With 3554 miles behind us, this journey is over. Thanks for joining me.

My rear tire has developed a slow leak. My damaged pump air pump was also acting up, as it took a tremendous amount of effort to pump any air with it. This was beginning to become a serious issue. In desperation, I sprayed the pump’s working rod with some WD-40 that I bought in New York after getting rained on a few times. I figure the the Water Displacement version 40 formula should do a good job keeping the rust off waterlogged mechanical components. I don’t know about the bike, but after spraying it on the air pump and making a few strokes, the pump was working much, much better.

I had it in my head that I would cycle straight to Great Neck Beach in Ipswich and then return home. I was rolling along pretty well. However, both tires went flat on the Bruce Freeman rail trail at the same time. Fixing them took a while, as I messed up the valve stem on one tire and had to fix that tube a second time. I decided that given how things were going, patching might be a better option as compared to just switching in the tubes I had patched the night before. Since I was still thinking of going to the beach, before going home, having a spare tube or two would be a good idea.

After getting the tires inflated and eating a snack, I got going. Almost immediately I passed by two bike packers that were on the side of the trail reading a trail side sign. They only had rear panniers which made me think that they were only out for a weekend, so at first I kept going. Weekend bike packers are more numerous than long distance bike packers, so often we just wave, instead of stopping and getting acquainted. However, something about how the woman looked at me as I passed by, made me turn around and meet Anne and Marcellin.

Anne and Marcellin were from France and were just completing a Montreal to Boston trip. They had done a 7 month trip in Euope that ended in Turkey. It was real fun to talk to them, but while we were talking this fellow rolled by.

I didn’t get his name or more likely forgot, but this veteran lives in Lowell and was out on a training run. He said had a run in with a car and suffered a severe head injury and was using cycling to recover. He is planning on riding the Erie Canal Trail, the Great Allegheny Passage and the C&O Canal Trail as a loop. We asked him how heavy his rig was, and he said he didn’t know. I’d say that it was the heaviest rig I’ve run across, and second place might be half the weight of this rig. I didn’t have the heart to warn him that the Erie Canal Trail isn’t completely flat as portions of the trail don’t follow the canals exactly. I don’t know about the other two trails. I hope the setup works out for him.

After the delay fixing the tires and chatting for a long time with the veteran, Anne and Marcelin, I was starting to run late. I decided I should stop at home, and assess the situation before continuing to the beach. Turns out the front tire was leaking now and I wasn’t sure about the rear. I decided it was getting too late, as I have a personal policy to avoid cycling after dark, especially in the evening, when the drunk drivers are more numerous. I’ll have to load up my rig and run down to the beach and back on the next nice day. I don’t think it will be tomorrow, the forecast is for rain. Meanwhile, I will keep this blog going with a couple of observations that I haven’t yet shared.

Since I wasn’t riding to the beach, I decided I might have a beer and looked in the fridge to see if I had one. I don’t drink much, but there was one Ipswich Ale in there, which was perfect. You see the fellow I was talking to at Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site in New York asked me to drink an Ipswich Ale when I got to Ipswich. Well, I’m not quite there, but I figure I’m close enough.

45 Miles for a total of 3554.

It turns out that getting through the Berkshires was easier than the Rensselaer Plateau. It could be because I entered the Rensselaer Plateau towards the end of the day and I hit the Berkshire Mountains first thing in the morning.

There was a bit of gravel involved, but it didn’t last long. I walked up this steep section. I don’t think my car could get through the corner at the end of this hill as it was all washed out.

Mount Greylock is the highest point in Massachusetts and I thought about going up it on the way home, but decided against this idea. Here it is from the east side. I crossed the mountains to the left of Greylock.

Massachusetts is hilly and I spent a good part of the day in granny gear. I had another flat due to the worn out rear tire. While fixing it I managed to step on and bend the shaft to my frame pump. Fortunately I was able to straighten it so it mostly works, but this is the last tour this pump will go on. I also knocked off my tail light, almost losing it in the mud. I only made 37 miles by lunchtime. Just short of the Connecticut River in South Deerfield I ran across a great BBQ place called Zack’s BBQ. I ate at a picnic table there and patched one of my leaky spare tubes, just in case.

