Bikers' Diary July 22, 2016 Day 42: Big day today. The new team members were put to the test and passed with flying colors as we rode from the shores of Lake Ontario to Inlet, NY. We ended up riding 95 miles averaging 11.3 mph. We also did the most climbing we have done since the Rockies. We climbed 5,368 feet and descended 3,865 feet. Our total for the adventure is now at 3,170. The town of Inlet was right around 2,000 feet above sea level. We had another beautiful day weather wise with temperatures in the 80’s and average humidity.
We got on the road a little before 8:00 and rode about 8 miles to the center of the town of Pulaski where we had breakfast at the Country Home Diner. We ate a nice assortment of omelets, french raisin toast and pancakes. A nice filling breakfast. We got back on the road and headed east on Route 2 which turned into Route 17.
We rode the morning in rolling terrain doing a good amount of net uphill climbing until we got to Booneville and Freddie’s Diner. We had ridden about 55 miles at this point and arrived at the diner a little after 1:00. It looked like a Diner on the set of MGM Studios with a lot of bright yellow and red decor with black and white checkerboards. We all dove into the milkshakes first and then had some good diner food. We then indulged in some ice cream to cap things off. I am going to miss eating as much as I want whenever I want. It has been one of the biggest benefits to this trip.
After lunch we rode for about 20 miles on Moose River Road which had some good 10-12% grades, similar to what we had seen in the morning but maybe just a little bit steeper!!! Maryanne and I threw in the towel on a couple of the short 12% grades and walked up the steepest parts. Only so much energy left in my legs!!! It was a very pretty ride and challenging also. When we got to the end of Moose River Road and were about 10 miles from Old Forge we started to really focus on the fact that we didn’t have a place to stay for the night. We had made some phone calls at lunch without much success. Little did we know that the Old Forge area would be such a summer mecca. We decided to look for Vacancy signs as we rode through Thenandra and Old Forge. But that didn’t work out real well either. As an aside Old Forge is a real cool town and looked like a lot of good restaurants. Might have to visit our W&M friends Bill and Nancy Down there sometime soon!!!
Maryanne did spot a Visitor center as we were leaving town and they gave her the name of a couple spots to look into. After 20-30 calls during the day and a couple that evening, Dick made his first call and hit pay dirt with Clayton’s Cottages a couple miles east of Inlet. So we hopped back on the bikes and rode about 14 miles from Old Forge to East Inlet. The cottages were located on 7th Lake and were definitely a little tired. I guess there is a reason they were they only rooms in the area still available. We noticed that even some of the campgrounds had no vacancy signs!!!! The 5 Smiths stayed on the first floor of one of the cottages down by the lake. There was a nice extended family including grandparents, children and grandchildren enjoying their annual trip to the area and staying at the cottages. After stretching, Conor and Sam went for a swim in the lake which they reported was quite refreshing. Dick had his own room over the office up near the main road. All signs are that he enjoyed the peace and quiet.
There was a restaurant that was adjacent to the cottage called Drake Restaurant that we were able to get to right before it closed its doors at 9:00. We enjoyed some fresh haddock cooked cajun style as well as some more traditional Adirondack/biking dishes. We washed it all down with some good draft beers.
We were in bed before 11:00 and ready for one final push the following day.
PS: its a good thing i wrote all of these journal entries during the trip each night. Unfortunately i waited an extra couple days to write this one, and at my age i am needing a lot of input from other riders to remember the details!!!!!
On Jul 21, 2016, at 10:34 PM, Rick Smith <[email protected]> wrote:
We travelled 67 miles today traveling NE from Sodus Point to Pulaski , NY. We averaged 12 mph. Our total miles for the trip now stand at 3,075. That averages out to 75 miles per day for the last 41 days. The weather today was sunny and warm. The high temperature today was in the upper 80’s with humidity that was manageable.
We set the alarms and were down at the B&B for breakfast at 7:15. The two partners, Joe and Mike had been up preparing the hash browns and other dishes for some time. WE enjoyed a choice of omelette, omelet, blueberry pancakes and eggs over easy. The food was well prepared and filling. Mike enjoyed talking with us about his garden, birds and other assorted topics which did not make it easy to get on the road. We did finally get on the road though and had a nice ride around the harbor/cove and headed NE. At the beginning of the day and then for a good portion of the days, we were riding through fruit orchards. They were primarily apples with some cherries.
WE also continued the rolling hills that we had experienced the prior day. For the day we ended up climbing close to 3,000’ and are hoping it was a good warm up to ride through the Adirondacks starting tomorrow and then continuing on Saturday. We rode for about 28 miles and then stopped in the town of Fulton where we had lunch at the Horshoe Diner. IT was a relatively small diner with a focus on Greek food and dinners. IT would appear that most of the NY diners have been greek owned WE had some souvlacke and greek salads before heading out for the afternoon’s ride.
