The Art of the Camp

I get incredulous looks from folks when they hear about my typical bike touring accommodations.  Certainly, one could stay at hotels, or line up a string of friends and WarmShowers hosts.  Even state parks with ready electrical outlets and community bathrooms are upper tier lodging when I'm traveling.  I appreciate the luxury of a bed, air conditioning, a door that locks, and the all important shower.  Having access to a washing machine to wash away the road and start fresh is a gem.

View from a stealth camp.  Photo credit Meghan Tarkington.

What I'd like to share is that the value of these luxuries is amplified when you stealth camp.  I often say, "You can't be happy until you've been sad."  That's my logic.  Those swaddled in silk pajamas, pillow top mattresses, and climate control don't truly appreciate those amenities.  When I get to a quiet, secure, and comfortable bed - it's Heaven.  Sleeping on clouds for a week at least.  If I forget I'm in Heaven, I can think back on the road and it's Heaven again.

That's not the only reason.  You think through reasons and details during a long tour.  The next reason to stealth camp is minimizing overhead.  If you're going to take off work for 6-7 weeks for a bike tour, and you're not disgustingly wealthy, the cost of the trip is of import.  Even a state park will run you $15 - $25 a night.  If you camp in a "dispersed fashion" at (or near) a state park, but then catch a shower on the way out in the morning, you just saved as much as food is going to cost for that day - doubling your range if financially limited.  WarmShowers is also a good financial option, since hosts will often feed you dinner and maybe even breakfast, but it's difficult to line up a host for every evening.  A tour that combines WS hosts and stealth camping can be had on a shoestring budget.

Far off the beaten path in pursuit of what looked like a pond. Photo credit Meghan Tarkington.

The last value of the stealth camp is the isolation and novelty.  I've had some of the most amazing and private camping spots on this past trip.   When you can stand around and air dry for 30 minutes in the sun after jumping in a pond - that's a freedom not many experience.  Try that in a State Park and you'll have a different type of lodging for the evening.

Do These Things

• Trust your gut feeling.  If a camp feels sketchy or not right, don't stay there.
• Start looking early.  Well before you need to camp, keep an eye out for good looking parks and wooded parcels.  
• Be prepared for rain.  My first long tour was with a hammock that didn't have a rain fly, and that significantly cut down my camping options.  Hammock camping can be super light, but you should get one with a fly.
• Plan your water supply.  You'll need enough water to get to camp, for in camp use, and then enough to get to your next refill.  I've been carrying 3 large bottles late in the day, and I have a filter bottle for backup if I need to pull from a lake or stream.  When you're riding during the day you may only need two bottles full.
• Bring toilet paper.   A bit more than you need for two days.   Stealth camps nay not have a bathroom.  Be a good camper - bury your waste.
• If you're going to "publicly" do an informal camp, it doesn't hurt to ask first.  I camped at a grassy trailhead in the small town of Millersburg, OH in Amish country at the recommendation of a Boy Scout troop that I passed on my way.  I followed up by asking local recreational cyclists if they thought it was acceptable to camp there, they said, "Sure.  Can't see why not."  
• If you know (or intuit) that the park or trail is going to get busy in the morning, get up early and move on.  
• Keep an eye out for free or locally accepted informal camp spots.  These often occur along popular through riding bike paths.  For example, the C&O Canal has a primitive camp site every five miles along it's length with well head, a grill, and a port-a-john.
• Have a helmet light or headlamp.  Stealth camp setup often happens at dusk or even at dark if you're running late.  An advanced technique is to scout a trail, catch a late snack, and just at dusk duck into the trail and set up camp after the last folks are likely to wander by.  Also after park staff has left for the night and potentially closed the park gates.  A headlamp makes this much easier in the dark.
• Bring a pair of comfortable (test them / acclimate at home) earplugs.  Your spot may look great, but be fifty feet from the train tracks or US interstate.  
• *** Initially not on the list. *** Learn what poison ivy and similar itch inducing plants look like.  It's a good idea to learn about stinging nettles too - although that is just a temporary skin fire.  My physiology is particularly well suited for stealth camping.  I don't get poison ivy and no bumps from mosquito bites.  That's why I forgot it in my first list of important things.  I've heard there is nothing worse than squatting to go to the bathroom in poison ivy and finding your nether bits covered in oozing, itchy patches for weeks.  Funny (not funny) story about my youth.  My brother, David, gets severe poison ivy.  I found it hilarious to pluck a section of vine and chase him around with it.  He'd get an itchy tattoo for weeks wherever I was able to swipe him with it.  I was a horrible child.

