Day 3 – Pittsford to Seneca Falls, 54.5 miles

Ok, mileage wise we ended up coming in at just a half mile less than yesterday.  So we were wrong about it being our longest day but mostly that’s because we never really left the route thanks to all of our stops being very convenient to the trail.  Probably a good thing since the end of the day brought us the most elevation we’ll see on this trip.  Getting ahead of myself though, so first here’s a group shot of us this morning in our matching jerseys.  Aren’t we adorable?
What’s worked well for us is to get on the bikes and ride for about 5 miles or so to warm up the legs and make sure everything is working right.  Then we will stop for a about ten minutes and give everyone a chance to get sunscreen on and stow any extra gear they might have been wearing in the chillier mornings.  Our stop this AM was at a trailside park with this fun yellow swinging chair.Soon after that we left the nice paved trail and it was back onto the chipped stone the path normally offers.  Unfortunately the next 15 miles or so was a bit softer than what we’d been riding on so although we were traveling at a pretty decent clip (for us) it was a bit more effort.  Somewhere in the middle of that we came across this seemingly closed bridge.  We poked our heads into this cafe to make sure we could still cross and happened to arrive just as they were pulling cookies out of the oven.  Um, yes please!
We actually stopped at this lock so I could use the facilities but realized we arrived just as they were starting to flood it to lift the ship into the next section of the canal.  It was neat to watch and I spent a few minutes chatting with the lock operator.  He told me this particular boat is part of a group that sails up the Erie Canal, down the Mississippi, around the tip of Florida just to come up and maybe do it all over again.  Sounds like fun to me!
We have some video we took of the process and we’ll post in in a day or two once we speed it up since we know none of you will stare at the screen for the full 15 minutes it takes to process a boat.  As it turns out the outhouse I was gunning for was on the other side of the canal, so I got to walk over the gate. Lunch was pizza and a salad.  This place was hopping the entire time we were there (which was straight up lunch time so it seemed the whole town of Newark was dropping by on their lunch break).  The guys inside said they haven’t seen as many cyclists this year as in previous years.  I suspect that this summer’s weather has something to do with that. The afternoon is where the ride got a bit more difficult.  While it wasn’t a ton of elevation (it certainly wasn’t the Rockies), it’s still rough on tired legs when pulling the trailer or, in Bruce’s case, the kid.  A stop at the Save A Lot for popsicles gave us a boost and then it was back on the bikes for the biggest hill of the day yet. So yeah, no pictures of the next ten miles.  I do wish I had a few to share as it was amazingly beautiful farm country, but honestly stopping the bike wasn’t an option.  We made it into Seneca Falls despite a few minor hiccups at the end.  There was a dropped cell phone (yay Life Proof case), a false start at an intersection, you get the idea…  Dinner was delivered since there weren’t any restaurants in walking distance.  We are ending the evening with a bit of bike maintenance –  putting air in tires, lubing chains, etc.  Oh and the water bottle nightly ritual.  They get washed, filled and stuffed into the fridge to chill until the morning.Tomorrow is our last longish day.  If we can get through it – and we will – the rest of the trip should feel a lot easier.