The ride in the afternoon started with the wind blowing with us which we would end up experiencing for the rest of the day. We were also able to pickup the pace a little in the afternoon, inching our average for the day to 75 miles per day.
The ride in the afternoon was flatter than the morning’s ride and also contributed to our making better time. With about 7 miles to go to Pulaski Maryanne found us rooms at the Rainbow shores which is right on Lake Ontario. IT was about 8 miles out of the way but was a beautiful setting. All but me and Maryanne participated in some stretching and exercises as well as Dick, Sam and Conor going for a swim in the lake. We then all met at the bar for some beers/wine and then some dinner overlooking the lake and the day’s sunset. There was also a duet called Zebra Mussels that entertained us during dinner. WE all agreed that Maryanne has once again pulled this one out as she has done many times before.
we all then headed to bed as the plan is to ride about 80 miles tomorrow to Old Forge. We will be starting our crossing of the Adirondacks tomorrow which will be fun and challenging.
w
On Jul 20, 2016, at 11:03 PM, Rick Smith <[email protected]> wrote:
3,000 BABY!!!!!!!!!!!! We crossed 3,000 miles on the southern shores of Lake Ontario. Very energizing!!! And also hard to believe to be honest. Although my legs do feel like they have pedaled 3,000 miles. Today we rode 77 miles from Brockport to Sodus Point. We averaged 11.5 mph. This brings our total for the 40 days to 3,008. Unfortunately the GPS went dead with 3 miles to go. The GPS didn’t fully charge last night for some reason and i forgot to charge it at lunch time.
We set the alarm for 6:30 and joined Dick at breakfast around 7:15. Dick had been down there reading for a little bit. The breakfast at the Dollinger was tasty and filling and included scrambled eggs, bacon, cold cereal, yogurt, bagels and fruit. The tanks were full when we left the motel a little later, right about 9:00. We rejoined the Erie Canal Canalway in Brockport. The boat traffic on the canal today was much busier as we saw some private boats as well as some of the commercial boats that folks rent for a week’s journey on the canal.
After riding about 15 miles we were on the outskirts of Rochester. When we crossed over some train tracks we got a good view of the Rochester skyline which included 4-5 tall buildings. The path in Rochester was paved but unfortunately was a little in disrepair which caused us to have to slow down frequently. There was also a construction site with a detour which took us a couple wrong turns to navigate.
We rode along the canal for the first 45-46 miles today until we got to the town of Palmyra, NY. it was really a nice little town with some nice shops and no shortage of churches. At the corner of Church St and Main St, there were 4 churches, covering every corner. Kelsea did some research and led us to the Athenia Family restaurant which worked out real well. We started off with some sandwiches and salads. The 3 youngest also split a stack of chocolate chip pancakes. The highlight was desert which was two significant portions: fresh peanut butter pie with vanilla ice cream and whip cream and some rice pudding with whip cream. Both very tasty and enjoyable.
When we got back on the bikes we had 27 miles to go on local roads as we exited the Canalway. The ride in the afternoon was really quite beautiful. We spent a good portion of the afternoon passing through apple orchards and some cherry trees. During this time the roads were rolling hills, a couple of the inclines were at 10% grades which are challenging with the packs. With about 10 miles to go we reached the shores of Lake Ontario which we tracked along. The lake is very blue and really looks like an ocean!!!
We arrived in Sodus Point a little before 6:00. We are staying at the Silver Waters B&B. As we rode into town there was an elderly gentleman that i rode next to for a little bit. He has been coming to Sodus Point for 30 years and has been a full time resident for 15 years. It then turned out he is the mayor. So we were quite honored to get his personal escort into town!! After showering we headed into town and picked to eat at Abe’s Restaurant as it has seating right on the shores of the lake harbor. WE had a light dinner with a couple beers. After dinner we walked out on the docks and enjoyed the full moon.
Another great day. Definitely bitter sweet as we approach the finish.
On Jul 19, 2016, at 10:29 PM, Rick Smith <[email protected]> wrote:
We had a smooth return to the US today. We ended up riding 71 miles riding from Niagara Falls in Canada over to Brockport, NY. We averaged 11.5 mph. Our total miles for the trip now stands at 2,931 miles.
We set the alarms for 6:30 and were down at the lobby of the Inn at 7:15 for breakfast. We were not aware that breakfast didn’t open until 8:00 but luckily the owner was willing to open early and serve us breakfast before he had a chance to eat his own breakfast. We were served scrambled eggs and toast. There was excellent home made marmalade and jam for the toast. Good way to start the day. The new extended team worked smoothly and we were on the road by about 8:30. We had to take a little bit of a circuitous route to get on the highway to cross the river into the US. It was a little imposing as we rode on the highway and lined up in the car lane to get processed through immigration/customs. It all went smoothly and we were riding in the US by 9:30.
