Got out early enough from the motel. Not a bad stay for $56 and dried out all my gear (remember I had to pack it all up wet yesterday morning?). Typical view of a bike tourist's room.
I took advantage of all the space in the room to lay out my kit so it could dry
I made my way into Syracuse downtown and met another cyclist on the road commuting to his job, and we chatted about touring. He did the west coast last year but still had excitement for a small-er tour like mine. The path into the downtown area is well done and very quaint, getting you into the historical district and then onto a bike lane on a road. Keep in mind I'm still on my detour and haven't linked up with the Canal path yet.
The creek side path winding from the lake inlet directly into downtown
It was then about 90 minutes of serene towpath riding until I get to the Chittenango Landing. This was a dry dock and maintenance facility for the Erie Canal in its heyday. It has been restored (and is still going through restoration) and it was good to stop, walk around a bit, and get a better perspective of the lives of Canal support crew. There was even a Canal boat built in which you could go inside to get a better feeling of life aboard, bothe for cargo, mules, and people. If you're passing by, you should stop in.
Canastota was next and it was there I made the decision to stick with my original plan of the detour to Sylvan Beach. My legs felt yesterday's ~80 mile effort and I thought I could save some energy and get into camp early. But I really wanted to see Lake Oneida so I decided to go. Good decision, too, because riding on the road increased my speed and it felt better in the legs. sylvan beach has a beach (OK, that was obvious), amusement park (closed for the season) with a midway and carnival rides, and a marina and harbor for boaters. After tooling around for a bit (couldn't find any place to get water) I headed due east to reconnect with the Canal.
The midway was closed for the season, but its bright yellow colors were not!
As I said, after that it was a jaunt through farmland making my way to lock 21 where I could link back up with the Erie Canal pathway. Then through Rome (not THAT Rome) where I made a pit stop for Fort Stanwix. The interesting thing is the fort is right in the middle of the town. It's not like the town kept it that way, oh no! They built on top of it and in 1969, decided to raze the buildings on top of it and reconstruct the fort. It was built by the British when they were over here (in what was originally the colonies).
Farm scene on my "get back to the Erie Canal from my Sylvan Beach detour" ride
I rolled deeper into Rome to pick up a sandwich at Subway, then stuffed it into my frame pack so I could eat it later at the campsite.
This is pure serendipity. Saw these two monoliths as I rode past and then combined with the display of flags, it hit me - this was a 9/11 memorial. Even had some pieces of steel from the World Trade Center
