity was all you needed to know that it was a fact.

I have to admit that it is really nice here. The roads are in great condition, the scenery is amazing, and the weather is perfect. It is a really a fantastic day to be riding.

And there is just a hint of the beginning of the fall foliage to come that is the hallmark of the area. I am not sure I will get to see it in all of its red, yellow, and orange glory, but maybe as I get a little more north into Maine I will get to see it. That would be the icing on the cake.

Leaving Old Forge, I began a trek along a string of lakes that would lead to Raquette Lake and my campground. I was a little disappointed with the lack of imagination for some of the names of some of the lakes though. First Lake, Second Lake, all the way up to Ejghth Lake. Really, was that the best they could do? But there are a lot of lakes though. Got to give them that much.

I finally got to Raquette Lake around 4:30. A pretty reasonable time to quit. Except the campground was closed! I think for general maintenance, but closed none the less. It would now be another 9 miles to Blue Mountain Lake to camp. Still a reasonable time to quit at 5:15, but a longer day.

I am beginning to wonder if there ever will be a short day. My legs might have something to say about that. Vermont is getting closer by the day and there is some serious climbing in Vermont. True mountains and four major climbs, the highest one a 2,500 foot climb to go over. It will be fun, but a challenge. Really though, I cannot wait to see them. But maybe after a short day!

The weather today is sunny and nice. I think I am going to get more than a few nice days now. That is so much better than the weather that I had around Lake Erie. I am looking forward to a nice day of riding.

Leaving Fulton, there were a few little hills to negotiate. My legs are really tired and they barked a little at me about the hills. I headed north and would get to see Lake Ontario again. The Great Lakes are pretty nice. Just like riding along the ocean.

Getting to Port Ontario, I stopped to see their old lighthouse.

The harbor was pretty busy with boats coming and going. Saturday and fantastic weather. What else would you rather be doing, right? Except riding a bicycle that is.

After Port Ontario, I said goodbye to the Great Lakes. I will be headed inland for good this time until I actually am in Maine.

Just after Port Ontario is Pulaski, NY. The Masons were having a fund raising lunch in the park today so I stopped and bought the BBQ chicken lunch. Pretty good and it really hit the spot.

After lunch, it would only be about 20 miles to the place I had in mind for camping on this short day. It would be about 3:00 when I would get there. Then this idea started to creep into my mind. What about going a little further today? 3:00 was pretty early to quit for the day actually. Well that was it. I would go on. My legs felt better as the day went on so that wasn’t an issue anymore.

The next area on my map that showed available camping was in West Leyden, NY, about another 20 miles. West Leyden it would be. There ended up being some pretty steep hills along that stretch and a brief rain shower for about 10 minutes to endure, but I got to West Leyden easily enough. I camped behind the Hilltop Market which they are nice enough to offer to cyclists and other campers for no charge.

So much for the short day. Maybe tomorrow!

No overcast skies today. It is sunny from the get go.

Today I will ride the last 4 miles of the Erie Canal that my routes takes. I think it actually travels for over 300 more miles and many people are riding the entire length.

After taking a wrong turn that made me do some wild single track I got back on course.

Once off the trail, I headed north onto some nice country roads that eventually ended up on the shores of Lake Ontario. This was the fourth of the 5 Great Lakes and made me slightly regret not having detoured in Wisconsin to see the fifth one, Lake Superior. I think I was within 30 miles of it at one point.

I got my first good look at Lake Ontario in Sodus Point, NY. It was when I went to see their old lighthouse.

Sodus Point is also where I ended up having lunch, right down on the waterfront in the old town.

The road turned inland again after that so it was country roads again which are really nice in New York.

It is funny the way some people perceive the roads. I was telling this lady at a fruit stand I stopped at that I was riding through Hannibal on my way to Fulton to camp for the evening. She said that there was a HUGE hill before I would get to Hannibal. I never found the huge hill. There were plenty of hills around Hannibal and the entire ride today, but nothing I would describe as huge. Funny.

I camped just outside of Fulton at Lake Neatuhwania. Don’t ask me to pronounce it. I have no idea, but it was a nice lake and campground. I even had my own apple tree in my campsite.

It had been a long day. I am thinking about taking it easy tomorrow and have a short day. That sounds like a good idea to me.

