It's All Part of the Journey

25 June 2012

Stats for the day:

Depart Clifton Park, NY 8:30 a.m., arrive St. Johnsville, NY 7:00 p.m.

Trip mileage – 367.1 miles

Today’s mileage – 70.71 miles

Time on bike –6:13:53

Average Speed – 11.3 mph

Max speed – 40.0 mph

Lock 10 on Erie Canal

It's amazing how things turn out different than what you expect to happen.  We started the day with exuberance and ready legs after a nice hot tub soak and good nights sleep thanks to Eileen, George, and family.  Our trek took us down a few city streets but then onto the Mohawk Hudson Bikeway, and eventually onto the Erie Canal Trail in Amsterdam, NY.  Shortly after getting on the Canal Trail we encountered a thunderstorm and managed to take shelter in a covered area just off the trail.  While waiting out the shower, another biker took shelter with us.  He was from North Carolina and riding the trail from Buffalo to Albany, meeting his wife at the end of each day in a different city.  He gave some great information about the trail farther west, and we might get one of the Canal Trail books like he had, which gives the layout of the trail, and the locations of bike shops, rest areas, and the like.

View from top of hill in Johnstown, NY

I emphasize the bike shop part because we keep seeming to need to find them.  After the rain stopped we were getting ready to go when Rick checked the wheels and found a broken spoke on the rear one.  A quick look on the phone for the nearest shop showed one back in Amsterdam, and one about four and half miles off the trail in Johnstown, NY.  Well, this is one time Rick's Marine Corps attitude of "no retreat" should have been overridden.  We made it to Johnstown without incident, but to get to the bike shop it was ALL UPHILL!.  Made for a rough bike/walk.

As difficult as it was to get up the hills, it was well worth the effort.  While waiting for Anthony, one of Bike Works great mechanics, to repair the wheel, we had the opportunity to talk with the shop owner's mother, who also happens to teach math at Johnstown High School.  Nola and Evette had a good conversation about school and math.  Anthony was able to get the broken spoke fixed without problem, as they cut their own to fit.  This is important as some bike shops have just specific length spokes and ours are a bit of a different length.  So we decided to purchase three spare spokes to take with us, so if something happens we will have them to us.  At the time, we didn't know how important this would be.

Geese along the trail - congestion!

With everything seeming to be fine, off we went back to the Canal Trail and our journey onto St. Johnsville, where we expected to spend the night at a campground about two miles off the trail.  As we scurried down the trail, which is a very nice, scenic, and relatively flat course, we were treated with a variety of wildlife, from geese, to woodchucks, and a whole lot of bunnies.  Riding the bike on the trail is fairly quiet, so we would get pretty close them before they would jump and scamper off into the underbrush.  It was a lot of fun to watch.

As we rode along the trail, we had the good fortune to meet up with another long range cyclist, Ian from Great Britain, riding from Seattle, WA to Plymouth, MA.  He said, "It just seemed appropriate to end in Plymouth, for a Brit."  He was a delight to talk with, and he gave us a great tip about a really nice campsite on the canal, right in St. Johnsville, and it was only $10 a night.  As you will read in a later post, what a Godsend that turned out to be. 

Cool firefighter display in Florida, NY

Well, it appears that Rick's idea of luck, that is "if I didn't have bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all" came home to roost for us about ten miles from St. Johnsville.  The replacement spring that was placed on the trailer hitch broke, causing the loose end to jut into the rear wheel spokes and break a piece of the plastic hitch.  It didn't break any spokes, but two of them are bent.  Now we had to stop and put another spring on the bike, which we had, wire tie the hitch to the bike, and try to get to the marina campground all before 7:00 p.m.

We managed to get into St. Johnsville, set up the tent, grab showers, and make it up to the pizza shop before it closed.  Ina's Pizza is right across the street from the fire house on the main drag of town, and has an excellent chicken and Penne with rosemary and garlic sauce. What a treat.  After dinner it was back to the camp and good night's rest.  Tomorrow, 6-26-2012 will be down day as we make repairs to the bike and trailer.  Wish us luck and check back later for an update.