Category: 2016 Northern Tier: The ride

Today we left the great lakes of New York and entered into the Adirondacks. It is so refreshing to be back in the mountains, although so far they have been much gentler than what I imagined. Perhaps these are still considered foothills of New York. A beautiful ride today through the preserve following Moose River Road. No sightings of the great moose yet, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Every small pocket of water, I bike past that is overgrown by plants looks like a perfect place for a moose, but usually I only see a few ducks.

We decide to push on past Boonville and McKeever and stay at Singing Waters private Campground a few miles before the next town. $20 for a primitive tent site makes me growl, knowing that prices in the mountains and on weekends are always more expensive. I pay it, and we settle into the only spot with wifi. However, the password the host gave us does not seem to work, and she shrugs her shoulders and says she’s not sure why. We sit on the chairs next to an outlet and start charging the bike lights that we’ll need to use tomorrow morning, the ipods and Matt’s camera batteries. The last two days has been overcast and the solar battery has not quite held a strong charge.

After 100% charge we bike up the hill to our campsite, cook one of Matt’s favorite meals of ramen and instant mashed potatoes and crawl in the tent. I read a few passages from Thoreau’s short essays before falling asleep.

I woke up to a beautiful red head lying next to me. His eyes were open and he whispered ‘Happy Birthday!’ I had forgotten about my birthday. I knew it was coming, but like so many other places and dates, I didn’t actually remember, until he said those words. Today, was like any other day, though, except I was turning another year older. We broke camp quickly, and as I was spreading peanut butter across an everything bagel, the lady who was staying in her camper asked us if we wanted any fresh brewed coffee! Matt said yes extremely fast and I said I’d share with him! She brought out the coffee and told us her and her husband summer up here at this park and then spend the winters in Clear Lake Florida. She said there are a few other couples that they have been doing this with since they all retired. Over the warmth and deliciousness of the coffee I immediately started to think of my girlfriends back home and how we have always envisioned living in a communal type setting. Perhaps this is a glimpse into the distant future for us. As we finished the coffee and loaded the bikes, I noticed, couples walking over with mugs to sit in all the lawn chairs outside their RV. They were all having their morning coffee together. It was so nice to see, and as I returned the mug, I couldn’t quite help but get a small taste of their Lake Ontario RV community.

I biked quietly most of the day, immersed in my favorite podcasts. I saved ‘where’s my 40 acres,’ ‘sooo many white guys,’ Democracy Now’ and my new favorite ‘Revisionist History’ all to pass the miles of this day. I gave Matt the map as a bday present to me, and he chose a new route to follow that continued to take us along Lake Ontario instead of following the northern tier route that took us east and then north. This route was beautiful, and except for a bridge being out that we were easily able to just walk the bikes over, the roads were nice and quiet.

We got to Selkirk Shore State Park in plenty of time to enjoy the lake one last time, before we would enter the mountains. We checked in and sadly they said the lake was closed because there were no lifeguards on duty to watch the beach. Little did they know, I had lifeguarded for two summers on the beach and felt fully prepared to spend my birthday in the water. We paid, quickly went back to our site, unloaded everything and rode the mile down to the beach. There was no one down there and so I asked Matt if he was willing to break the rules for my birthday. He said yes and we walked down the pebbled beach far from the abandoned life guard towers. After two months of my feet stuck in shoes, sweating in only two pairs of socks that I switch out daily, they were very sensitive to the rough rocks below. This beach is not sand, but pebbles and trying to walk out into the water and balance was difficult. The wind was strong and the lake looked like the beaches at home. Waves were crashing me into the rocks and I only lasted 5 minutes in the water before exiting. As I sat on a rock to dry off, I noticed all of the algae that was left on my body from the lake. At least I hope it was algae. Matt and I quickly rode back to our tent site, showered off the goo from the lake and got a bite to eat at the local restaurant where I treated myself to a raspberry frozen yogurt.   Turned out to be a nice day to grow old in.

We woke up and rode to Dunkin Donuts with Dirt for breakfast. Matt still had a gift card he was wanting to use, and so we treated ourselves to coffee and breakfast sandwiches. We said a long goodbye to Dirt and thanked him for making the long trek from New Jersey to see us. We headed back toward the Erie Canal and quickly noticed after the long showers from yesterday, the trail was much harder to bike on. Mud quickly started spraying all over the bikes and gear. This was going to be a long, wet 40 miles, but at least we wouldn’t have to worry about traffic around Rochester.

Last night, we had stayed up quite late visiting with Dirt. Dirt had brought a board game that we had to play a few rounds to get the hang of. You might be questioning the term ‘late’ since most of my posts have us in bed by 8, but yes, late to me means 11pm. Trying to get my legs to move, now fully covered in mud was quite hard and by noon I wanted to take a nap. I pushed on and made it through the day with many breaks where I would lay my head down on a picnic table. Matt seemed to be fine and took the opportunity to take more photos.

We ended the day at this cute little South Shore Campground. We went in to register and a little elderly woman took one look at us and said “it will be $5 for a tent site, biker discount.” She also gave us the wifi password right away, obviously having dealt with many bikers and showed us where the shower house was. She told us to set up and watch the sun set over Lake Ontario. We didn’t quite make it down for the sunset after setting up and showering, but we did get there in time to meet some of the other guests who were staying in their campers around us. One of them walked over with peaches and a toy poodle that looked identical to my mother’s beloved Sadie Rose. Her and her husband were up from Florida and she had just gotten the dog a few years ago from Florida Poodle Rescue. I thanked her for the peaches and held the dog as we chatted about Florida. The dog licked my face and brought back years of memories dog sitting.

Today we ate breakfast with Sonya, Dianna and George and headed out to enter back into the United States. We had a few miles before we reached the check point to cross back into the U.S., and we took our time leaving Niagara. After entering the long line to enter back into N.Y. George peddled past us to but in line. He is from Germany and thought it might take longer to get back into the U.S. The four of us waited patiently as the row of cars crept forward. Finally, after about twenty minutes it was our turn to have our passports checked. I had thought we might have trouble, hearing stories of other bikers getting searched and having their food thrown out. The four of us went up to the window and the guy took one glance at our books, asked if we bought anything and then rushed us through. We had made it in and I didn’t have to throw out a delicious muffin I had been saving since yesterday. We rode the rest of the day leap frogging with the N.Y. crew along the Erie Canal trail. Toward the afternoon we took a break at a boat launch and got roped into helping an elderly couple get their boat on their trailer. George, Matt and I held ropes and helped pull the boat up. The couple thanked us and gave us ice cold water in return. We then said goodbye to George, Dianna and Sonya, since they were heading into Rochester that night. The three of them were such a delight to camp with and to run into along the bike route. We wish you luck finishing up in New York City. We left the canal and went to resupply in Brockport before calling it day at the Econo Lodge.