thegock
Well-Known Member
5
The next stop was bustling Rome, NY, which was one of the larger towns where we overnighted. Camping was on the grounds of Fort Stanwix, a National monument that was built in 1758, just before the French and Indian War. The fort is there because there is a gap in the mountains through which the Mohawk River passes on the way east from Buffalo to Albany. Therefore, in revolutionary times it was a very valuable strategic location, because the river preceded the canal as a means of transportation.
ROME TEAM PHOTO
After a few beers from the brewpub truck, dinner at Vigneto’s and a self guided tour of the sprawling fort, we turned in. My guy at the NOAA/NWS had told us to expect considerable rain, which held off until 11pm, when my nephew told me he heard the rain roaring in a full minute before it hit. My 40 year old Eureka tent wasn’t up to the 2 hours of wind driven 2.8 inches of rain. Four times, I had to stifle a laugh at how hard it was raining, after thinking that it couldn’t possibly rain any harder or more.
The next morning my sleeping bag, pillow and clothes I was wearing were all drenched, but everything else was packed in double plastic bags. Not feeling great, until I ran into a woman who had her tent set up under one of the official canopies. When I told her that she was a genius, she said that she had originally been sleeping in a low spot and awoke to 4” on rain in her tent. Everything she had was soaked. While we were leaving, she was headed for the laundromat to dry out.
This next day was one of the most difficult. There was quite a bit of county road and State Highway 5 (five miles entirely in the rain with multiple trailer trucks roaring by just feet away at 70mph) riding. We may have stopped 8 times in the miles between 18 and 35 to don and remove rain jackets, when it rained and stopped and rained and stopped...
I didn’t have a rain jacket with me and my back was very twitchy after 225 miles plus of CAAD10 Black stiffness (please, Einstein, pick the most uncomfortable bike that you own for this trip…), combined with hauling 80 pounds of gear a quarter of a mile twice a day. Not really sleeping much, in a small tent sized lake the night, before hadn’t helped. I hammered that last half of Route 5 when the 8th rain jacket stop commenced and jetted into the next rest stop.
I was happy to get to the Little Falls rest stop 10 minutes later and slam down 4 Advil from the angelic volunteer. The $1 Klondike bar didn’t hurt either. I was talking to one of the local volunteers at the park building, who told me that the population of the town had been 15,000 people in 2000 and, pointing out the factories across the river that had closed, he said that the population had fallen to 2,600 people 15 years later. EPIC FAIL.
The last 18 miles were blissfully dry and cool with a tail wind and I hammered home to Canajoharie @ 20mph, until the last climb up the 247 vf of Canajoharie Hill to the high school. The hour wait for the autobus gave me time to stake out my soaked tent, bag and clothes in the 20mph cooling wind. Also, I scored the holy grail of indoor showers in the varsity locker room. Bliss.