thegock
Well-Known Member
3:45 am. “I don’t even want to do this,” Was my first thought of Saturday morning.
Headed up to Ho Ho Kus at 5am to meet my brother in law and sister in law to drive to Albany, where all seven Hello Kitty team members would take one of four buses to Buffalo. My brother in law, who is one of my cycling proteges, invited me on this family trip. We are going to the 21St Annual Cycle The Erie Canal (CTEC) from Buffalo east to Albany. cycletheeriecanal.com
The parking lot at SUNY Albany is hot and the bus is, too. I ran into some friends from Maplewood in the lot. We plow thru a heavy rain on the four+ hour drive west. I told my brother that I had a CAAD 10 with over 4,500 miles on it and I “NEVER HAD A FLAT.” You know where this is inevitably going. The rain had stopped by the time we arrived at Nichols School to pitch tents, eat and sleep.
The route is about 360 miles of 75% towpath/MUT with the remainder mostly country roads near small towns. The average quality of the riding surface is better than the Delaware and Raritan Canal towpath, for example. The route frequently passes through small towns along the way east. One big plus is the amount of shade on the towpath, where the trees have not been cut back on the earthen walls of the canal. There isn’t much climbing, except for the end of some days where the campground (e.g. Syracuse, Canajoharie) is 200-300 feet up above the Canal level.
That evening sitting west and north of NJ where we were, the sky was light past 9:10pm. Nichols School only had one indoor shower available. It was next to the urinal in the hockey rink and had no curtain. I passed. Dinner and breakfast under big pavilion tents were pretty good. The coffee was deplorable.
Headed up to Ho Ho Kus at 5am to meet my brother in law and sister in law to drive to Albany, where all seven Hello Kitty team members would take one of four buses to Buffalo. My brother in law, who is one of my cycling proteges, invited me on this family trip. We are going to the 21St Annual Cycle The Erie Canal (CTEC) from Buffalo east to Albany. cycletheeriecanal.com
The parking lot at SUNY Albany is hot and the bus is, too. I ran into some friends from Maplewood in the lot. We plow thru a heavy rain on the four+ hour drive west. I told my brother that I had a CAAD 10 with over 4,500 miles on it and I “NEVER HAD A FLAT.” You know where this is inevitably going. The rain had stopped by the time we arrived at Nichols School to pitch tents, eat and sleep.
The route is about 360 miles of 75% towpath/MUT with the remainder mostly country roads near small towns. The average quality of the riding surface is better than the Delaware and Raritan Canal towpath, for example. The route frequently passes through small towns along the way east. One big plus is the amount of shade on the towpath, where the trees have not been cut back on the earthen walls of the canal. There isn’t much climbing, except for the end of some days where the campground (e.g. Syracuse, Canajoharie) is 200-300 feet up above the Canal level.
That evening sitting west and north of NJ where we were, the sky was light past 9:10pm. Nichols School only had one indoor shower available. It was next to the urinal in the hockey rink and had no curtain. I passed. Dinner and breakfast under big pavilion tents were pretty good. The coffee was deplorable.