Squid on Wheels: Erie Canal Adventure Days 9 and 10

Little Falls to Amsterdam and Amsterdam to Albany

As we were warned when we left Senaca Falls, there were far more hills on the eastern end of our journey than on the western side. From the time we left the canal in Clyde, we had ridden more and more on roads and less and less on trail. The roads , while paralleling the canal do not keep the even level imposed on the tow paths. For the most part, the hills are not horrible, and, for some one not toting an addition 20 pounds or so of stuff, might even be enjoyable.

Leaving Little Falls was fairly straight forward though we did make one unnecessary circle getting to the trail, adding all of half a mile or so to the day.By this point in the trip we had established pretty set patterns to our trek. Mike and Squidette took the lead and Little Squid and I trailed behind. Periodically I would get Little Squid singing which worked to quicken his pace -- otherwise he tended to get lost in his thoughts as he looked around and when that happened, he slowed down quite a bit. Since I do the same thing, I really only nudged him forward when I could no longer see Mike and Squidette up ahead. That said, he and I had a great time working our way through a variety of Broadway musicals. West Side Story, by the way, does not really lend itself to quick cycling.Every 5 miles or so, Mike would pull over and wait for us to catch up and we would make a quick assessment of people's needs regarding food, water and bladder status. Stops occurred at other times as well, usually surrounding the last item in that list. We noticed that on the western end of the Canal, there were porta-potties at almost every lock. That was sadly not true for the eastern end and we found ourselves having to go away from the trail to find relief.

The ride to Fultonville, our lunch stop, was uneventful. The journey from Fultonville to Amsterdam, almost so.As we approached Fort Hunter, the trail changed from asphalt (a lovely relief from the stone dust of previous days) to concrete as we crossed an old railroad bridge. I was pondering the change in pavement when I caught up to Mike, who was talking with a couple of riders heading in the opposite direction. One was heading to Buffalo and planning on doing it in 2 days. As it was after 2 when we met him, and we were barely 50 miles out of Albany, I seriously wonder if he was able to make it. The other, was a local who taught us a bit about the area. The bridge we were on was apparently (as I had assumed) an old railroad bridge. The reason it was covered in concrete was because in 1987 a bridge on the NYS thruway had collapsed and this old railroad bridge had been quickly repaved in order to accommodate the necessary detour. Just north of this bridge were the remains of an aqueduct that had carried the Erie Canal over Schoarie Crossing. The aqueduct was still largely intact and was holding up far better than the doomed, modern, bridge.From the bridge, we detoured a few miles to historic Fort Hunter where, after making several wrong turns, we learned more about the canal and got a look at more remains of the old canal.Finishing with the fort, hot and tired, we wearily pedaled into Amsterdam, a town that has seen far better days but which boasts a fantastic Indian restaurant in the hotel we stayed in (the only lodging in town). Here, my brother Mike and his s.o., Maria, joined us for a lovely dinner (which stood up favorably to some of the best Indian food that we've ever had) . Sleep came fairly quickly, to be rudely interrupted by some college kids (an assumption regarding age based on behavior) being very loud and banging doors and basically acting like kids, at 2 a.m. I was very tempted to get my revenge the next morning as we packed up at 7 a.m., but restrained myself in consideration of any other guests.
The last day found us mostly on paved trail, some of which was absolutely delightful to ride. As we rode the last miles into Albany we experienced rolling hills that were actually fun to ride. They reminded me why we were doing this and revived my joy in riding despite my sleep deprived and sore state at that point.

We rolled into Albany around 3:00 and immediately headed to the Amtrak station in Rennsaeler where we traded our tickets for the next day in for tickets for the next train out.

By 4:00 we were safely seated and heading for home.

420 miles over 9 days of riding.
We traversed New York state at its widest point, saw some beautiful scenery and some, sadly run down towns. We met great people and had lots of satisfying meals. No one got sick, injuries were limited to some minor scrapes and we had practically no mechanical problems.

Will we do this again? Maybe. The major drawback with this kind of trip is that every night is in a different place. The pressure to get from one place to the next and to ride a minimum number of miles each day was a little wearing. I, personally, never got to ride at my own pace. I was always either bringing up the rear, with the tired or slower child of the moment, or racing to catch up to the three of them when sudden energy spurts hit Little Squid.