A roof to keep the dew off.  Photo credit Meghan Tarkington.

Things Not To Do - Some of these are Lessons Learned

• ***NEW*** Do not camp among the boulders near the base of a tall cliff.  Those boulders got there by falling off the cliff and tumbling along.  In the middle of the night, you have a remote, but entirely avoidable, chance of getting smashed by falling rocks.  A frightening night listening to rocks cleave off a too close cliff in the Hudson River Valley helped create this rule. 
• Camp below the high water level on a river, creek, or beach.  Be a bit conservative here.  A tidal river can quite sneakily rise overnight and all the sudden you're sopping wet and your gear has floated away.
• Ignore trespassing signs, particularly ones with guns on them
• Keep food in your tent.  Unless you want to intimately meet a raccoon or bear, put your food far from your camp.   I keep it double bagged in my touring dry sacks.  When bears are a concern, the food gets hoisted into the air on a tree branch a good way from the tent.
• Do not start a forest fire.  If you don't know how to contain a fire, put it out all the way, or ascertain if the conditions are just too risk - do not start a camp fire.  Be careful with your camp stove.  Another reason to think twice about your camp fire is that it is an obvious camp giveaway and locating beacon if you are trying to keep a low profile.
• Pick a swampy spot.  You'll get eaten alive.
• Leave your bike unlocked while you take a hike or sleep.  I just sleep better, and this one time a drunk Quaker on the Earlham Campus green tried to steal my bike while I was sleeping right next to it on the ground.  I always carry at least a lightweight cable lock, and the amount of effort to lock up and unlock is negligible.
• Camp 20 feet into a well used trail, unless you're okay with every damn dog walker strolling by at 6am.  Go in at least half a mile.  That weeds out all but the most ardent walkers.
• Try to do this in a big city.  Camping under a bridge in a city with a lot of valuable gear and a transient population is a great way to get robbed.  I've camped several areas in Hartford, but that requires a lot of knowledge of the area.  Not something you're going to have passing through on a tour.
• Expect to get the perfect spot every night.  Some nights you might totally strike out and have to go to a "backup".  Getting a great view is a challenge for stealth camping, because a view means that you're potentially visible too.
• Neglect to dry out your gear.  This is a camping basic, but on this trip I've had to take extra steps to keep things from getting musty.  With stealth camping you sometimes have to get up early and pack up wet.  The dry out may be at the end of the day, rather than the beginning.
• Freak out about every noise you hear during the night.  There are animals in the woods.  Toads hopping in the leaves certainly sound like a person sneaking up on you when your lizard brain is engaged.  

Cliffs are pretty, but don't camp too close.  Falling rocks do happen.

There are backups.  Camping behind a church is usually okay, but be up and gone by services.  You can often get a spot behind (or even inside) a fire department if you stop and ask.  When you are super rural, and it's nothing but farm fields, pick out a farm house that looks well kept and you can ask if sleeping in their back yard or field would be OK.  

What if someone comes knocking?  It happens.  Be courteous and apologetic.  Explain what you're doing.  If it's the park ranger, you'll probably have to pay the camping fee.  Maybe sing an aria.  Meghan, the opera singer, actually did this on her first night ever stealth camping.  I prefer to be a likable, harmless story teller.  I've not yet had to "move on" in the middle of the night.  But it's not the worst thing that can happen.

Happy camping!  And remember ----- the following rural roadside advertisement was the cutest thing ever.

Past - School Houses - Take it Slow

Let the Little - Shavers Grow - Burma Shave

Did you "Like" and "Share" the BiCi Co. Facebook page?   Membership drive coming soon at this new Hartford community, teaching bike shop.  We need your help to get this wheel rolling.

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The Practical Matter of Survival

First - Some exciting BiCi Co. news.  We just created a BiCi Co. Facebook community page.  This will be where announcements for the new shop go up.  Please - Like and Share!  We are still recruiting for the Fall youth Build-a-Bike / Earn-a-Bike program (online recruiting survey), and we are about to kick off a shop membership campaign.

