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.