August 30, 2021
Day 91: Whitesboro to Sprakers
Good timing with a storm
“The forecast has changed to intermittent rain rather than thunderstorms and a big downpour,” Heather says as we are eating breakfast. “There’s supposed to be a cold front coming in this afternoon to push out the humidity,” Tom adds. The sky is overcast and we hope Tom is correct.
We follow Tom’s advice on the route off the trail because there are stretches where the trail is interrupted between Whitesboro and Frankfort. We go back through town, cross the trail and the interstate and pick up USBS route 5 on highway 5 east. When we get past Utica, we stop at Dave’s Diner for second breakfast.
At Frankfort, we pick up the trail again. The first part is newly paved and not yet shown on Googlemaps. Then we get a long section of crushed shale. There’s evidence of recent rain and Patrick says, “it doesn’t roll very well but this is a beautiful trail.” We are in the forests and mosquitoes are plentiful. It does not take long for them to discover us when we take breaks.
When we reach Fort Plain, we are first looking for a Dutch shop that is shown on Googlemaps, hoping for lunch, but it must be out of business. We ride on to the market for dinner supplies. The shop is pretty dire, enough to get chicken, mashed potatoes, baked beans and dessert. Another 5 miles we reach Canajoharie. This is a neat looking town and we find The Village Restaurant for lunch. As we are eating a thunderstorm with huge downpour comes through. Then the sun comes out again, we pay our bill and the waitress says “good timing."
Back on the trail for only a few more miles we reach Sprakers. There’s a sign “water, restroom (no shower) and shelter ahead.” We pass by a church with an attached building that offers these amenities to “Bike Pathers”. There’s a display explaining the history of this offering, including that donations received are given to the food bank.
We have arranged though with a Warmshowers host to stay in his empty house that has water and power and not much else. It’s for sale. We have the code for a lockbox, find the key and let ourselves in. Upstairs is a slightly rough tub and shower, downstairs a kitchen and a couple of empty rooms. There are some rolled-up sleeping pads that we put under the ceiling fan and we make ourselves at home.
We like to meet our Warmshowers hosts, and when at home we enjoy interacting with the guests we receive. This time we just appreciate having shelter and a place to relax.
Today's ride: 52 miles (84 km)
Total: 3,724 miles (5,993 km)
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