In bike tour news, I did reach Santa Claus, Indiana this morning.  Not exactly the way I planned.  After a short mileage hot day on Wednesday, I woke up in the middle of the night with severe intestinal distress, and continued to make visits to the woods every twenty minutes and on into the daylight hours.  With potentially two more 95F days of hilly riding ahead (~100 total), I made a survival decision from my horizontal position.  A 7am phone call home brought a bail out by Bill and Sue Cherolis (AKA Dad and Mom).  Not too proud to make a phone call when the prospect of riding the next day might include an ambulance.  

Dehydrated and horizontal

Unexpectedly, I overlapped with a fellow bike tourist for the last day of riding.  Both Meghan and I rolled into Versailles State Park at exactly the same time, climbing the massive hill up to the campground.  I am not riding on a well used cross country route, so this was needle in a haystack territory.  We chatted for hours about stealth camping and touring.  Meghan was an opera singer (really!) and decided to head off on an adventure to mark a change in career to something in the teaching realm.  She is a first time bike tourist and was setting out with an extremely lightweight hammock camping arrangement carried via road bike.  After noticing the low spoke count wheels, I gave a crash course in wheel truing in case she snapped a spoke and needs to hobble into the next city with a bike shop.  We rode together in the 90F heat from Versailles State Park (pronounced verr-sails) to Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge.  I will not admit to camping at a gazebo in the refuge.

A lightweight touring setup, for comparison

Another state line.  I heart riding on state highways.  That's a joke.

Prior to arriving in Versailles, we individually rode through Lawrenceburg, IN and picked up a fabulous bike path that would have connected to the neighboring city of Aurora.  This was a welcome development because the alternate state highway 50 is a monster of high speed, multi-lane, and no shoulders.  Welcome, except the path was closed (multi-month construction) and only does one find this out once you've committed 2 miles into the trail - no signs at the trail head.  Meghan and I both experienced this frustrating trail and the stressful route 50 detour.  One lesson learned in both Ohio and Indiana that bike paths are great, and state highways are a horror.  IN DOT and ODOT need to get a clue about Complete Streets.

Foreshadowing?

View from the preserve gazebo. 

Lotus in the swampy lake.  Native Americans made flour from the seeds.

A fabulous trail between Lawrenceburg and Aurora, except... closed.

Would have been great to know the trail was closed at the trail head.

Aurora, IN has a bike killer grate right in the middle of a bike lane

After coming across this "bike killer" grate, I had to take a photo.  Right in the middle of the bike lane, aligned with the direction of travel.  I stopped by the splendid bike shop in Aurora, Weber Sports, and showed it to them.  Of course it was already on their radar as an important issue and it had been brought to the attention of their public works.  This kind of stuff is what happens when bicycle facilities are designed by non-cyclists.  Stay vigilant.  Bad bike facilities can be worse than no facilities at all.

Backtracking a bit in the tour - I crossed this bridge daily between my home in Madison Township and Middletown, Ohio.  You don't realize how beautiful the river is until you come back after being gone for years.  Something to remember when we take our own city's views for granted.  Stop, take a step back, breathe - and see what you're missing.

West Middletown Bridge - AKA home territory

The remains of the homestead tree house.  Tire swing still up after 25 some years.

We had a spectacular tree house and tire swing at the homestead in Middletown, OH.  The tree house is mostly gone, with just a few floor boards remaining.  The tire swing is hanging on, although I wouldn't recommend a swing on a 25 year old poly rope.  It was worth the half mile ride up Route 122, AKA West Middletown Hill.

Shed tears at the grassed over Sunset Pool

Our wet playground and training grounds at Sunset Pool in Middletown are now buried under the lawn.   This is a particularly sad thing, but offset somewhat by the cookie and icing sandwich I brought with me from Central Pastry.  Middletown has lost its amazing pool, but appears to be growing a functional downtown area with restaurants, coffee shops, and retail.  Was pleasantly surprised by the opportunity for lunch and catching up with a grade school friend, Christina Slamka at the new coffee shop - Triple Moon.  Christina's parents have owned and run Central Pastry since 1984.

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Be That Friendly Stranger

The kindness of strangers.  You depend on this a lot during a bicycle tour.  Stuff goes wrong.  You get lost.  Trespassing happens – sometimes unintentional.  Bikes break.  You stumble into diners at the end of the day and mumble something like, “Feed me anything.  And bring double.”  It’s a vulnerable time.  The day to day routine of everyday life, the insulation, is stripped away.  Everywhere you go, everyone you talk to, all the places you sleep, they are all new and that can be scary.

