Day 4 – Seneca Falls to Syracuse, 51 miles

Trying hard to think about what to say about day 4.  Don’t get me wrong, it was overall an enjoyable day – just nothing like I was expecting really.  This morning I spent some time trying to get the two guys touring on motorcycles to trade bikes with us.  Not surprisingly they opted out.  I also took this photo of Bruce’s and my bikes sans trailers and we laughed at how much easier this ride would be if we could take the bikes out like this instead.
Today’s ride started with a lot more vertical than expected.  The topo maps we’re looking at are apparently quite deceiving or outright wrong.  I fought up as many hills as I could but in the end had to walk up the last bits of just a few of the hills – mostly when the grade had a rapid change mid-climb.  I’m not upset about it though.  My goal is to finish the ride and not blow out my already somewhat gimpy left knee.  Most of the morning we were on the road, usually with a decent shoulder and at least coming out of Seneca Falls cars generally gave us wide berth which is highly appreciated.  We only stopped for quick rests, pulling over as far as we could and generally under the shade of whatever tree was nearby.  I did mange to snap this shot of Terran as we entered Mentz. Lunch was in Port Byron at this ice cream/grill place.  I amused my kids by buying a t-shirt sporting the local high school’s logo at the grocery store located next door.  Go Panthers! After Port Byron we rode trail that looked like what you see below, or worse.  In some parts it was very narrow, more like a dirt bike path than anything else.  For a bit we were pretty much running through people’s backyards.  We stopped just a few times.  Once to put on bug dope since we were pretty much riding next to a swamp and the bugs were out in force.  A second time because Bobby got stung by some evil bug and we wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to have a reaction.  As luck would have it we had just ridden past a fire hall so we figured better safe than sorry.  He’s more than fine btw.  I don’t think we stopped more than 5 minutes. We took a longer break just on the outskirts of Syracuse.  Right next to the trail was this beautifully maintained set of benches as a memorial to one Bryan McNeill Place.  Beautiful and shaded and just what we needed. This may come across as one of those crazy upside down pictures for some of you again.  Still trying to figure that one out.  Anyway, we took this shot and plan on sending it along to the friends and family who maintain the area as a way of saying thank you.The rest of the day?  Not going to lie, it was mentally taxing.  Coming into Syracuse proper and winding our way to the hotel was a bucket of not fun.  Here I’ll let Bruce tell you about it:

Syracuse is not a bike-able city. Parts of it are, but vast stretches of it are downright hostile to cyclists. No shoulders, no crosswalks (?!?!), and generally screwed up roads make for rough cycling. When you add in to that we’re a 5 person train on 4 separate bikes and at the end of a grueling 50 mile ride, things will not go well.

I load our routes in to my Garmin 810 through MapMyRide. MMR barfs out GPX files which are basically a set of GPS data, not actual road info. The Garmin REALLY struggles with this data and is constantly chirping at me to make a U-turn, go off route, and sometimes to just go back to the beginning. It’s difficult to use it as a navigation aid in an unfamiliar city, especially a place like Syracuse at Friday rush hour.

Side note: There was an organized Erie Canal ride last week.  Someone apparently went out ahead of that ride and marked the route (including guidance on food, dangers ahead, and turns. Since the start of the ride, there have been marks on the road that we’ve been able to generally follow to stay on our route. In Syracuse, those routes were great to help keep us on course… except that course is hilly. At the end of the day today, hilly was our enemy.

Long story short, we’re at the hotel and all fine. However, my attempts to follow my GPS, reconcile differences between the GPS and the marks on the road, minimize hills, and answering the “How much farther?” questions lead to a lot of stress in the group. We’re better now, but there were some slightly heated moments in downtown ‘Cuse 😉

Heidi here again.  Things to know:  Bruce is amazing at leading us through this.  My kids are impressing me each and every day and there is constant encouragement in some form or another.  Once we reached the hotel moods lifted almost immediately and we were lucky enough tonight that there was a restaurant right next door.  Now we are all tucked in and watching one of the Harry Potter movies on tv.  Not a bad way to end the day.