CT3C

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.
CENTR FIELD IMG_20190706_153101-02 (2).jpg
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
3:45 am. “I don’t even want to do this,” Was my first thought of Saturday morning.
Throw in a month and year, so I have a point of reference.
all seven Hello Kitty team members
Who are these people?
Nichols School only had one indoor shower available. It was next to the urinal in the hockey rink and had no curtain. I passed.
I thought the elderly enjoy being nude in public?

Looking forward to hearing about your flat.
 

thegock

Well-Known Member
Throw in a month and year, so I have a point of reference.

July 14 2019 [aka, before the fecking Pandemic]

Who are these people?

You will get to know them in future chapters.

I thought the elderly enjoy being nude in public?

Let's not drag @rick81721 into this thread.


I
 
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thegock

Well-Known Member
2


We rode out 8am Sunday morning with a tight group of 688 riders and through an upscale section of Buffalo near the zoo, then north along the Niagara River. We stopped for lunch that first day at Lockport, where the canal ascends a series of five locks, one of the signature engineering achievements of the Erie Canal. This stop was less than halfway on the route, ran well over two hours and featured the largest servings of Mac and Cheese that I have ever eaten a quarter of. The afternoon’s ride was a blazing cheeze coma death march to Albion, NY. It was especially challenging for a couple of the Hello Kitty team riders, who weren’t trained as well as they may have wanted.



Much of the towpath was covered in fresh crushed bluestone, which had been graded very recently. It is a well maintained, smooth, fast route. There were equal parts of macadam on the towpath. 688 riders, including some volunteers, who had the “day off”, started each day. Some hard core riders left at 6am, every day, but we usually staggered out of camp well after 7:14am, half the time, me lagging behind. Good thing my pursuit skilz are so fresh.



For the $900 fee you get well provisioned rest stops, daily cue sheets, good food, institutional coffee, showers, super volunteers, trucks to haul your tent and gear, and broad SAG and mechanical support. You also get unexpected treats at most of the destinations and some of the rest stops. About a third of the riders were “glamping,” their tent with air mattress set up, gear hauled by college kid staff and a clean towel for an additional $40 each night. Probably 50 of those were doing the “indoor” option (e.g. in a gym on the floor.)



At our second stop in Fairport, a suburb of Rochester, we were able to stay at my sister and brother in law’s palatial home instead of camping. First, doe, I had to get the Lyft driver to move the empty cat food cans off his front seat so I could sit for the five miles drive. Hey, I get it. I am rollin’ swole with my dog food diet, but cat food is 28% cheaper.

Prince Ron IMG_20190709_063516-02.jpg




When we departed Castle Fairport the next morning in the more aspirational Uber, we noticed an extra bag in the foyer. We call the other half of the group, but no one claimed it, so we brought it back to the campground. My brother in law, Prince Ron, (not biking this one) had accidentally loaded the bag in his truck the night before. The bag owner, who had thought it had been stolen, was delighted to get it back.

Below is my sister in law riding along the Niagra River on the first day. She would become rookie of the year after I was thrown off the team.

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK IMG_20190707_085001-01.jpg
 

thegock

Well-Known Member
3​

Next stop was Seneca Falls, a town historic in the women’s rights movement. This night we were responsible for our own dinner. I scored the Tuesday night special which is the $1.85 cheese steak at Dewey’s bar. It was recommended by the “her day off”, whippet thin, 5’10” cocktail waitress from the nearby Indian casino, sitting next to me at the bar. Perfect in every way.



The next morning, we saw osprey in the Montezuma National Wildlife refuge, which were more majestic than the pair of blue heron in flight that we rode past on the second day. This was a long ride to Syracuse, NY, which featured one of the highest climbs of the week into Burnet Park. I missed that, doe, because while trying to look forward, back and up the ramp to a limited access state highway five miles away from Syracuse, I missed a piece of metal that slashed my rear tubeless tire. The extender, which a mechanic (NOT my regular guy), had installed, effectively locked the valve onto the rim, unless I was carrying the two vise grips that Dr. Paul used to remove it that evening. Dr. Paul is the owner of the Elmira bike shop and traveled with this circus fixing bikes during the week. Just as I gave up on fixing the tire, a SAG car rolled up.



Burnet Park in Syracuse featured a big deep pool. After I passed my swim test, I spent 15 minutes jumping to the bottom of the cool, deep end, again and again. About an hour later, a fight broke out and they closed the pool. Despite the noticeable security people, there was an attempted bike theft that night. Syracuse is a pit with 90% dilapidated housing and homeless on the streets.



That night in Syracuse, one of the HELLO KITTY team members asked me if I was going to buy an Erie Canal jersey. I told them that I didn’t want anyone I knew to find out that I had done this ride, so no.

