They say you should listen to the signals your body tells you. Today after the first hour everything in my body was telling to me to just pull over and stop doing what I was doing!
The going today was tough. This morning jet lag caught up with me, and getting out of bed took some serious effort. My legs seemed to feel okay, but once I started pedaling I could feel they were soupy. I had some pancakes and sausage at the local McDonald’s and then got back on the trail.
The first few miles were quite beautiful. I passed through some really pretty towns, and the sections of the trail that were in between the towns was full of lush forest. I saw more critters everywhere, including some deer that didn’t seem to be too afraid of me. They let me get pretty close. I stopped and we looked at each other for a while, then they went on their way.
After a while the paved part of the path ended, and I was riding on dirt and gravel. This was not fun. After only a few minutes everything was covered in dust, and my bike kept wanting to fishtail every time I leaned a bit. Also the bumps made going very slow.
There is a big initiative here to pave the entire trail. After riding a large section of dirt trail, I actually caught up to the paving crew! I thought this was awesome, because once I passed them I was on freshly paved ashpalt. In fact, I was the first biker to be riding the road!
Unfortunately, this turned out to be way worse that just riding the dirt. The ashpalt was still wet with tar, and my wheels were literally sticking to the road. There was no way around it either. So I had to plow on for miles over the wet tar. By the time the trail met older, dry road, my tires were coated in a layer of tar, and there were all kinds of small pebbles stuck to them.
But I kept going! Over the course of the day, I went over dirt, pebbles, gravel, cement, wet asphalt, and something they call hardpack, which is really just smaller pebbles. Glad I got new tires before this trip, as they took a beating today.
The weather was in the low nineties, and the humidity was horrible. I drank through all my water. During one part of the day, the trail merged into a fast highway, and that’s when it started to pour rain! For ten minutes, there was nothing I could do but stop and try to hide under a tree. After it abruptly ended, I was soaked through. But the good news is that it was completely refreshing, and my bike that had been coated with dust was now clean! I smelled much better as well.
By around 5:30 I made it to my goal, which is a public park on Lock 20 where they allow free camping! That’s where I am now. It’s a beautiful park right on the canal, and I am literally the only person here. Kind of creepy, but also really nice. Intersetingly, they don’t have amenities, including bathrooms, garbage cans, or water. But I have my tent all set up, I just ate some dehydrated Mountain House dinner, and I’m looking forward to sleeping under the stars.
Another tiring, gruelling day. I rode 58 miles, and made up the distance I was short yesterday. Tomorrow I’m hoping to reach Syracuse, which is about another 50 miles. No campgrounds around there, so I’ll probably be finding a motel. I love not knowing where I’m going to end up at the end of a day!