Craig's Big RIde

As I mentioned yesterday, the Ticonderoga Ferry that I was planning to take across the river from New York to Vermont has ceased operations for this year. So I took the Lake Champlain Bridge to Vermont instead. Getting there took most of the morning. First, I had to ride nearly to Ticonderoga. The descent out of the Adirondack toward Ticonderoga was a beautiful view and a fast and fun descent. After I turned north toward the Bridge, I encountered another very old cemetery, the Streetroad Cemetery. The Lake Champlain Bridge from two different perspectives.   Before leaving New York, I took a picture of their nice Welcome sign since the one I took in Niagara Falls was somewhat distant from where I was riding. On the Vermont side, there was no welcome sign; instead, there were just a number of directional and highway signs. Come on, Vermont, you can do better. An old canoe is now a flower planter in Crown Point, Vermont. I happened to see another Lover's Lane. (I saw the first one in ...

Before I get started with today's ride and pictures, I have an addendum to yesterday's post. Shortly after I posted my blog entry for yesterday, I heard loons through the open window of our cabin on Fourth Lake of the Fulton Chain. I've only ever heard loons on videos or audio recordings before, never in person. Although it was after dark and I couldn't see anything, I could hear the loons on the lake! I know it's a small thing, but I was happy to hear loons in person for the first time. We woke up this morning to a fairly thick fog. It wasn't as thick as what we experienced in Bismarck, North Dakota, but it was enough to delay my ride start for almost two hours. I finally started turning the pedals just a few minutes before 10am. It turned out to be a nice day for riding. The temperatue topped out in the mid- to high-70s with a light breeze and mostly sunny conditions all day. I ended up logging another 84.6 miles and nearly 5200 feet of climbing. The numbers w...

Today was a good day. I knocked off 88.2 miles while starting to build some elevation again before getting into the mountains of New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire. And it was a beautiful fall day to boot! I started the day below 400-feet of elevation in New Haven and ended at about 1700-feet of elevation in Old Forge with 5249 feet of climbing throughout the day. I'm going to post quite a few pictures, with explanations, of course, and then mention a couple non-visual things at the end of today's post. Shortly after my 8:35am start, I encountered a cemetery with a "Patriot Sign."  I saw a "Patriot Sign" at a cemetery yesterday and I was in too much of a hurry to stop. While riding past it, I noticed that it said, "At least five patriots are buried here..." That was either in Williamson or Pultneyville or somewhere around there. I passed over the Salmon River not far from the inlet to Lake Ontario (in Port Ontario) this morning. There were a coup...

I returned to riding after three rest days at my dad's house. And I also didn't blog much during my three off days. I logged 79.64 miles riding from Palmyra to New Haven at an average speed of 13.7 mph. It also felt quite hilly today and my elevation gain according to Strava supports that perception as I logged just over 4000 feet of elevation gain. Most of the day, I was riding past apple orchards. That's really the only thing I took pictures of today. Four rows of red apples ready to be harvested. Presumably the other rows of trees have already been harvested as I saw no fruite on them. Red and green apples side-by-side at another orchard. I can also share some photos of the (Erie Canal) Historic Lock 60 that my dad took me to yesterday afternoon. It was a nice warm afternoon to do a little exploring. This sign provides better history that I can. The gate wheel track on top of the lock. The spillway with a chamber on either side (double chamber on left and single chamber ...

Today was the third and final day of this break. From here, I will ride to the Atlantic Coast and end my adventure at the Portland Head Light. I’ve had an enjoyable and restful three days with family. Onward.

Today is the 10th consecutive day of riding. The first day of this stint of was a short day (31.1 miles to Manitowoc, Wisconsin) and today was a short day as well (38.6 miles to Palmyra, New York), but the eight days in-between were relatively normal-length days. I'm now at my dad's house and I'm planning to take at least a couple rest days before I make the final push to Portland, Maine. As an aside, I may or may not post a blog entry each of my rest days. Today's abbreviated day was another Erie Canalway Trail day. As with yesterday, friends and family had put out encouraging signs for me. At the final sign before my dad's house, he was waiting there for me. We took a quick selfie before he took the signs down before getting in trouble with the Department of Transportation. The only other thing I took pictures of today was the different types of boats on the canal: A large-ish sailboat heading toward one of the locks. A tour boat sans tourists. A cargo barge being...

The first challenge for today's ride was getting across the Canada/USA border on the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge. My instructions (as provided on my riding maps) were daunting, but it proved to be quite easy in actuality. I had to check in with the Toll Captain on the Canadian side. She told me to ride through "that gate" (she pointed), turn left, and ride across the bridge. Luckily, it was early enough on a Monday morning that there was almost no traffic. So I rode across the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge to get back into the US: The major part of today's ride was along the Erie Canal. I rode about 50 miles from Lockport to Spencerport on the Canalway Trail.     As I was getting close to my planned endpoint for the day, I came across a sign that was clearly intended for me. I have family in the area, so I was kind of expecting something along these lines. A while later, I came across another of "my" signs:   I found out that my dad and one of my brothers worked t...