This morning it was wet from a heavy dew. I think this is going to be a consistant issue from here out. It is also a little overcast, but I think this will burn off shortly since the forecast is for sunny weather today. I really hope so.

I will be riding the canal trail or the parallel Hwy for the entire day. I hope to make it to Macedon since they have free camping along the trail like several other communities do. It will be a 70 mile day if all goes according to plan (remember what I said earlier about plans).

The other factor will be the boredom factor. The trail doesn’t change much so I might get off the trail just for a change of scenery. We will see about that though as things progress today.

One thing about the canal that I am curious about. I see personal boats on the canal, but I am not sure if there is any commercial shipping anymore. Also, many of the bridges are older. They are mostly draw bridges. The newer structures seem to have been built high enough over the water that they did not need to be raised to allow boat and ship traffic to pass under them.

It was fun to see the draw bridges operate though.

Another interesting thing about the canal is the bird life. There are lots of geese and ducks, but also herons and egrets. The herons are very skiddish while the geese almost have to herded off the trail so you can pass by.

The trail also runs through some nice country.

There are occasional trees along the bank which must have grown over the last 100 years or whatever many of years since the mules used to pull the boats and barges up and down the canal. Trees would have disrupted their ability to pull the watercraft so I am sure they were constantly cleared during that era.

The trail was not used much from my observation. Mostly people walking their dogs and the occasional jogger. That changed as I got close to Rochester. Rochester is a big city and trail and canal itself exploded with activity. People running, biking, boating, everything you can imagine. I was really surprised by the number of rowing shells on the water. I must have seen a dozen full 8 person crews practicing. I even saw a single paddler in a surf ski which is near and dear to me! I thought it was great to see the trail and canal being used. It is a fantastic resource that should be utilized.

On the outskirts of Rochester was an REI that I stopped at. It was right on the trail which I thought was a great idea (it also had a primary street access too).

One other thing about Rochester. The trail is paved through that stretch. I was thinking that it would be nice if the entire trail was paved, but also thought that the unpaved portions were smooth, had no chuck holes, pot holes, pavement cracks, heaves, spalling, or vertical displacements. It was right at that exact moment that I hit a huge upheaval in the pavement from a tree root that it actually popped both of my rear panniers off the rack and onto the trail pavement. I felt lucky it did not blow out my tires. Whew!

Soon enough, I had made it to Macedon and to my camping spot. I had ridden the trail all day and made good time and did not get bored at all. One reason is there are so many bridges along the canal and I enjoyed every single one of them. Once an engineer, always an engineer.

I got another geography lesson this morning. It turns out there is an extremely famous natural wonder that is just outside of Buffalo. Everyone has heard of Niagara Falls, but I had no idea it was so close to Buffalo. Well I wasn’t going to miss out on seeing that since I basically was riding right past it. Actually, I think the people at Adventure Cycling who made the route maps knew what they were doing and routed us here on purpose. So much so that their route actually goes through the Canadian side since it is supposed to have better views of the falls. I did not have my passport on this trip so I had to improvise a route on the American side but that was easy enough since there was a bike path right along the Niagara River that obviously lead right to the falls.

It was all very spectacular even though there were no attempts today at going over the falls in a barrel.

Going to see the falls and negotiating my way through the crowds and the city, I did not make very good time in the morning. I suppose that was to be expected. I hoped to make up for it in the afternoon. I finally got out of town and headed for Lockport, NY. Lockport is significant because it is the beginning of the Erie Canal. I will be riding on it for 90 miles before my route takes me off of it. There is a lot of history there.

The trail along the canal is not paved. It is mostly a compacted sand surface that is alright for my tires, but it is not as efficient for riding. I will not be able to maintain the same pace as I can on pavement. For that reason, I will have to see if I will ride the entire 90 miles or eventually deviate and ride the parallel Hwy 31.

Camping spots are not spaced out very well in this part of the ride. There was camping in Middleport and then again in another 24 miles down the trail. Because of my delays in Niagara Falls, I felt that I would be pushing it to ride those next 24 miles so I opted for the Middleport camping option. Plus, I got to quit a bit early today at 4:30 which is nice. The camping is free for cyclists and hikers and is right on the canal. My tent is within 20 feet of the canal. Good thing I don’t sleepwalk at night.