These bike path repair / pump stands are pretty awesome!

Thank God most folks are nice.  They think I’m a space alien, or European, for riding my bike all over the country, but they are friendly and curious.  This morning at a coffee shop by LakeConneaut a local fellow named Mick bought my coffee and cookie.  After blowing a rear, drive-side spoke in the middle of nowhere, I aimed for Warren, OH about 20 miles South on the Western Reserve bike path.  Warren looked sizable, and a bike path ended there.  It was also, sort of, on the way to Columbus.  While on the path, a friendly question to a passing cyclist confirmed that Warren did in fact have a bike shop – including directions.  Thumm’s Bike (and Clock) Shop in Warren has been in the same location for 109 years for good reason.  They hooked me right up and I chatted with the lead mechanic while he tutored a younger mechanic in wheel building.  I picked up some heavy, wet chain lube while there.  And right now, I’m informally camped in West Branch State Park – and counting on the goodwill of the park rangers to not roust me from this choice spot.

When I rolled out of Mount Vernon, OH on the bike path I came across Bonnie from Columbus, OH.  She offered to ride me back into the city and showed me the bike path route I would have otherwise missed.  It was really nice to have a friendly riding companion for 50ish miles when I've had so many miles to myself.   Bonnie had quite a long and storied history as a bicyclist, riding her first century on a tandem with her "bike nut" father at age five.  She has ridden many double centuries and her father was a pioneer of bicycle rear-view mirrors. 

Let’s hear it for the kindness of strangers.  Be that stranger.   One way to facilitate being a great stranger is to participate in WarmShowers.org.  Warm Showers is a reciprocal hosting website for bike tourists.  You can participate as a host, even if you never bike tour.  I’m a host in Hartford, and the more the better.  The network is international.  I used it in Nicaragua a couple years ago.  You meet amazing folks, and can offer anything from “camp in my yard” to “my little free B&B for touring cyclists.”  The travelers and hosts get reviews, so you don’t get surprised by a creeper.  As a major hub for the East Coast Greenway, Hartford metro area should have lots of Warm Shower host options - even those of you who live in the burbs.

BiCi Co. Aside - The community bike shop on Park Street in Hartford will deliver "kindness to strangers."  Strangers that may simply be visiting Park Street for the first time from Downtown or the near suburbs.  Hartford tourists and conventioneers looking for an inexpensive option to a rental car for getting around Hartford.  BiCi Co. will be a resource for touring bicyclists passing through on the East Coast Greenway.  BiCi Co. will be a welcoming community that sends visitors off with a shining review of both the neighborhood and the city of Hartford.  Be a part of it.  Stay tuned to the new BiCi Co. Facebook page for announcements and programs.

  

Akron had some neat water rolling through a downtown plaza and concert space.  Remnants of a canal.

Canal remnants and active train tracks in Akron.

Creative use of an underpass.  Come on CT DOT, get creative!

Amish country is amazing.  Baseball and livestock behind the neighborhood school.  Turnstile keeps the horse in.

Left side horse and buggy, right side bikes.  Yeah Amish multi-use path.

A barn and a stone bridge.

A really odd industrial art park in Mount Vernon, OH.

Industrial decay as art.

Felt a bit like Planet of the Apes.

Bike Stations!

Bonnie was my guide from Mount Vernon to Columbus.

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Thought You Should Know

If you haven't been paying attention, I'm on a bike tour and not at all in Hartford.  That said, I'm keeping an electronic toe in the water.  There are several things coming up that deserve a long distance shout out.  Bummed that I can't be there in person, but take lots of photos and make me jealous.  Post the photos to Transport Hartford.