There aren’t a lot of motels between Amherst and the 495 belt around Boston. I decided to see how far I could get before 5 and then find the closest accommodations that were generally in the right direction towards home.

So around 5 I had made it to the tiny hamlet of Wendell. I found neighboring campgrounds full, and about the only available motel was in Gardner, another 26 miles down the road. Not many options, and too far from home to make that choice, so I opted for Gardner. I arrived at 7:00, making it a twelve hour day, as I hit the road at 7AM.

Mileage was 92, leaving about 45 left to my house and another 30 to the sea. The running total is now 3509.

Today I left the Erie Canal Trail. I actually didn’t quite finish this trail, as I headed east from Troy, NY. The trail ends about 7 miles further on in Albany, but I’m more interested in getting home than seeing the last 7 miles. Here is a sign near where I split off from the trail. Too bad there aren’t more signs showing distances each way. The only other one that I recall seeing was a half way sign, 175 miles to Albany or Buffalo.

The Hudson River runs through Troy. It’s a lot wider just a few miles downstream where I-90 passes over it.

From Troy, I headed east on Route 66, then Route 43. There was a lot of climbing involved in going from near sea level at Troy to getting up on the Rensselaer Plateau. Despite eating a huge ham and turkey sandwich last evening, I ran out of steam. Google maps said I did 2500 feet of climbing today. Not the most I’ve done in a day by a long shot, but the grades on Route 43 were brutal. The grades going down were steep also. I believe I could smell burning rubber from my brake pads, something I’ve never noticed before.

I found an ice cream stand just short of the border with Massachusetts. I ordered a banana split. It started to drizzle so decided to look for a place to stay. I found a very nice (and expensive ) room just over the border in Massachusetts at a ski area that had some summer stuff going on including mountain biking. Nope, I’m not going to rent a mountain bike today or tomorrow.

I rethinking the bird thing. I think either eastern birds are not as vocal as western birds, or there aren’t as many of them.

Fifty new miles makes for a total of 3417. Google maps has a bicycle route home that is 136 miles long. That’s 2 to 3 days, plus another day to Great Neck in Ipswich to complete the sea to sea thing. I can almost smell the sea from here.

Great cycling conditions today. Tailwinds, comfortable temperatures and smooth pavement on the Erie Canal Trail. Since I’m almost done with the ECT, I figured it would be good to share some images of the current version of the canal.

A crew at work.

Lock 17, the lock with the biggest lift of the entire system. It will raise or lower a boat 40.5 feet. This is more than any single lock in the Panama Canal.

Lock 8, Scotia, NY

New York State has a number of parks celebrating the history of the canal and I stopped at Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site. The fellow that worked there was very knowledgeable. That site was where a large aqueduct was built to carry the second version of the canal over Schoharie Creek. It’s amazing how those people with such low technology were able to produce such impressive structures. We talked about how critical the canal was in tying together the east part of the country with the midwest. He was also familiar with the Middlesex Canal that ran from Boston up to Lowell.

I asked him why the state was still operating the canal as boat traffic, especially in the eastern half of the system seemed light. He said that operating the canal was mandated by the state constitution and the canal also generated revenue from hydroelectric power and water for irrigation.

One thing I’ve noticed since getting to the eastern part of the county is how the bird calls are far less apparent than in the west. I think it is primarily because in the east it seems that you are never far from a busy highway or noisy industry which drowns out the bird calls.

I did 86 miles today and made it to a motel room in Schenectady. Tomorrow I will be entering Massachusetts and the Berkshire Mountains. It will be interesting to see how I do in these eastern mountains as I haven’t crossed any mountains since Montana. Total mileage stands at 3367. Under 200 miles to my home, plus another 30 to reach the beach on Great Neck in Ipswich.

Last night it rained for most the night. When I woke up, I looked at the weather on my phone and this is what the radar looked like. The rain line was centered over me, that blue dot.

I had left a cup on the picnic table and it had about 3/4 inch of water in it this morning. I packed everything up wet and found a picnic shelter in which to have breakfast.

It drizzled on and off all day. I put on, then took off various pieces of foul weather gear depending upon how wet things felt. Most of the trail was the crushed limestone, not my favorite type of trail.

