To Buffalo, Day One
It’s 6:30am, and the transition from darkness to twilight is just beginning. Sunrise will occur in just under a half hour. Sunset will be almost exactly twelve hours later. The roads are wet, and the air is humid, although it’s not currently raining. As the day progresses, the winds will pick up, but for now, the air is still. After I ride north past the length of Cayuga Lake, I’ll turn left, heading west, and ride into the wind for the next 110 miles until I reach my camping spot for the night. Or at least that’s the plan.
The first 45 miles along the lake are somewhat familiar. A few weeks ago, I rode this way for the Aids Ride for Life event, where cyclists circumnavigated Cayuga Lake. These are also the miles with the most elevation change and the biggest climbs of the entire trip, as Western New York and the Erie Canal Trail are mostly flat. Most of the route is on the road, following RT5/RT20, which are designated as cycling routes. However, this doesn’t really bring any additional infrastructure or separation from cars and it’s really just the shoulder of the road. Sometimes, it’s eight feet wide and might have rumble strips, but it’s just as likely to be less than a foot wide and full of debris, or a sharrow when passing through the quaint downtown areas of towns along the way. This route sort of follows the Erie Canal in some places, but since that’s my route for after I get to Buffalo, I wanted to have a different path for getting there, rather than overlapping and seeing the same stuff but in the opposite direction. I tried to add in some off-road stretches to my route to break up the miles, get away from 55 mph traffic, and hopefully find some shelter from the headwind later today.
I had been making good progress up until this point, comparing my current position to where I was a few weeks ago on the circumnavigation ride. However, I had started an hour earlier today, so the twenty-minute difference in the clock hands was actually an hour and twenty. Considering the extended daylight hours during summer, this might not have been significant. However it is now fall, sunset will come much sooner, and I am hesitant to ride the shoulder of these roads in the fading light. While I have front and rear lights for visibility and safety, I still feel uneasy riding rural roads in New York at night. Perhaps I would have been in Oregon as well, except I didn’t ride those types of roads past nightfall there. Perhaps my comparison isn’t Apple-to-apples, but really apples-to-oranges. I worked night shift for nearly fifteen years, and many of my commutes and outdoor activities occurred in the dark. I would regularly walk a few miles after 11pm or run a 5K around the campus at 2am while I was on break. I certainly commuted back and forth in the dark. Perhaps being in the city and suburbs with bike lanes and streetlights gave me the impression that riding was safer than following the cone of light from my handlebars while everything else was hidden in the darkness. This perception might be incorrectly leading me to believe that New York is more wild than Oregon ever was.
It’s mid-morning, and I’ll stop by Locks CS1 and CS4 on the feeder canals from Cayuga and Seneca Lakes, which eventually converge with the Erie Canal. From CS4 in Waterloo, I’ll leave the pavement behind for a while and follow a stone dust trail for around five miles into Seneca Lake Park. The surface will become paved again, but it will meander through the park, away from cars as I make my way into the town of Geneva.
Before the trip, I cleaned and prepped my bike. However, the wet roads and trail dust have caused a squawking from my front rotor. I know there’s a bike shop coming up that I’ve heard great things about, so I’ll stop by to say hello and see if I can get a quick clean to do away with the sound. Unfortunately, the shop is busy, so any maintenance will be an hour wait. I’ll take care of it myself late. They admire my bike and offer to watch over it while I run across the street to grab some food and drinks to replenish my supplies.
A few miles down the road, I come across Sweet Acres Creamery, a charming red barn-looking building with a cafe. They have a wide variety of cheeses and milks, which my lactose-intolerant body should avoid. However, they do have sandwiches and coffee, and it’s a bit past lunch time, so I decide to stop in.
The sun is beating down on me, the wind is whipping my face, and traffic is zooming by, just ahead my route takes me off RT5/RT20 and onto another trail system that will connect me to the next Finger Lake. I’m close to the halfway mark for today’s miles. I ride past endless fields of corn and a large cabbage patch before reaching a hidden, gated entrance to the Ontario Pathways Trail System. There are lots of signs: no parking, no motor vehicles, pedestrians have the right of way. The usual stuff. Then there is the “Use at your own risk, we assume no liability for bodily injury or loss of life.” Hmm. Cover your ass kind of stuff, but it seems a bit excessive.
Past the gate, the trail is mostly grass and leaves. There might be a single track of exposed dirt that’s been worn down from use. I squeeze through the narrow opening and the surface is rough. Roots, rocks, and black walnuts are obscured by fallen leaves. My wider tires and lower air pressure don’t help dampen the jarring nature of the pathway. It’s very slow going, not worth the escape from the road, traffic, and headwind.
Maybe I’ll follow this trail for a section or two, past more gated crossings, and see if the conditions improve on other sections. The Dryden Rail Trail back home is pretty rough in spots, but that isn’t consistent for the whole system. Maybe this is the same.
I decided to abandon this trail. While it might be great for walking or XC skiing in the winter, using it to ride my loaded bike isn’t providing any benefits. In fact, I’ve lost more time than I’ve gained from the supposed advantages of an off-road section. At the next road crossing, I’ll reroute and meander my way into the town of Canandaigua.
The park along the north shore of this next Finger Lake is beautiful. There are people enjoying the late afternoon. A Hilton Hotel is nearby, and it seems like there’s a wedding reception or some other formal event going on. There are a few families with hired photographers trying to capture moments in time while their children want to run around instead of sitting for the camera. It’s late afternoon already? I have an hour and a half before sunset, two before it gets dark. At my current pace and energy levels, I could cover a bit more than twenty miles, and still have around fifty miles before I reach the campground I’ve already secured for the night. That would mean arriving after 10 p.m., still needing to set up camp, eat dinner, and probably want to take advantage of the showers. I suppose I need another option because that timeline doesn’t sound appealing to me right now.
I called a nearby car rental company in an attempt to give me a fast forward to my camp spot. However, due to the wind, they couldn’t hear me very well, and my lack of research on drop-off location options made me hesitate before suggesting the Buffalo Airport. For some reason, this immediately turned into disbelief and an argument on their part. I explained my current situation and reasoning for the rental, but they continued to not believe me or whatever. So, I just hung up. It was such a weird interaction.
Living in New York now, and not being too far from home, and it being a Friday evening, my wife was available and offered to be my SAG wagon, helping me move to the campground. There were other options, like staying where I was or finding a stealth camp, but I was hesitant to miss out on some progress and the campsite I had planned for.
By the time we arrived at the campground, it was dark, except for the campfires and LED lights everywhere. Haha. I was probably the only one sleeping in a tent, and without a golf cart to get to the bathroom and showers. I waved goodbye to my support people and started setting up. Then, the phone rang. Apparently, the gate to leave also required a code to raise it. I dropped the tent pegs in my hand and rode off to let my wife out, saying “Thank you!” again for the fast forward. Back at the site, I finished setting up the tent, laid out my sleeping setup, started charging my electronics, and grabbed a mini pannier with my change of clothes and headed to the shower.
Tomorrow would be a long night away, as apparently, there isn’t a noise curfew at the campground. It wasn’t until 2 am that it actually started to quiet down. I wasn’t in a hurry the next day because I only had about thirty miles to go to Buffalo. My time goal was 4 pm, when there was an organized ride downtown that I was participating in. Eventually I’ll doze off.