1. Sunday, September 6th - Hartford Slow Roll.  3pm meet up at 1429 Park Street.  7-12 miles at a leisurely pace.  Often followed with beverages at a local establishment.
2. Sunday, September 13th - Traffic Skills 101 in New Britain, CT.  Hard hittin' New Britain was recently recognized as a Bicycle Friendly Community and they are upping their game by bringing this comprehensive bike safety course to the city.  Just in time for the Discover New Britain Ride.  Last day to register is September 9th, but don't wait until then.  These classes sell out.
3. Meandering Mondays - As recently featured in the Hartford Courant.  Sort of like the Slow Roll, but much shorter, it starts downtown, and there is a lunch stop.  Slow pace.  Work clothes.  Every Monday.  Fair weather only.  Meets at 11:45am (sharp) on Prospect Street where the Travelers flyover walkway is, near the Hartford Club.
4. Saturday, September 19th - Hartford Family Bike Tour and Envisionfest.  A full day of awesomeness in Hartford wouldn't be complete without a family bike tour.  Pretty darn cheap.  You can also volunteer, and ride marshals are needed / ride for free.  Registration should open soon.  Keep an eye on the CCAP page for registration.
5. Bike Share? - Saturday, September 18th, 19th, & 20th - Maybe, just maybe there will be a "bike share" demo in Hartford.  It will be a weekend full of bicycles, new folks in Hartford (Envisionfest), and a need to get across town to check things out.  Stay tuned!  Watch Transport Hartford for announcements.
6. CT Cycling Festival Race Day - Sunday, September 20th - A day full of criterium racing in downtown Hartford.   It's a great race for spectating, there will be an expo area, and we always need more cowbell.  Spread the word and bring a crowd that knows how to holler.  You can also volunteer.
7. Sunday, September 27th - Discover New Britain Bike Tour.  Check out all the bike lanes and drool. Register here.  You can also volunteer.

As always - You have been hereby deputized to spread the word.  To keep this to yourself would be criminal neglect.  Do the right thing.

And now I'll return to my regularly scheduled cross country bike tour.  Right now I'm taking over a friend's home in Columbus, OH.  They're out recording a record or something.  All my clothes are in the washer and I'm walking around... like I own the place.  Noticed I've lost a bit of weight.

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Hanging Out

The best part of bike touring is hanging out.  Stopping and spending time.  Taking in the scenery.  Breathing and enjoying the current moment.  Having a couple beers with strangers. 

When I lived in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois (2007-2010) there was a tiny bike cooperative - The Bike Project.  A crew of regular volunteers and members seemed to be there all the time - hanging out.  I'm headed off on this tangent, because I think BiCi Co. will be that destination and connection for our community.  Beyond the nuts and bolts and bike safety training, BiCi Co. will be a welcoming social space.  Conversation may involve bikes but will often veer into politics and the local bands playing this weekend.  The crew will be diverse and reflect both cycling die hards, Park Street neighborhood residents, and the downtown employee recreational cyclists.

My camp spots have been stellar this trip.  On the bank of Black Creek.

Hanging out.  That seems like a shallow goal for a nonprofit social enterprise.  Perhaps, until you step back and realize that most of the jobs folks get nowadays are through connections and networking.  Then hanging out means jobs access.  I could also describe how major projects and social movements are often hatched while simply hanging out.  The more diverse the group, the better.  Some of the best teaching and learning happens during down time and “hanging out”.  That’s when the experts aren’t frazzled and get one-on-one time with those that spend extra time in the space.  So yes, BiCi Co. must be somewhere folks want to hang out.  I think that means we’ll have a coffee maker with an honor box and some places to sit down and chat.  It also means, that we’ll plan unstructured time in the space and social meet ups.

Note - The Bike Project grew from a small room to two large locations with paid staff in three short years.  Urbana, Illinois is now a Gold Bicycle Friendly Community.

This construction company fence makes me pine for Anne Cubberly's creations.

I tasted ALL of those honey wines.  And left with two bottles.

In Salmanaca, NY.  This shrine was amazing and confusing.  The whole front yard.

One of the prettier swamps.

This fellow galloped up to meet me.  Expectant.

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Stop to Smell the Cheese in Cuba

The locks along the Erie Canal have free camping.  This was at Lock 30 in Macedon.

Yesterday I went off script and turned south at Rochester.  It looked like there was a longish canal trail, and I've been spoiled by the shade you get on the narrow trails.  The NY state routes usually have wide shoulders, but the sun and semi-trucks get stressful.  The Genesee Valley Greenway runs along the remains of the oddest transportation project I could imagine.  A canal that climbs 980 feet and at one point hugs a sheer cliff.  At the time, a canal was that much better than rutted roads and horse wagons for moving cargo.

Let's build a canal that goes up 980 feet and through a gorge.

The greenway was relaxing, but physically more strenuous due to the trail surface, sometimes just a grassy path.  The going was slow for my ~75 miles of riding and it was evening before I reached Letchworth State Park.  It was worth the trip.  The Grand Canyon of the East, belied by the tall layered cliffs.   I came into the park via a rough and rocky gravel road, and found water, bathrooms (with showers!), and cabins.  The park office and tent camping was nowhere to be seen, so I cleaned up with a shower and followed the Greenway to it's terminus overlooking a massive waterfall.  One of the best camp spots yet.