Just after I crossed a road, a repeated clicking sound started coming from the rear of the bike. Next thing I hear is a loud psssst. Yep, I had my second flat. Something must have stuck in the tire, then when it got knocked off, all the air rushed out the new hole. My rear tire is pretty much worn out, but I’m not going to change it unless flats become a repeating issue.

I’m going to have to go through the entire bike when I get home. When this adventure is over, I’m thinking of retiring this bike from loaded touring and put it back into its original sport touring setup with lightweight wheels and higher gearing. I’ll search for a solid mid-80s full touring frame to build up. Full touring frames from that era had braze-ons for low-rider front racks and longer chainstays, two things I wish this bike had. I think touring bikes from that era have the right combination of features and performance for my needs. I believe modern adventure bikes are overbuilt, have unnecessary features, have too fat tires and end up weighing more than necessary.

Todays ride was a hard, slow grind. At one o’clock I had only covered 37 miles. I must have been paying the price for yesterday’s effort. The poor weather and crushed limestone trail couldn’t help either.

I didn’t see too many photo ops today, but this reproduction barge under the protection of a roof was cool.

A somewhat disappointing 50 miles today lands me in a motel room in Utica. All my wet stuff is out, hanging around the room, as I attempt to dry it out. Today’s 50 miles added to the 88 from yesterday added to Sundays total of 3143 moves the total miles to 3281

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I started the day by visiting Walmart for food and McDonalds for breakfast.

I noticed a broken spoke in my front wheel while undoing my lock at McDonalds. I think it’s possible I broke the spoke by trying to roll the bike with the lock installed. I have done that several times during this trip. However it broke right at the bend, so there could have been another cause. Sometimes if spokes aren’t tight enough they will flex at the bend every time that spoke is supporting the weight of the bike. This flexing may eventually cause the spoke to fail.

I decided to wait for the expected afternoon rain to replace it with one of the spares I carry.

I abandoned my plan to wait for the rain, because riding with the broken spoke bugged me. I found a bike path tool stand which had a pump, shade and a bench and decided to replace the spoke there.

Replacing the spoke didn’t take long. I just tuned it up by sound to approximate tension of neighboring spokes. The wheel isn’t perfectly true, but it should get me home if I don’t find time to fine tune it.

I always let the air out of a tire when changing spokes. I’m afraid that turning the nipple when under pressure of an inflated tube may cause damage to the rim tape and puncture the tube.

The pump at the tool stand didn’t hold much pressure, which didn’t surprise me. I have found in the past those pumps don’t work well. I finished pumping with my frame pump. It’s not up to the 100 pounds I like on the road, but it will do for now. So much for getting my air pressure topped off at REI yesterday.

I met several long distance bike packers today. A couple of young fellows are doing the Northern Tier, plus some extra legs.

A 30 year old Chinese fellow has already done Tibet and Nepal. Unfortunately he couldn’t get a visa to get into India. He is now going from NYC to the west coast. From there he wants to go south all the way through South America. What a challenge he has in front of him.

The Erie Canal has been enlarged and rerouted several times. Here are some pictures of some abandoned fragments.

I was almost through Syracuse when I started to think that this may be the first strange city I’ve gone through without making an errant turn. Of course as soon as I thought that I missed a turn.

Eighty eight miles to Green Lakes State Park in Fayetteville , New York. Over half way along the Erie Canal Trail, too. Not bad for a day that had a forecast of all day rain, just a couple of days ago. It sprinkled a bit early and I got rained on with less than ten miles to go, but it stopped by the time I got to my campsite.

Last night I had a family of three camping near me at Middleport. They were cycling the Erie Canal from Buffalo to Albany. They have already done the C&O canal. There was a young man aged eleven named Jude, his mother named Treah, and Grandpa, also known as Doug. Jude impressed me so much with his enthusiasm for bike packing. The rest of his families willingness and ability to support his passion were also commendable.

Speaking of Jude, I believe that was the name of the fellow I met at the Honey Hut on day twenty eight and reported on the day twenty nine blog post. Isn’t it funny how my memory works.

