kristingbridges
Day 3: usually our toughest day on any trip. There’s something about the body just saying “seriously, we’re doing this again?” But it really wasn’t bad today. Our muscles did pretty well, likely because we’ve gotten much smarter about fueling ourselves as we go. There’s the usual seat soreness that just comes with the territory. Believe me, we’ve tried all sorts of seats, riding shorts, chamois cream and there just isn’t a magic solution. We’ve just gotten to the point where we can keep it mild enough to deal with it. I did have trouble with my left knee today. After we got a few miles down the road and the ibuprofen kicked in, it settled down. But I think I figured it out. When I take off, I always use my left foot on the pedal and kick off with my right. When I don’t have a load on my bike, it’s pretty forgiving if I’m in a higher gear, but with nearly 50 extra pounds, it puts too much strain on my knee to take off in too high of a gear. I’ve now moved to my smallest front ring so I even if I don’t get downshifted before a stop, it’s never a very high gear. When we’re hauling panniers and going slow on an unpaved trail, it’s safe to say we really don’t need a very high gear ever.
Getting back on the trail from our B&B last night went well, though we did have to go down the road that had be torn up, but at least it was down and not up. The weather was perfect, though the wind was a little pesky since it was more of a crosswind and not a tailwind. But it really wasn’t an issue. We are seeing tons of wildlife, so I decided to start tracking it some. See below. I checked and it is slightly possible to sight a Common Loon this time of year around here and I’m psyched! (Yep, I obsess about birds and I won’t apologize!)
The actual canal didn’t have as many boats on it today since it’s a weekday, but there were still a lot more people than we expected walking, running, and biking on the trail today. We found a great park on the east end of Rochester to eat our peanut butter and tortilla lunch today. BUT the big news is that we’ve been looking for a bike shop because one of our mirrors we use on our helmets got left behind, we assume in the garage. There haven’t been any open or very close to the trail. As we were getting to the very outskirts of Rochester on the trail, what did we find?! A brand-spankin’ new REI! Right on the trail! We found a new mirror AND I found some of the caffeinated Honey Stingers (yes, I’m still on about that). We also found these very cool organic, 2 ingredient fruit jerkies. We were just lamenting not being able to acquire fresh bananas so far on the trip, so I got a banana one with cacao nibs and one other. I ate the banana one this afternoon and Brian ate his pineapple one. Yay for potassium!
A short while later, we came into Fairport. It’s a quaint town with lots of shops and sort of a boardwalk along the canal. That looked crowded and we would have been required to walk our bikes, so we stuck to the street a bit behind that. There were shops and cafes and all sorts of cool stuff. Then I saw it, a creperie! But I noticed Brian was just speeding on through the town. I tried to call to him without being too conspicuous and then I thought I might be able to wave him back since he now had a mirror again. No luck. There was also a cafe that looked like a good place to get an ice cold Coke, which is a treat for me when we’re riding all day. Nope. I didn’t catch him until we were up to the next cross street and we would have had to double back, which is not a fun thought on a day of 48 miles. He does now understand that I shouldn’t be deprived of crepes and cold Coke on a bike trip. Ever. 😉
After the “Fairport Crepe Fiasco” as it shall henceforth be called, we still had quite a few miles ahead of us. We had refilled our bottles from the water in the waterskin that Brian had filled up in the B&B and then he refilled it from a fountain in the park in Rochester. We were being smart about keeping enough water on board. But then….yep always a twist it seems. We tried the water from the B&B. It was awesome there. I drank quite a bit from the tap last night and this morning. But something had gone horribly wrong. It tasted mildly of, well I said urinal cakes. I know, I know, I’ve never tasted them, but it faintly reminded me of the way they smell. We had water the day before out of the waterskin that we had filled with bottled water in Lockport and it was fine. We tried adding the Stingers water supplements to it and it just barely masked it. We were less than 10 miles from our stop when I got to my first bottle filled from it, so I just gave up. We have no idea what happened, but we’re hoping it will be better with water from this hotel tomorrow.
We knew our hotel in Palmyra was a bit of a slog from the trail, but Brian had not been able to find a B&B or hotel near the trail when he was planning this trip months ago. (Spoiler alert: we now know there are at least 2 B&Bs right down by the trail) It was 2 miles up into the middle of nowhere and we had a long hill to climb. We stopped in town on the main street when we saw a gas station. I got my fountain coke at least! We also got some bottled water to tide us over until we got to the hotel and a couple bananas. My climb was entirely fueled, and sponsored by Coca-Cola!
The hotel is nice, but there was no place to eat nearby. We tried to get an Uber back down to the main strip and failed. So, we walked the 1.4 miles back to town for dinner. As we were finishing, I tried Uber again, selecting a slightly more expensive service level and someone responded! It took her 20 minutes to get there, but we shared another beer and then met her and got back to the hotel safe and sound. The most exciting part is that this place has a washer and dryer just a few doors down from our room. The clean clothes should be coming out of the dryer shortly. With such a limited selection of clothes, I love finding a laundry so we can have fresh clothes without washing them in the sink with shampoo and hanging them all over the room to dry.
Tomorrow, it doesn’t look like the weather will cooperate and we’ll have to get out our rain gear. But it’s still a great day if we’re on our bikes! Stay tuned to see if I still feel that way tomorrow night.
Notable Wildlife:
Deer – 3 – one each day so far
Snakes – 1
Groundhogs – 1
Kingfisher – 1
Great Blue Heron – 1
Green Heron – 1
Lots of little fish that jump out of the water
Cormorants – many, but hadn’t expected them at all
Squirrels – all over the place
Ducks – lots, but I haven’t spotted anything I can confirm is something more exotic than a mallard
Gulls – soooo many
Canada Geese – too dang many!