This trip almost didn't happen! We had been talking about visiting a friend in Franklin, NH. But we only had two weeks to work with. We decided to drive to New York, leave the van and do a loop up to NHampshire. We had some friends in Rochester we wanted to see also. And I wanted to see Niagra Falls. So a bike tour was born! We figured we could ride 900-1000 miles during this time. I already had the Northern Tier Bicycle Route from Adventure Cycling. The section I had went through Niagra Falls and went all the way to Bar Harber Maine. We decided to use this map, then head south to Franklin, NH. New York State DOT sent us some "recommended" bike routes across the state that went through Albany NY to Buffalo following the Erie Canal. I will try to put a map somewhere on this page if I can figure out how to do THAT!
You can check out more pictures from the trip at www. flickr.com/outbikin
Just a week prior to leaving Hap's dad passed away. So that made it difficult to do anything let alone get ready for a bike tour. Hap rebuilt the rear wheel (it was damaged from our year long tour), went over the bike, and I got clothes, etc ready. We kept thinking hey we are only going for a two week bike ride. That's nuthin.....seems an awfully short ride...but let's go.
Saturday, July 31 and Sunday, August 1 Rochester-Sodus Point
Saturday, July 31 and Sunday, August 1 Rochester-Sodus Point
We left two days later than we thought, on Saturday we loaded the van and headed for New York. We didn't have time to start in Buffalo like we wanted so we drove on to Rochester and spent a great evening with some "ol" friends of Hap's. On Sunday we left the van with them and started out the Erie Canal. Let me just say that we started out great when we got lost within one mile and couldn't find the trail. As we were looking at the book I bought "Cycling the Erie Canal", another cyclist rode up and said the trail starts right over there. We were maybe 50 yards from the start! The trail is really nice but it is a cinder, gravel trail. OK for our tandem but it sure slowed us down. We only rode 20 miles on it at first and then got off it and rode north toward Lake Ontario. Our second oops was when we went to look at our County map book. I 
pulled it out of the trailer only to find that we had our OHIO county atlas. Does that tell you how this trip was going to go?
It was really great to get on the road again. There isn't anything like being out on the bike, in the hot sun, (it was really HOT, and not that dry heat either), watching out for the crazy drivers, looking for a place to sleep, hoping for a nice shower and of course the most important. What are we going to eat?? Oh and I almost forgot to mention that when you haven't been riding a loaded bike and you first start your legs do say, hello there, I really don't care how much you have ridden! It's a whole different animal.
The route (Seaway Trail) to Sodus Point was fairly hilly, but we did have a good shoulder, low traffic volumn and we were still speaking to each other after the hectic start to this ride. That's always a plus, when you ride a tandem! We stayed at South Shore RV park on Lake Ontario. For dinner we had.....are you ready.....drum roll please....freeze dried beef stew over rice.
It was a beautiful morning for riding. We rode into Sodus Point for breakfast. It was a great spot looking out on the Lake. We saw two cyclists in town but didn't get a chance to speak to them. The route today was alittle hillier, and busier we were still on the Seaway Trail. We noticed a "noise" in our front crank. Mmm.....what's that I say to my mechanic. Turns out he had changed the rear cassette co
gs but not the front ones. Isn't that something you should do, says I? Well, sometimes but they looked ok. It's just a little noise. But just in case we stopped at a bike shop in Fulton, NY. They didn't have the right size. The chain ring that was making the noise was the small one in the front which is our Granny gear. For loaded tandem touring this is our most important one. We always want Granny to come out and play when we asked her to. But my mechanic said she should be alright..................I hate it when he says "should be". Never mind that we are heading into the mountains in Vermont and N Hampshire. We stopped for lunch, PBJ at a little park. and then rode on to Texas NY and camped at Jellystone Park with Yogi. Dinner? Couscous and green beans and almonds.
Monday, August 2 Sodus Point, NY-Texas, NY
We woke up to another beautiful day. Another HOT one! We are riding into the Adironadacks now so the terrain is much hillier. Alot of steep, long climbs. I didn't know that I could sweat so much. Several of the hills required alot of standing on the pedals. Granny came out to play thank goodness, but I am not sure she was the happiest. Maybe the noise we are hearing is groaning! We met another cyclist finishing a cross country tour. We are also riding into more forested areas. It was really pretty. The campground we found for the night was Styes Brown Barn Campground in Texas. Of course it was the bottom of the hill. But then it was just following some of the rules of the bike ride: The campground shall be either at the bottom of the climb or at the top! The owner was really nice. He had a great set up. He had a kitchen/dining area/tv room/playroom/banquet hall that he let us use. It was nice. Then I read on the wall that this used to be the dairy barn and we were staying in the cowbarn. After we set up the tent, the couple we saw in Sodus Point showed up. They were from Philly and riding from somewhere in NYork to Philly. We started to cook dinner inside and realized it was pouring down rain. Elliott and Sarah ended up sleeping in the cow barn but we slept in our tent. Dinner tonight? Mac and cheese, salad and hamburgers.