The parking lot next to this campground turned out to be noisy with cars coming and going throughout the night. It was kind of surprising given how quiet the town seems. At five AM the towns fire/warning alarm turned on and stayed on for quite a long time. We never heard any emergency vehicles, so it’s hard to know what was going on with that alarm. In the Midwest, many towns signal noon with an alarm signal, but I never heard a 5AM alarm before. The worst part of this was the location of the alarm was less than a block away in direct line of sight so it was loud.

Today I cycled along the Erie Canal. Though the morning started out cool, the sun got hot and there was an easterly breeze to overcome at times. Much of the trail was surfaced with crushed limestone. Here’s a couple of pictures showing typical scenes along the canal.

I walked this short section, primarily because of the rough trail surface. I didn’t want to lose anything over either side.

There was also a series of rental motor barges passing by. I’ll have to get a picture of one as they look like a pleasant way to spend a vacation.

I solved the issue with the lost tent footprint, as the Rochester REI was right on the trail.

A real nice employee that apparently was deaf and mute topped off the air in my tires, while I found a new footprint, fuel for my stove, and some tape to mend a hole I put in the fly of my tent. We communicated by writing on a tablet or typing on a phone. The good news is that my employee discount still worked, so it seems I’ll have a job when I get home.

68 miles today got me to a motel in Fairport, New York, a bit east of Rochester. This 68 added to 3075 equals 3143 total miles passed and perhaps 400 or so to go. Seems like some storms may slow me down this week, though the forecast seems to have improved a bit when compared to a couple of days ago.

About 83 miles today. I’m not completely sure because I used parts of three maps and had to do some math to get a tally. I went from part nine of the ABA to part ten, and then to the State of New York Erie Canal Cycling Map.

The first place I went to was the start of the Erie Canal Trail at the harbor in downtown Buffalo.

Right at that point there was a group working on building a replica of the very first canal boat to go through the completed canal. They plan on running it down the canal next year to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the opening of the canal.

Going through Buffalo was pretty typical urban cycling for me. Making wrong turns and reversing course several times in order to get around a closed section of the Erie Canal trail. This was about a mile into the trail, so it wasn’t a good omen. However this omen didn’t bring bad times for the rest of the day. The trail was well paved at first, but as I moved away from Buffalo, there was some crushed limestone sections, but it was all in pretty good shape.

I set up camp at Middleport about 35 miles east of Buffalo. The is a municipal campground right on the banks of the canal. It is designed to accommodate hikers, bikers and boaters.

The town is tiny and about the only business that is open is a small pizzeria.

It seems like somehow I lost my ground cloth/footprint for my tent. Not great timing with a storm scheduled to arrive on Monday.

Total mileage is up to 3075 with what should be less than 500 to go, though I expect the rain next week will slow me down to some degree.

I had a minor bit of cramping last night. Didn’t even have to get up and walk around to loosen up. I’m pretty well convinced that the almonds I’ve been eating really help prevent or at least minimize cramping. The question I would like to answer is which nutrient is helping me. Here’s an example package showing nutrientional information.

It seems it could be iron, potassium or calcium, or a combination there of. If I knew exactly, I could target that nutrient in my diet. Maybe I should try some experiments with vitamin pills instead of almonds in order to narrow this down.

Today the weather was friendly again, the shoulder on the road was smooth and wide and the traffic moderate.

I crossed into New York this morning.

Pennsylvania was short, only two half days. New York will be a different story, and might take as long as a week. I plan on following the Erie Canal trail to Albany. I think a lot of the trail is on the towpath of the Erie Canal which should be cool. I think I’ll be running across more bike packers on that trail, too.

Lighthouses are a thing on the Great Lakes and this one is part of a park, so the door was open and visitors could peek inside.

I need to get laundry done and cleaned up a bit so I opted for a motel today. Motel prices are sky high today in the area. A Motel 6 in Hamburg, has one of the lower rates at 135$. A lot of places are over $200 for a night. Because conditions were good and I was feeling good, I considered trying for an Orchard Park motel that had a low rate that was about 95 miles from my start point, but common sense prevailed and I settled for a place in Angola which was priced a bit higher, but only 75 miles away. I probably could have gone the 95 miles, but it might cost me some energy tomorrow and following days. As it is I’m making good time and usually have enough energy left for a walk in the evening.

2992 plus todays 75 to Angola, New York equals 3067 total miles crossed.