73 Miles on the Canal

June 3, 2024

Today I rode 73 miles on the canal path. My plan was to do 95, but I left at 11am instead of 7am. At 11am there was a light drizzle. That cleared up. Saw a bit of wildlife. A lot of geese--toddlers and their parents. Of course, that meant trying to ride between all the goose droppings. A few deer stood in the middle of the path and looked at me; perhaps my reflector reminded them of headlights. They darted away when I got within 15 yards. A sizeable turtle--shell was at least 15 inches long--was hanging outside a hole in the grass that may have been its home. Some colorful birds flew across the path. Of course, the ever present squirrels and chipmunks darted frenetically--one almost right under my tire.

I have a playlist, Cyc-list 2024. It has more than 20 hours of music. One world is enough by the Police came on. And I thought, "It is--one world is enough for all humans, geese, turtles, ducks, birds, chipmunks, squirrels, snakes (one slithered across the path today) deer, and so on. Some years back I read a report that concluded that if the average human lived like the average resident of India, the earth could support 15 billion people; whereas if the average human lived like the average American, the Earth could only support less the 5 billion.

So, I guess one world is enough, IF...

Anyway, I rode about 32 miles east on the canal, through Schoen place, past Bushnell's Basin, through Fairport, past Macedon. Then I turned around and headed back. Stopped at The Purple Painted Lady for a break--see the next post. I kept going westward, past the JCC and REI to the labyrinth that exists where the Canal path meets the Genesee Riverway trail. Then I turned around and headed east to home. But before leaving the Riverway trail, I snapped the below photos of kayakers. It was another beautiful day. Even though I didn't do 95 miles, I was pleased: after 44 miles yesterday, and 73 today, my legs felt good. Today was the first day trying the Camelbak: it took a minute, but it worked well, kept the water cool all day. My speed wasn't bad, especially considering that it was gravel, and I had to stop a few times to figure out where I was given the detour, etc. I did the 73 in under 5 hours of riding.

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