Wednesday, August 4 Texas-Boonville, NY
We started the day with breakfast in the cowbarn. Elliott and Sarah started riding with us in the AM. There were once again alot of steep, rolling hills (hello granny??). There was one very long, steep climb over Blue Mountain that was memorable. The humidity and heat was up there again. As we were riding we heard one of the most feared sounds of biking. Pinnnggg..... Uh oh...that wasn't a broken spoke was it?? Well as a matter of fact yes it was. We said good bye to Elliott and Sarah. It didn't
take Hap long to get it changed more annoying than anything. Standing on the side of the road and sweating is not any fun! But the rest of the day went well. The climbing continued but bike and bodies held up! For dinner we had Rice/beans/carrots/ and Peanut butter sandwiches. We camped at Hideaway hills. It was right on a little lake. I was hoping for a swim, but the lady said oh you are not allowed to swim. It was an ok campground, not that clean but our tent was clean on the inside! We met a couple who said if we needed anything to ask. Hap did his typical sad man walking around the campground looking for a beer routine so he went over to ask his new "friends". He was successful and came back with a cold one! We finally finished watching a movie I had brought "Mr. Limpitt" an old Don Knotts Movie where he turns into a fish. It was one of my favorite movies growing up. I know, what does that say about me? It took us four nites to finish it!
Thursday, August 5 Long Lake, NY-Ticonderoga, NY
It started raining just before we got out of the tent to pack up. So we waited until it slowed down and then rode over to the Long Lake Diner for breakfast. It was about a 4 mile uphill ride in the rain. We were quite the hit in the diner with our "train" sitting out front. One lady came over and asked what we were doing and asked if it was ok if she gave us some brownies she had made. We couldn't be rude? What could we do? We only had a few showers the rest of the day. Then the humidity and heat started again. I think I like riding in the rain better. Just before Ticonderoga we had a major climb (have I mentioned that it was hot?) and then a huge downhill. What a great view from the top. THAT'S why we climbed up here.....There were not any campgrounds around so we decided on a hotel tonight in Ticonderoga. It wasn't fancy.....and you probably wouldn't stay there if you could drive somewhere else. We rode into town (downhill-3 of them!) got our laundry done. Then rode back up the hills (3 of them) to a Walmart and picked up dinner. Rotisserie chicken and salad.
Friday, August 6 Ticonderoga, NY-Killington VT
We rode over to Walmart for breakfast. I had been wanting some yogart and it is difficult to get it when you don't have a refrigerator. From the hotel we rode to the ferry to cross Lake Champlain and go into Vermont. It was a beautiful, sunny hot, humid day. We started climbing as soon as we got off the ferry and didn't stop for the day. We didn't have a Vermont county map book so we stopped at the first store for one. We hadn't decided our exact route down to Franklin (surprise, surprise). We stopped at one town for suggestions at the local info center. And of course we got lost. Hap has renamed us as "Mr and Mrs Missed IT". How many times can you turn this bus around? How did we get here? That's odd.........We broke another spoke today.............mmm...Hap what's that all about? It'll be ok we have spares. We ended up in Rutland, VT on a Friday nite, during rush hour, riding Rt 4 (main road out of town!) and climbing 10 miles to Killington. I don't think anyone passing us that day really liked us very much. I swear we are nice people. We did have a shoulder thank goodness, but it was a very LONG climb. There was a hotel near the top............Hap did you see that.........what.........?Did you......do you...........WHAT?....nevermind! We got over the top of the climb and made it to Gifford Woods State Park just as it was getting dark. I asked if they had a campsite and she said, we only have one do you want it?? Do we want it? NO we WANT to climb back UP the mountain, in the dark and ...........nevermind. The campsite was really nice though. The temperature dropped below 50 degrees that night. It felt like it was freezing after all our hot weather. I put on my heavy shirt and my down vest. I told Hap I was going to wear it at least once since we carried it all that way. But then it only weighs 10 ounces! We got showers, fixed dinner (spaghetti and peas) and went to bed.
Saturday, August 7 Killington, VT-Grafton, NH
For breakfast we had oatmeal and fruit. The weather was hot, humid again. We were on Route 4 for much of the day. There was a nice shoulder. The first part of the ride was downhill (remember the 10 mile climb yesterday). We stopped at a bike shop to buy more spokes (just in case). It is a beautiful area here. We have been up here several times to ski at Killington. We saw several covered bridges. In Woodstock, VT we stopped at a deli for great sandwiches. Woodstock was a very busy town. We saw some kids jumping off a big rock into the river. We rode some nice backroads around Woodstock to get off of Rt 4. We crossed the river in Lebanon and found a rail trail that went all the way to Grafton where we were spending the night with Nancy Carr. It was slow going on the trail. So we finally gave up and got on the road. Nancy lived on a beautiful little lake. It was a little hard to find. But Mr and Mrs Missed it, made it with only a couple of do-overs. Nancy fixed us a wonderful supper of beans and cornbread. We sat out on the deck by the lake to eat.
