I always embrace the chance to have a different kind of cycling experience, and the three phases of this trip gave me a number of opportunities. Crossing the international border on bike was fun; I hadn’t done that since 2001. The gravel ride along the Erie Canal was similar to some parts of our 2018 tour in Italy, but having multiple days with close to uninterrupted riding was new.
I’ve done a bit of bike camping, but haven’t done a really fully-loaded, self-supported tour like phase 2 and 3 of this trip. I enjoyed that it was relatively free from structure; I could start and end the day more or less when I wanted to. There’s a lot of private property in upstate New York, so there were big gaps between official campsites; in a place with more public land, there would be more opportunity to tailor the day’s ride based on weather, energy and timing, stopping wherever it made sense.
Partly because of those gaps between campsites, the days on this trip were longer than I really prefer. I had three days over 100km, one of those almost 130km, and I often was feeling pressure to get into camp rather than enjoy where I was. Typically I’d like the longest day on a trip to be about 100km, with most days being more like 60-80km. Not because I find it physically difficult to do 100km, but because I just don’t have as much fun when I feel like I have to hammer all afternoon. Shorter days with more stops is more of my style.
For a longer camping tour, I could see doing one rest+laundry day per week; three days hand-washing clothes, three days wearing hand-washed clothes, one day staying somewhere and getting it all really clean.
Camping can add a lot of logistical time. On a good day it might take an hour to do camp breakfast and pack up, but not every day is good. On the super-rainy day where everything was wet and muddy, it took me three hours to get everything to a state I was willing to pack onto the bike. Another reason to plan for shorter days.
I did pretty well on packing. I think I used everything I brought except the windscreen for my camp stove. I’d probably leave that in the future unless I knew I were going somewhere windy and exposed. I saw guys out on bike overnights who were carrying 50% more weight than I was. That would really suck on the terrain we were riding.
I missed having my own bike. Having my usual gearing and riding position would have made it a lot easier to keep up momentum over those rolling hills.
Highlights: Genesee River Greenway, Seneca Falls, Ithaca, Odessa Coffee Distributors, Keuka Outlet Trail, Naples Grape Festival, Letchworth State Park.
Lowlights: Headwinds at Cayuga Lake, various too-steep climbs away from the lakes, 15 hours of rain at Keuka, the waterfront “bike path” south of Buffalo.
Final stats: 1,015 kilometers, 8,987 meters of climb.
Thanks to Nancy, John, my dad and Barb for making it all possible.
Ride Bike!
