Author name: tom

John went to Cornell, so we were headed into his home turf. Ithaca is at the south end of Cayuga Lake; my original plan had been to ride down the east side of the lake, but John brought to my attention that riding the west side would bring us by Taughannock Falls, the tallest waterfall east of the Rockies. Seemed like a good plan.

I was entering phase 2 of the trip, riding with my friend John. We’ve toured before, San Francisco to LA, but it was a while ago. Today would a big day to start with, almost 100km, and the weather was threatening all day long. We wanted to get a decently early start, so after a very nice breakfast at the diner around the corner, and meeting some of the resident hippies at the co-op, we got on the road, mostly avoiding the rain during the day.

This would be Nancy’s last riding day. We’d enjoyed the Genesee Greenway so much that our plan was to ride it basically the whole way into Rochester, where we’d meet my childhood friend John.

Nancy only had time for five riding days, and she wanted to see a little piece of the Finger Lakes herself, so today we’d be riding south to Lake Conesus. The place we’d stayed was chosen for its location; reachable in one day from Medina, close enough to get to the Finger Lakes the following day. We were staying in Lakeville at the north end of the lake, which was about 40km away; our plan was to ride to our motel, drop our bags, and if Nancy was up for it, do the loop around the lake for a 70km day.

Today would be an inverse of yesterday; the first half of the day starting out on canal gravel, the second half on rolling roads. We again had nice weather and nice riding.

Today’s ride would cross back into America, ending in Medina, NY. We headed through Iroquois Nation lands and agricultural regions to get to the Erie Canal, then along the canal through historic towns, ending with a fancy anniversary dinner.

Today’s we would start by crossing into Canada on the Peace Bridge, then riding along Niagara River Parkway, past Niagara Falls to Queenston, Ontario. Temperatures were pleasant and riding was easy.

We headed down to Campus Wheel Works to get outfitted and take a test ride through the city. We got to chat with Ethan and Alex, the shop owners, while they put our bikes together. Ethan has recently returned to school as a non-traditionally-aged student, so we got to chat about his journey and about some of my Bike Lab work.

I’ve been flying with my Performance Bike-branded hard-shell case for at least 30 years. I’ve often been charged an absurd amount of money, but never been told I couldn’t bring it. First time for everything, I guess. Fuck Southwest.

One of the traits I inherited from my father is a need to exercise anywhere I go. His exercise was jogging: he ran nine marathons. Mine is cycling. So when it came time to visit my dad’s new senior living facility in Buffalo, I started looking at what might be fun to ride while I was in the area. The proximity to Niagara Falls, the Erie Canal and the Finger Lakes helped inspire a plan; cross over into Canada on the Adventure Cycling Association Northern Tier route, ride up Niagara River Parkway, connect with the Empire State Trail along the Erie Canal, head down to Ithaca, then work my way back through the Finger Lakes.