Hot’n dusty
Brockport >> Lyons | 101km | 259m | 4h24m
August 25, 2024 | 27ºC, clear skies
Morning routines and a bumpy ride
It wasn’t easy to leave Lynda’s place after a good night’s sleep, but the sun was out, it was already quite warm early in the morning, and the trail was literally just around the corner. Our morning routine of packing fourteen bike bags, attaching them to the bicycles, deciding what to wear, applying sun screen and finally getting out onto the road still was a bit of a messy process that early into our adventure; but eventually we were back in the saddle, and back on the smooth gravel.
Today’s route would lead us through Rochester, a pretty big city on the southern coast of Lake Ontario. Our map ensured us plenty of bike paths crossing town, but their quality was quite different from what we had experienced in Buffalo just a couple days ago: paved, but very bumpy. Clearly, those paths hadn’t been maintained in a long time. With heavily loaded bikes it is quite exhausting having to constantly break, slowly go over one of those countless bumps, and accelerate again. Fortunately, we didn’t have too long of a ride ahead of us, and going a bit slower wasn’t big of an issue. At kilometer 55 we were back on the gravel trails.
All the dust
Riding on those gravel paths was very enjoyable, even though at times almost got boring in this section of the trail: mostly following straight lines, and now also covered with trees, there was not much distraction to look at, or views to be amazed by. While we were moving quite quickly, the closer we got to our destinations, the more mentally challenging a very easy path can get. We experienced that a lot during our vacation on trails that did not provide many turns, views, climbs, or people.
Also, our bikes and gear were getting so dusty after hours on non-asphalt – I love the look of a dirty gravel bike, but we knew that at some point we’d have to find a place to deep-clean our machines apart from just re-applying chain lube over and over again.
Camping!
The third day on the bike was also going to be followed by the first day in our tent. We were carrying all the gear that one would possible need: besides a spacious 3-person tent we also brought sleeping bags and mats, inflatable pillows, and cooking gear including a stove and some propane gas. For me this was mainly a piece of mind, knowing that we could potentially just set up camp anywhere if needed. For Tara, this all sounded like discomfort and additional weight. But knowing that along the trail cyclists were allowed to camp for free at most of the canal locks, I insisted on bringing all of it, trying out the camping experience at least a couple of times.
We read online that in the small town of Lyons we could put our tent behind the local fire department and even use their washroom facilities.
The firefighters on duty were very relaxed and welcoming. It was obviously not the first time that cyclists had asked them to camp in their backyard and while on the other side of the river, and after setting up our tent we felt pretty save overall. The cooking gear stayed in its bag, though, since we had our dinner in a local diner just a little while earlier.
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South-bound: Day 01 | Day 02 | Day 03 | Day 04 | Day 05 | Day 06 | Day 07 | Day 08
North-bound: Day 09 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 13 | Day 14 | Day 15