I'm a sucker for stencils.

Bridge out.  Scramble!

Cliffs.  This is the canal route.

Small waterfall - View from Camp

Massive waterfall - View from Camp

Cuba, NY is known for cheese.  That’s what the sign at the edge of town said.  I stopped here for lunch and will of course be stopping in at the cheese museum and store on the way out.  No photos or cheese reviews yet, but soon.

And a couple more thoughts about BiCi Co.   These thoughts are about how transportation choices and patterns are set young.  If a youth is bombarded with car commercials and social messaging that the only way to show you’ve made it is to buy a shiny car, and there aren’t any other messages, what do you think the outcome is?  When that young adult follows the “consumer American Dream” and buys a cookie cutter home in the suburbs 20 miles from work, they’ve effectively killed off any alternative, sustainable transportation options.

The program we ran this summer spent time investigating the economics of transportation.  For a low income city, the economics really matter.  We talked about extractive, versus local, industries and economies.  Walking, biking, and transit result in more local shopping, more disposable income, and less money thrown out of state via gasoline and automotive costs.  CT Transit and CT Rides came in for an afternoon session on public transit and transportation options.   BiCi Co. won’t have polished multi-million dollar advertising campaigns, but it will provide the hands on exercises and discussions that question the otherwise assumed transportation answers.  These activities will make a difference, both for these young adults and for our city.

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Just to Mix Things Up

I screwed up and posted my latest tour report to my other blog - All Famous Together.  You'll find it there.  And while there you can read other stuff I write that isn't about bikes. Read more!

Got Lost.

First – Did you “Like” the Center for Latino Progress Facebook page?  Please do.  That’s where we’ll make announcements about BiCi Co. and the upcoming

Second – If you missed Day 1, here’s the link.  I’m probably not going to keep this up every day, but it looks like a t-storm is coming so I ducked into a coffee shop.

Morning stop.  This village as where President Van Buren was born.

There isn’t much better than a hot shower while on tour.  I caught one of these gems at Copake Falls and combined it with laundering the prior day clothes.  To minimize weight you only bring a 2-3 changes of clothes and you wash / dry the ones you aren’t wearing, alternating days.  Another secret to bike touring (in developed areas) is to under pack.  I conveniently forgot several things - soap, contact solution, chain lube - and I didn't miss them for the first two hilly days.  I'll grab them today and have them on hand for the flatter days.

Excellent graffiti art under a bridge just outside of Albany.

Minimizing weight is of significant importance for a long distance bike tour, particularly when you take a wrong turn and go up Texas Hill.  The sign was rotated 90 degrees and up I went.  Fortunately it was only a slight, beautiful detour and I was able to hook back up to my cue sheet.   I’m an expert at getting lost.  You can ask Joel Gillespie or Valerie Sivicek.  My internal compass is faulty, particularly when the sun goes away.  Combine that with a love for trails and dirt roads and that’s a recipe for lost.  The secret to being frequently lost is to embrace the adventure and the unexpected experiences that lost brings you.

This is where I should have known things weren't right.

Yesterday I was making good progress on the Hudson River Trail heading north on my way to Schenectady.   It was rough going for a bit.  There was a bridge out and the trail was overgrown and closed in for a half mile.  And then it got better.  I was about to start looking for camp when the trail ended.  After checking the GPS, I realized that I had gone five miles north of my route on another multi-use path.  It was a nice path, but heading to Canada wasn’t the plan.  A couple of major hill climbs and my detour returned me to the Erie Canal path.  Losing light, I chose a wooded hilltop camp just short of a water treatment plant – upwind.

Day Two Synopsis – From the Taconic Valley to somewhere on the Erie Canal Path between Albany and Schenectady.  Not bad.  Another hot day, but most of the massive hills are behind me in Day One.  Just rollers today, and once I’m on the Erie Canal it’s flat until I turn South just short of Buffalo  

Storms are coming!  I heart t-storms!

New York puts these huge shoulders on state routes.  Great for cycling, even on busy roads.

I heart long bridges, and diminishing viewpoints. 

I drank a 1/2 gallon of raw milk today.  Healthy! 

Cute church, now town offices.

Erie Canal Path!

New York is kinda long

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