underground bees, hakeem, I ain't homeless, gone in 60 seconds

September 4, 2022

I woke up at 8:00 to an overcast 68-degree morning. Everything was wet from the overnight rain which, unsurprisingly, I slept through. Think "innocence" rather than "fatigue." Once our gear was packed and loaded, we rode back up the steep trail to the Steamworks Coffee Shop for breakfast: a mocha and a croissant.

this gives a better indication of the steepness

On the way there were some interesting sculptures.

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We finally started our ride at 10:45 and I left the small town of Lockport without knowing much about it, other than it has some important historical value as a lock town, or maybe a port for locks, or... maybe a lock port. I left never even having learned how it got its name.

I also pedaled away unaware of the fact that it's the birthplace of a number of famous people. A short list includes: (1) Joyce Carol Oates, the famous author, (2) Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bombing domestic terrorist, (3) William G. Morgan, the inventor of volleyball/friend of James Naismith, and (4) William F. Leonard, a WW2 Medal of Honor recipient.

The ride was a bit more scenic today.

I've never seen bees that live underground.

Mike stopped a couple of times to fish, and caught something at the second stop.

In Middleport we separated: Mike to a cafe to get some wings, and me to the picnic tables on the other side of the canal to eat my peanut butter, nutella, and banana chips tortilla wrap.

the trail is on the other side of the canal, and the picnic bench is in the lower right

While Mike was at a cafe picking up his lunch another bicyclist, Hakeem, came over and we started talking. Mike joined shortly thereafter, and we learned that Hakeem is also traveling the Empire State Trail, but instead of turning north in Albany toward the Canadian border he’s heading south to New York City. Unlike our completely respectable goal of 50 miles a day or so, he's traveling almost 100 miles a day and staying in AirBnBs instead of camping. This is his first lengthy tour, although he’s done a few overnighters. We talked mainly about gear and bikes, the common language among cyclotourists.

He’s carrying a drone, which he pulled out and flew around a bit for us. It’s something I’ve considered buying, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I wouldn’t use it very much and it would end up being unused dead weight. They are really cool, though, and can automatically track a person, following them as they turn corners, speed up, or slow down. Creepy, but still kind of cool. It also has excellent image stabilizing software and a 7.5-mile range. It's pretty amazing technology. After about 20 minutes or so he took off again.

Mentioning "unused dead weight" above got me to thinking... there are a LOT of items I pack that I never use, and I started considering why I carry them. I think it comes down to whether it's something I'll need rather than want. I might not use my tire pump the entire time, and in that sense it's "unused dead weight," but it's something I might need. The amount of additional weight is also a consideration. It's unlikely I'll need any band-aids, but how much weight and space are they taking up? Very little. When considering what to take and what to leave, I balance everything on the need/want/weight/volume scales and make a determination. Anyone else have any thoughts on the subject?

Of course, all rules are thrown out the window when it comes my lawn chair. Yes, I'm carrying a lawn chair. It's a convenience that I enjoy and, to me, is worth the extra weight.

We left Middleport at 1:45 after having done less than 14 miles for the day. Still, when there's something like this to see on a regular basis it's hard to get in a hurry:

Yesterday's path from Buffalo to Lockport really varied, but today it remained level as it followed the canal all day.

except, after yesterday, there AREN'T any

We saw a number of these metal structures over the course of several days but were never able to determine what they are.

It doesn't appear to be a lock, just something to block the canal, but for what purpose?

A lot of today's route has the canal on one side and apple orchards, corn fields, soybean fields, or forests on the other. Unlike yesterday’s tailwind, today we pushed through a headwind. It did, at least, stop raining shortly after noon and the trail dried rapidly. In fact, the path dried so quickly that it didn’t take long for my panniers to start collecting dust from the moisture that had been on the bags from the rain.

We took a break in Albion, where Mike threw a line in the water and I went to grab a couple of drinks for us from the convenience store, a decaf coffee for him and a Gatorade for me. Hakeem, who had apparently taken a long, leisurely lunch somewhere behind us, briefly stopped and chatted before bolting away again.

Mike’s back was bothering him today, an old high school football injury which is exacerbated by riding. I let him know that he didn’t have to ride at my snail’s pace, and it might work out better for him to go ahead so he wouldn't be on the bike as much…. plus, he could fish more. We could just leapfrog down the trail. He said he hadn’t been sandbagging, but did think he’d set a little faster pace of about 15 mph for himself so he could get some fishing in.

I passed him about 15 minutes later with a line in the water and a grin on his face. Down the road, I kept expecting him to pass me, and eventually got a text explaining why: “hooked a massive bass. Got it to the rocks then lost it when I tried to reset and get it near the bike. Then got a tiny guy.” A true fisherman.

He caught up to me in Brockport where he got some take away barbecue from 58 Main Pub and Brew. I need to eat the food I’ve been lugging around so I won’t have so much weight, especially since I mailed a resupply to myself to be picked up in a few days.

This is the kind of playhouse you see in a boating community. Ahoy, mateys!

After looking for green blocks on google maps, i.e. potential places to pitch a tent, we decided to camp at the park in Spencerport. We were surprised at how large the park was, and even more so at how amazingly crowded it was, especially for a Sunday evening. Since it’s supposed to rain tonight we were hoping to find a pavilion under which we could pitch our tents, but there didn't appear to be anything available during our first pass through.

