Category: 2008

jumped off to a great start yesterday – rode 105 miles. The first forty were along the tow path trail along the old canal. It was awesome, especially the part around akron. I can’t believe i had never been there. The weather hasn’t been too bad. It’s mostly only rained at night. Right now there’s a raging storm outside. Also some of my gear is starting to show wear. There’s a wierd bubble in my sleeping pad that keeps growing, my rain fly is starting to leak a bit, and i had 3 flats this morning – as many as i had in the first 3k miles! I trashed that tire and am now on the spare. But riding along lake erie has been great. I also highly recommend the sunrise cafe in geneva-on-the-lake. The owners are hilarious.

Greetings from Rochester, New York, where I’m hanging out with the ever-awesome Marni Shindleman. She’s rescued me from the crappy weather we’ve been having – clean laundry, comfy bed, and soooo much ice cream!

Tuesday may have been the worst night camping in my life. I wish I had taken a picture of me crouching in my boxers trying to bail out water from the pond that had formed under my tent. Sure, maybe I should have looked for high ground when setting up, but I was too busy trying to get some shelter from the floodlights – plus, about 75% of the ‘tent’ area was under water in the morning. Finding a true campground is becoming rare – outside of state parks, most everything else is an rv park.

The past few days have been pretty cold and wet, but not unbearable, although I did get hailed on twice yesterday. The scenery has been great and people have been pretty cool. The route that I randomly picked has worked out really well – not too much traffic, and the shoulders have been really good. Yesterday, I did a 103 mile haul to get into rochester, on top of spending time getting new tires and a new thermarest. I hope I get another 10 years out of this thermarest like I did the last.

From here I’ll be taking the Erie canal path to Albany, where apparently I can camp anywhere I want along the path – pretty sweet. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I’m still pedaling. It’s been pretty wet and cold. Last night it went down to 35. But now its sunny with no clouds and warming up fast. I’m about to cross into mass. But first i have to climb the berkshires, the first mountains since WY! Been eating great food, especially pizza. Just had a black and white, which i think is the official cookie of NY.