Sunday, August 8 Grafton, NH-Franklin, NH
We ate breakfast out on the deck and said good bye to Nancy. She gave us directions to Franklin where her mother, Marcia is in Peabody Home an assisted living facility. That is the reason we wanted to ride up here was to see Marcia. She lived in Circleville for years before moving to N. Hampshire to be closer to her daughter. It was another hot sunny day. But we didn't have far to ride. We spent several hours with Marcia, eating lunch and visiting. It was so good to see her. We stayed close in Franklin and went to a nearby hotel. The owner of the hotel was Sarah. She was a hoot. She also had a border collie that looked just like our Katie. Except that hers was much taller. We rode down the street to get our laundry done at the gas station (that' how they do it in NH!). For dinner we ordered a pizza that was delivered. Then we just enjoyed the air conditioning!
Monday, August 9 Franlin, NH-Claresville, VT
So who said bicycling was an exact science? The only thing I have written in my notes today is 2 more broken spokes! How is that possible? Mmm...something must be going on....ya think? It was a hot, humid day today again. Lots of climbing and beautiful scenery. It didn't take Hap long to fix the two broken spokes. But now we are thinking. We only have 3 spokes left! Maybe we need to go to Plan B? Do we have a Plan B? We rode to Wigan State Park (back in VT). It looked like it was going to rain so we opted to stay in a Lean To. We set up our tent underneath a really nice wood Lean to. We cooked stir fry for dinner. It did rain off and on all night. So the extra $7 we spent was worth it. It was a beautiful campsite on the river.
Tuesday, August 10 Claresville-Manchester,VT
We ate oatmeal for breakfast and then headed down river for about 5 miles. Then we turned west and started climbing. It was 10 miles UP! A long very steep climb. A car went by and I said Hap why are they laughing, as we were standing up on the pedals. Within 10 miles we broke another spoke AND found 2 more spokes cracked.....uh oh.... Now this is getting exciting. Hap fixed them, and we spent all day climbing toward Manchester. We stopped at a town and asked where there was a bike shop. They said 15 miles from here in Manchester (where we were going). Hope the wheel holds together until then! What can we do but keep ridin! The roads we were on were really good roads for riding. And the scenery was just awesome. We had another huge climb up to another ski resort and then 10 miles of down into Manchester. But the wheel had another idea. Howabout I break one more spoke (remember we only had one spare one left)? How does that sound? Yes, you guessed it just before the crest of the climb. Think standing on the pedals??? We heard THAT sound again. Pinnnggg..... Instead of fixing this one it wasn't too much out of true Hap said it would be ok to ride easy into town. So we spent 10 miles of incredible downhill, coasting and braking. Don't ya just hate that? We found the bike shop (at the bottom of the hill) and he did have what we needed. Hap made a call to the tandem guru he bought the new rim from and they decided that the "pattern" that Hap used when building the wheel was wrong. More on that later! Hap bought 56 new spokes, we found a hotel about a mile away (uphill ofcourse) and Hap completely rebuilt the wheel. We walked next door for dinner. Whew what a day!
Wednesday, August 11 Manchester, VT-Scotia, NY
We started out the day with Hap riding the bike, without any bags or extra weight (including me) back to the bike shop to use their truing stand to finish up the wheel. Needless to say we didn't start riding until around 11am. I had looked at Google map for our route for the day, Google has a bicycle route option now. Bad choice. Google doesn't recognize either how hilly the route is OR if it paved or not. At the top of one VERY steep climb, the road turned to gravel. This isn't going to work! We turned around got on the closest state highway and headed toward Scotia. That ended up being a bad route also because Rt 40 was the main route in/out of Albany/Cohos NY and there was not 
a shoulder. And of course it was rush hour. We got off that road asap and found our way back to the route. We were trying to find the start of the Erie Canal. The next thing that happened was that a bridge was out and we ended up making a big detour around it. After all that we finally found the trail in Cohos and then we saw a sign that said Trail Closed-Get off! Well, not exactly but it might as well. We got off the trail and came down onto a very busy highway, somewhere. We didn't know where we were AND it was getting dark. Remember our late start!? A cyclist stopped and gave us some directions. We put on all of our lights. (total of 5 + I had a flashlight in my hand!). We looked like a christmas tree train. Hap asked a guy at a traffic lite if he could see us and he laughed and said oh yeah! By the time we got to the Arrowhead RV campground it was after dark. We quickly set up the tent, walked over to the laundry room to do laundry and called for some pasta from a pizza place that delivered to laundry rooms! No trouble sleeping that night!