There was largish building with a porch that looked promising, but there was also what appeared to be a wedding party going on. As we were considering our options, another loaded tourer came up to us from that direction.

Pat is one of those people whose stated age is 67 but who looks like he has some extra years on the chassis. As the angry, fiery language flowed like lava from his mouth, he let us know that he had just come from the building with a porch. From what he was saying, he had attempted to ingratiate himself into the wedding party (and, by extension, the wedding party’s front porch), but was asked to leave.

“All I wanted was a hot dog,” he complained, which was probably true, but not the whole truth. “I ain't homeless, I just like to ride my fucking bike.” And more, “I probably make more than that asshole that told me to leave.”

As colorful as he was, it was getting dark and we needed to find a place to pitch a tent so we excused ourselves and we rode around searching for someplace suitable. In an attempt to find something quickly, Mike went one way and I went the other.

I slipped behind the barricade of the service entrance road to see if there might be anything promising there, then came back out a different way across a field… no luck.

When I got to the road, a guy in a security golf cart approached me and asked,

“Are there three of you?”

“No, just the two of us.”

Then, as if he didn’t understand the word "no," or perhaps was using an advanced interviewing technique to trip me up and admit that I was actually traveling with Pat, he asked,

“You’re riding with that guy wearing the Navy bandana?”

“Noooo.... we just met him ten minutes ago.”

“Erm, he wasn’t too happy about being told he had to leave.”

I nodded, knowingly... "Yeah, that's the impression I got from him," thinking that was an understatement.

Then, he added apologetically, “I need to tell you that they don’t want any bikes there.”

It was getting cold by the time we rode over to an isolated picnic table near the edge of the park. While my pad thai (920 calories) was rehydrating I threw on some warmer clothes. At about the same time, we both noticed a small, hidden overhang on the building about 40 feet away from us. “That might work,” we both agreed. Not great, but it would keep some of the rain off of us.

As we were eating dinner, Pat rode up. He did a little more complaining, but also told us about some of his trips (he's crossed the US five times). His narrative was interspersed with statements every couple of minutes like “Well, I’ll leave you to your evening,” and “I’m gonna head out now.”

Fifteen minutes later he was still leaving when, all of a sudden, his eyes bugged out as he noticed the overhang and proclaimed, “I’m sleeping there!”

“Yeah, we saw that when we got here and are planning to pitch our tents there.”

Unsurprisingly, it was the only thing that motivated him to leave. He was gone within sixty seconds, and thirty seconds later was pitching his tent faster than a Nascar pit crew. Like an 1800s gold miner, he had staked his claim and after rolling away never once glanced in our direction.

Mike suggested the City Park on the canal, so we reloaded our bikes and rode back. Upon arrival, we found that it was covered, and even had some electrical outlets with which we could recharge our electronics, but the overhead lights couldn’t be turned off and would be glaring down on us all night. Additionally, the area resonated with partying tourists from the nearby bars.

By this time, dusk had slipped into darkness and, considering the upcoming rainstorm, I subtly suggested we get a hotel: “Ummmm.... I’d probably be okay getting a hotel,” sort of a backdoor way of checking to see what his thoughts about it were. When he agreed, we whipped our phones out so fast that we looked like two gunfighters pulling their pistols in a Western movie.

After a quick search we learned that there aren’t any hotels in Spencerport. We did find one in Rochester, and decided to ride the seven miles in the dark.

Normally, I avoid riding at night because of my dislike of breaking car windshields with my body, but in this case (1) we would be riding on a trail where there would be no cars, and (2) we both had headlights and taillights. We left a few minutes after 8:00, and the ride was surprisingly pleasant: cool but not cold, and without the headwind we’d been struggling against all day. We saw squirrels, frogs, and even a groundhog (which I prefer to call a whistle pig, because I like the name. They sound like birds). In the light of our headlamps, the scattered leaves on the path transformed into various shades and shapes of origami.

We arrived at our hotel around 9:00 and went to our separate rooms. I immediately set up my tent in the room so it could dry. I also washed my clothes, cleaned all the gunk off my bike and bags, then, with my legs up on the ottoman, ate a couple of desserts as I wrote in my journal. I set up a shared picture folder for Mike and some other people, and eventually fell asleep after midnight in the softest sheets I think I’ve ever slept in. They were amazing.

distance: 52.1 miles (part 1) + 6.9 miles (part 2) = 60 miles
elevation: +495 feet
total time: 8:24:48
moving time: 4:45:08
maximum speed: 17.6 mph
calories: 3107

Part 1 of today's ride

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Part 2 of today's ride

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Today's ride: 60 miles (97 km)
Total: 96 miles (154 km)

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Gregory GarceauGreat couple of pages so far, Mark. I biked the Erie Canal trail from just outside of Buffalo to Troy while on my MN to MA tour. I liked it. Similar to your experiences, I met some interesting characters and geese definitely came into play.

I think I use pretty much the same "wants/needs/weight/volume" system for choosing gear as you do, but I've never carried a lawn chair. I get it though, we have at least one little luxury item. (I assume it isn't one of those bulky, aluminum-framed things that fold out to support your body with wide plastic-y straps.) The totally unnecessary luxury I've been carrying recently is a Bluetooth loudspeaker.
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