June 4, 2023
Day 20 - Through Syracuse
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This morning before I left the campground, I uploaded my writeups for the last few days. This took some time, so I didn't hit the road until about 9:15. I took the canal path as far as Newark, where there was a detour due to construction on the path. Shortly into the detour there was a diner, so I stopped in for coffee and a better breakfast than the meager one I had at the campground. A man there saw my bike, and before I had a chance to sit down, he engaged me in a conversation about where I was going, how far I went each day, how many miles I had traveled, etc. He seemed genuinely interested. Anyway, I finally got to sit down and order some French Toast, and I waved to the guy when he left the diner. When I had finised eating, the waitress told me that I was all set, the guy had paid for my breakfast. Amazing!
I rode on route 31 for quite a while after that, and around 3:30 a couple of cycle tourists, Zack and Cale, approached me from behind. We rode together for about a half hour when we stopped at a convenience store. They had started in LA on April 11, and were headed to Portland, ME. They asked me where I planned to camp for the night, but I had no plans beyond riding for about 60 miles and finding a place to set up camp for the night. They were planning to reach a state park east of Syracuse, another 45 miles away. Since there was really nothing between where we were and the state park, we thought it would be a good idea to ride together to the park. It was already 4:00, and I had ridden 40 miles already, but I thought I could make it. Most of the way would be on the trail, a mix of single track, fresh gravel, and hard packed surface. Cale had an interesting way of setting the pace on the trail. He would take a couple hits of weed, focus, and pedal as fast as could for about 45 minutes, usually going about 13 mph, which is pretty fast for a gravel path. Whatever made me think that I could keep up with a couple of guys half my age is beyond me, and while I always trailed behind, I didn't slow them down too much and we made it to the campground by 7:30. 86 miles for me on the day, 100 for them. Needless to say, once we got rolling, I couldn't stop to take pictures.
Today's ride: 86 miles (138 km)
Total: 1,358 miles (2,185 km)
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