NO CAMPING IMG_20190711_054932-01.jpg


The Blarney Stone bar was a great place for beers and dinner for four of us. The other three had booked hotel rooms that night. Because my in laws are all old school millionaires, I bought. The Blarney Stone has a replica out front of the iconic traffic light, located two blocks away, with the green light on the top. It was a very Irish neighborhood back in the day. The locals kept shooting out the orange light, cuz the orange (northern Ireland Protestant color) cannot be permitted to be above the green. Finally, the town gave up and put the green up top! Civil disobedience sometimes works.

BLARNEYSTONE IMG_20190710_190245_1-01.jpg
 

w_b

Well-Known Member
fify

This night we were responsible for our own dinner. I scored the Tuesday night special with the whippet thin, 5’10” cocktail waitress from the nearby Indian casino, sitting next to me at the bar. Perfect in every way.

for the $900 you should get surf and turf errnight if that is your thing. Own dinner << surf and turf
 

thegock

Well-Known Member
Does this cover nightly trips to the local dive bars?
$1.85 cheesesteaks...were beers $10?


Yeah, @pooriggy. Turned out that I picked the wrong night to buy dinner. The Blarney Stone was a dive, but the place with the off duty go go dancer, I mean cocktail waitress, sorry was cheaper for 7 meals and drinks. FML


L
MVIMG_20190710_190246_1-01.jpeg
 

Santapez

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Tom,

Serious questions. Communication with you can be a bit confusing.

  • Would you recommend this route to others?
  • Was this organized trip worth the cost?
  • What was included in the cost? Spaces to sleep? Any actual lodging? Breakfast/Dinner?
  • Was this organized trip better in any way than just going as a small group? Logistics seem fairly easy outside of a shuttle as it's a one-way.
 

thegock

Well-Known Member
SAGW AGON MVIMG_20190710_124054.jpg


This picture above of the SAG wagon and volunteer five miles from Syracuse is for @pooriggy , who has more flats than me.​

The next day was the only big drama of the trip. Nine miles in at a water stop near the Syracuse version of Citibikes, I learned via text that my sister’s 26 year old nephew had died of an overdose. He was a very nice kid, sweet, but with a ton of demons. I had hired him to help me move a decade earlier and he boxed up the Riedel crystal burgundy glasses, then stacked the Le Creuset cast iron pots on top of the crystal. Story of his life.


SYRA CUSE IMG_20190711_084656-02.jpg



A few miles later, we passed a 38 lbs snapping turtle in the canal water, then its 18 pound brother right next to the towpath track. The rest area was in Canastota, where we saw one of the lift bridges over the canal operate, followed 4 miles later by a futile visit to an ATM in Oneida, where the restart was slower than usual. Impatiently, I pedaled off before the other six.



288 yards east, there was a woman in the middle of the MUT flagging the riders toward the extreme left of the eight foot wide towpath. I scoped out the aftermath as I rolled slowly by. The crash had just happened and was a mess of people and bikes, so I spun around and returned to the scene. I first asked whether Nancy, lying on the right side of the MUT in considerable pain, wanted a couple of Advil. One of the standees stated strongly that “(he) didn’t think that was a good idea.” Not likely he was an emergency room trauma surgeon, but I moved on. First, I took one of the six bikes east of Nancy and moved it 28 yards west where the hundreds of riders were coming from and placed it on the right side of the MUT with the tail light blinking. Then I put the flag woman behind it. Then I put the on trail SAG guy in the orange vest in front of the bike and told him to stand there and flag.



Nancy later went to Syracuse Catholic and was moved to another hospital for knee surgery. I spoke to her friend Rick, who had been holding her head off the ground, the next day. He said that Nancy had been riding an ebike. She had not slept well the night before. Probably Nancy didn’t share my deep appreciation of OG rap mobile with the big box speakers kickin’ that rolled by Burnet Park at 1:18am. Rick concluded that Nancy had fallen asleep on the bike. Wow.
 

thegock

Well-Known Member
Tom,

Serious questions. Communication with you can be a bit confusing.

YES

  • Would you recommend this route to others?
YES
  • Was this organized trip worth the cost?
FOR ME IT WAS AND THE ENTIRE HELLO KITTY TEAM WOULD AGREE, THAT BEING SAID, IT WAS MORE OF AN EPIC FOR THEM AND A BIT OF A SNOOZE AT TIMES FOR ME.
  • What was included in the cost? Spaces to sleep? Any actual lodging? Breakfast/Dinner?
FOOD FOR BREAKFAST AND 6/8 DINNERS, CAMPSITES, SHOWERS SAG SUPPORT, WELL APPOINTED REST AREAS, GEAR SHUTTLE THAT WORKED WELL
  • Was this organized trip better in any way than just going as a small group? Logistics seem fairly easy outside of a shuttle as it's a one-way.
IT WAS BETTER THAN A SMALL GROUP IF YOU LIKE MEETING NEW PEOPLE
WMBC WACH TUNG 7098488573167703158.jpg
 

Santapez

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Thanks for the info.

By the way, once I realized that you wrote out this thread to replace the lyrics of the Butthole Surfer's song "Pepper", it began to make more sense.
 
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