Overall, I had a great time and really feel a sense of accomplishment. I want to do something similar next year.

Squid on Wheels: Erie Canal Adventure Day 8

Rome to Little Falls

[A brief thought before I get started ... when we arrived home on Saturday, we first went to Whole Foods to stock up on some necessities. While Mike and Squidette went into the store, Little Squid and I watched the bikes. In the ten minutes that I was waiting on the street, I saw more people than I had seen for all of the preceding 10 days. I'm not sure what that means but it is significant. We saw very few people on the streets in any of the towns and cities we visited. Now, we did, mostly, stay confined to one narrow corridor as defined by the Erie Canal but, we also spent an entire 36 hours in Syracuse. Was the lack of people on the streets due to the pervasive car culture? Was it just that these places are so small that there just aren't that many people to see? Or, could it be that New York City is just way too crowded? Or, all of the above. What do you think?]

***
We had some difficulty leaving Rome. It seems, that while all roads may lead to Rome, not all roads lead away from it. Some, in fact, pretend to lead away but circle right back.
Once we did finally find the trail out of Rome, we had little difficulty with directions for the rest of the day. The only mechanical difficulties of the trip occurred on the final stretch into Little Falls when my chain lost it's moorings. A quick flick of the fingers (making them rather dirty) restored order to my world and we landed there safely.

Our day started with the only chain restaurant of the trip, a Denny's for breakfast. Lunch was at a nice diner in Frankfort which was followed by a trip to the Remington Arms Museum in nearby Illion.
No, I am not really a gun loving type of gal. I don't dislike them, per se, but my passions run to fiber, not flintlocks. Despite that, the museum was quite interesting (and very small) and had some nice examples of workmanship on the firearms on display.

Then, eying threatening skies, we hustled on to Little Falls and our Inn for the night.
The Canal Side Inn is known more for its food than its lodgings, mainly because the food is fabulous and the rooms are few. The rooms we had, however, a suite, were lovely, clean, well appointed, and the sofa bed much more comfortable that the one in the high class hotel in Syracuse.

The chef is also the owner of the whole establishment and he and his staff graciously fed us the bistro menu (lighter fare and lower prices) in the main dining room. We left feeling well fed.

Once again, we had landed in a town too late to go into any of the shops (no museums here) but had a lovely walk on the waterfront and in the historic canal area.

Squid on Wheels: Erie Canal Adventure Day 7

Syracuse to Rome
During our rest day we ventured out to the Erie Canal Museum, located in an old weigh-lock building. There we learned how the boats were weighed in order to assess tolls and, that we had some hills ahead of us in the next day of cycling.Sure enough, the day started with some long hills out of the valley that is Syracuse's downtown area. Fortunately we got an early start and didn't have to deal with the hills during the heat of the day.

Leaving the roads, we encountered stonedust trails that persisted for the remainder of the day whenever we were not actually on the road instead of off-road.
About 10-15 miles in, the ladies needed a rest stop with no appropriate facility in view. Fortunately, we were just a mile or so from Green Lake State park where we got off the trail, briefly, to relieve ourselves. This was the only time that Squidette and I divested ourselves of our saddlebags and left Mike and Little Squid to do our thing. It worked and we were in and out of the park fairly quickly.
Meanwhile, Little Squid had finally spotted the elusive Canal Monster. We were sure we'd missed him (her?) when we left the main canal for the Old Canal but apparently the monster prefers the quieter and murkier waters of the Old Canal.
Pedaling on, we came to the village of Chittenago and visited the only dry-dock still in existence on the old canal. A museum has sprung up around its remains and it is the first time I've visited a restoration that is still in the process of being restored.

After touring the site, we continued eastward, making sure to view the remains of sunken barges (look for the rebar outlines, that is all that is left).
Then on to Rome over trail that became increasingly difficult to pedal, ironically enough, because they were restoring it.

In Rome we walked around the outside of Fort Stanwix because, by the time we showered and recovered, it was already closed.
Dinner at a nice Italian restaurant ended with fabulous desserts and then early to bed.

More pictures can be found here, along with a fairly complete geotagged map.

Mike's version of the trip can be found here.