a shoulder. And of course it was rush hour. We got off that road asap and found our way back to the route. We were trying to find the start of the Erie Canal. The next thing that happened was that a bridge was out and we ended up making a big detour around it. After all that we finally found the trail in Cohos and then we saw a sign that said Trail Closed-Get off! Well, not exactly but it might as well. We got off the trail and came down onto a very busy highway, somewhere. We didn't know where we were AND it was getting dark. Remember our late start!? A cyclist stopped and gave us some directions. We put on all of our lights. (total of 5 + I had a flashlight in my hand!). We looked like a christmas tree train. Hap asked a guy at a traffic lite if he could see us and he laughed and said oh yeah! By the time we got to the Arrowhead RV campground it was after dark. We quickly set up the tent, walked over to the laundry room to do laundry and called for some pasta from a pizza place that delivered to laundry rooms! No trouble sleeping that night!Thursday, August 12 Scotia, NY-Herkimer, NY
The day started with breakfast at Dunkin Donuts. Bet you will never hear that from us again! We started out riding the gravel Erie Canal trail but the going was very slow. We got out on Rt 5 to make better progress. There was a nice shoulder and not much traffic. We were going to Utica but stopped short in Herkimer just because it was just so hot. We rode into Herkimer and asked at a nail/beauty shop about a motel. She recommended the America Best inn just up the road. We went down, checked in and walked to Ponderosa for dinner. Then back to the hotel to enjoy the air conditioning.
Friday, August 13 Herkimer, NY-Plainville, NY
We got an early start (for us-9am) with breakfast at Denny's. We really needed to pick up some miles so we decided to get on Rt 5 and not ride the trail today. We were alittle behind schedule due to the wheel problem. The route was flatter than we had been riding. But it was once again very hot and humid. We moved along better than any other day due to a nice tailwind. At 3p we decided to push on another 25 miles (for a total 91 miles for the day) to make up some of the miles. Everything was going great until....we came up to an area of about 10 miles where there was a huge mall. The traffic was very heavy and the people were in a hurry to get to the shopping. It is amazing the chances that people will take in cars. I guess if someone has to die so you can start shopping sooner so be it. I had a really hard time with this section. Sometimes on the back of the tandem because I am not in control of anything, just sitting there watching cars come at you can be very unnerving. But Hap did a great job! Once we got away from there all was good again. We got to Sunset Park campground and set up camp. It was a nice campground on a small lake. We headed over to get water to cook with and was told we couldn't drink the water from there. We had to get water back up hill at the "spring". That would have been good info when we were checking in. So off we went in search of water. A couple came over and asked us over for a bonfire. After our shower, the showers were really dirty and dinner (beef stew, rice) we sat around the fire with about 15 people. During the night Hap got a really bad stomach ache. Not sure what that was about, very unusual. But the next morning he was fine.
Saturday, August 14 Plainsville, NY-Rochester, NY
We started with our usual oatmeal breakfast before heading out on Rt 31 toward Rochester. It was very hot and humid again. We were very glad we had ridden the extra miles the day before because we had a side/headwind and we were both tired from the long day before (7 hours in the saddle!). We were paralleling the Erie Canal trail so we decided to get on it off and on to give us a break from the wind. It was nice being away from the traffic. But the gravel sure slows us down. We stopped for an ice cream break. We had alot of hills towards the end of the day. And then just when you thought it was over, the lady was starting to warm up, yep you guessed it....p.innggg.... Was that a .....? Yes it sure was. We had 30 miles to ride in this trip and now we are once again standing on the side of the road, in the heat, changing a spoke. Ah well....that's bike touring. Hap fixed the wheel and I fixed us PBJ sandwiches. We arrived in Rochester before dark that's the main thing! We went out to an Indian restaurant with Bev and Lance to celebrate our return to the real world.
Wrap up
All in all a great trip. But a difficult one. I think we were alittle spoiled at having time to take our time and not have to do certain distances every day. You can do that when you are on a year long trip. We loved traveling in the New England states, I wouldn't be surprised if we end up there again soon. We didn't have enough time but then that happens. The most important part of this ride for us was visiting with Marcia. It was great to see that she was healthy, happy and very well taken care of. As far as the wheel, well, one thing I that came to mind when all of this happened is that bicycling is NOT an exact science. You just don't know what is going to come up. When we were standing on the side of the road, with only one more spare spoke after breaking 7, our thought was don't panic...just work with what ya got and keep peddlin!
Until next time......
TOTAL MILEAGE: 900 MILES
TOTAL FUN: PRICELESS