For the first 20-25 miles today we rode on roads. Just before we entered the Erie Canal Canalway, we stopped at a Corner Store and each had a Breakfast sandwich with either coffee or a Powerade. It was about 11:00 and really hit the spot after a relatively light breakfast. Also late morning the clouds passed on and the skies turned blue and sunny. The high temperature today was in the 70’s— a great day for biking. We rode about a mile and entered the Canalway. The surface is a crushed stone and there are some larger pieces of gravel on the surface you need to be careful. with. The boat traffic on the canal for the day was very light. i think we saw a total of 4-5 boats for the day traveling on the canal.
We stopped for lunch in the NY town of Albion. it was a relatively sleepy town and it did look like its prime years were behind them. We found a nice “diner” called the Village restaurant. Their menu reminded us all of a NJ Diner. We didn’t stop for lunch until about 3:15 and we had ridden 55 miles and had about 15 miles left. WE had a calamari and quesadillas for appetizers and then had assorted pasta, salads. cheeseburgers and eggplant. We decided it would be our big meal of the day and we would have a snack later. After a good lunch we were back on our bikes for the final 15 miles. It was a great part of the day as the sun started getting a little lower in the sky.
We are staying tonight at Dollingers Suites in Brockport, NY. Brockport has a SUNY school in town which is typically ranked in D-3 women’s lacrosse. The rooms are very nice and the folks are very nice running the hotel. They let us use the hotel’s washer and dryer. That came in real handy as we had 3 days of laundry that needed to be done. After we finished the laundry we headed out to Bill Gray’s Tap Room where we had some boneless chicken wings and veggie pizza washed down by a couple draft beers. it was only about a 10-15 minute walk which worked out well under a full moon.
A memorable part of today was a poor bullfrog that decided to end his life by hurling himself into Dick’s spokes. Dick then administered last rites and tossed him into the canal.
We have a good day planned tomorrow as we ride east toward Lake Ontario and Sodus Point.
On Jul 18, 2016, at 10:14 PM, Rick Smith <[email protected]> wrote:
We all had a great reunion day in Niagara Falls. Maryanne, Sam and Dick had arrived yesterday and set up camp at the Landing Inn in NF. The Inn is about 7-8 miles north of the Horseshoe Falls. Kelsea, Conor and I started in Danville near Lake Erie. The 3 of us rode 56 miles and averaged 12.3 mph. So our total for the 38 days stands at 2,860 miles.
We set the alarm in Danville for 6:30 and were on the road at about 7:30. We had woken up during the night to some pretty good thunder and lightning storms. The forecast for today was a little spotty with the chance of rain. But the good news was that the wind was out of the SW which was good for us as we were starting off riding east and then north. WE started in the sunshine. We did then encounter some overcast skies but never had any rain. We rode for the first 20 miles principally on route 3. We did also spend some time on Lakeshore Drive. Different than the prior day the road was right along the lake with the lakefront homes across the street. The other thing that we noticed was that the lake has some unfavorable odors that seem to be pretty consistent. WE also encountered the second major power generation plant on the shores of the lake.
After riding for about 23 miles we stopped for breakfast right before getting on the Fellowship Bike Trail in Port Coleburne. We stopped into a bar that is open from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm. We met the owner on the way into the restaurant and he was taking about a big weekend coming up with David Wilcox and others performing and the town would be flooded with 100,000 people.
After breakfast we rode for 12-13 miles on the bike path. Similar to prior paths it was very high quality; paved and well maintained and good signage. Kelsea had identified a shortcut that shave about 12 miles off the ACA route. We rode into the Niagara Falls area after rejoining the bike path that ran along the river. We came in and got good views of horseshoe falls and the American falls. We could also see the various tourist boats riding up right near the falls.
The plan was to meet Maryanne, Sam and Dick at the Sheraton at 1:00. We were a couple minutes late but it worked out perfectly. Maryanne had arranged a table at a local brew pub which was perfect. After sandwiches and some local brews we all went together up to view the Horseshoe Falls and get some great group pictures. We then rode the final 7-8 miles up to the Landing Inn.
After getting cleaned up and planning the biking routes for the next few days, all of us except Kelsea rode about 3 miles down the street to a local italian restaurant. The food was tasty but unfortunately we had to wait too long for it. We were told that the cook had not shown up and the owner had stepped into help out with the work load.
We then rode back to the Inn under a full moon. Everybody had a great day. We are looking forward to crossing into NY in the morning.
