Day 6 – Rome to Little Falls, 39.4 miles

No pictures of the morning, it was pretty routine.  Get up, breakfast, pack up and roll out.  We caught a lucky break finding nice paved path leading us to the trailhead, so not as much time on the road first thing as anticipated.  We were on the trail for most of the next 15 miles when we had to make a railroad crossing.  They weren’t kidding about walking your bikes across.
After we crossed it seemed as good a time as any to stop for a few minutes.  As we were applying sunscreen and refilling bottles, a couple that was easily in their 70s passed us by on their bikes – clearly out for a few hours of riding.  Made me wonder if future Bruce and Heidi will still be going on adventures.A mile or so past this we got to cross another Lock and from there it was a few more miles into the outskirts of Utica where we passed pizza joint after pizza joint before finally settling on Burger King.  Nothing amazing, but quick and familiar at least.After the stop we were on somewhat busy streets through Utica and then Mohawk.  Folks in Mohawk were friendly.  Many waved or honked and a few even shouted greetings.  Then it was up and over a bridge and we were on NY 5s for quite awhile.  I managed to take this quick shot and thought all the boys were poking their heads out, but I guess I missed it.  I kept dreading the end of the today’s ride because I knew it came with some elevation and folks, my legs are TIRED.  I never got off my bike though and rode every single one of those hills today.  The family only had to wait for me, oh, three or four times.  My boys seems to be able to power up anything while I slowly make my way up the climbs, sometimes at 4 mph, while repeating over and over in my head “I’m still faster than a walk.”

We made it into town and got checked in – two rooms on the 2nd floor with no elevator.  That was fun.
Snapped this cute shot.  Daxton decided he needed to do some maintenance on his bike once we arrived.  He worked on it for about ten minutes before declaring it was fixed. Turns out not much is open in small towns after 5pm on a Sunday except more pizza joints.  We opted to hit the grocery store instead where we were able to get some made to order sandwiches and in a bit of a splurge and to add some fun to the evening we decided to taste test the new Lay’s Chips flavors.While all of them certainly tasted mostly like what they claimed to be, the clear winner was the truffle fries followed by the Reuben.  Now you know.  Mostly I’d say don’t waste your money on any of them.

Tomorrow is a bit longer but should be mostly trail.  Can’t believe we’ve only got two days left.  So far we’ve gone 296 miles, about a hundred left depending on how we decide to handle things in Albany.  More on that in the next update.

Day 5 – Syracuse to Rome, 42.7 miles

This morning was pretty amusing.  As I was getting Daxton all suited up – fastening his helmet and helping him to put on his biking gloves he looked at me, smiled, and said, “Well, it’s time to go to a new hotel.  It’s going to take a long time.”  Guess that just about sums up this experience for our 4 year old.  He has been remarkable this entire trip so far and we’ve been somewhat surprised by how engaged he has been on the ride.  In general our mornings start like this, 2 trips to bring all the bikes and gear down from the rooms to the parking lot.Getting out of Syracuse was easy enough if you count having to cross a major intersection (think highway on ramp) with no crosswalk.  Thankfully it was light controlled.  It was two miles until the start of the trail you see below.  We only had 38 miles to go to get to Rome.  We just had to beat the rain forecast to begin in the afternoon.Most of the trail was again the chipped rock surface we’ve been riding on and off the whole trip.  The only real difference was that for some reason it was incredibly dusty.  Poor Dax was covered in white dust.  But then again, so were the rest of us.  Stops were brief, again due to the pending rain.  We ate lunch in Canastota at a place called The Toast.  They were fantastically quick and we were back on the route within an hour.  After that it was two more quick stops, one at a park just to refill water bottles and then again at this lock just outside Rome.It got a little exciting coming into Rome.  Terran just barely clipped a post as he rode past it but it was enough to send him off balance and he had a pretty good spill.  He’s fine and we’re teasing him now, because if he hadn’t fallen we would have made to to the hotel by 3 (our goal) but instead we pulled into the lovely Quality Inn at 3:07.  The good news is that while we did see a bit of rain, it was mostly a light sprinkle and we absolutely beat the worst of it.

I took the following picture on the way to dinner because this is pretty much what I see all day, except they are on bikes, of course.  Good ol’ mom, she brings up the rear most times.  Dinner was a caribbean joint about a quarter mile from the hotel.  A very slow quarter mile.  My quads are so tight even Dax was making fun of the way I was walking.  It was worth it though as the food was just the kind of comfort dish we were needing.  So now we’re back at the hotel, doing laundry and watching yet another Harry Potter movie.  Dax and Bruce are playing a 4 year old’s version of checkers and I’m sitting her updating the blog.  Across the street there is a free concert and some fireworks but in the end we opted out.  Tired legs are tired and we’re enjoying the rest.  Tomorrow is another short day but with a fair bit of riding on the road in the morning.  For that reason alone we’re glad it’s Sunday.  Hopefully we won’t see a lot of traffic.

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.

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.