kristingbridges
Once again, rain was expected today and once again, Mother Nature decided to get it out of her system before breakfast!
We managed to find another Tim Hortons, in a gas station, pretty much on our path from the hotel to the trail this morning. We ate outside standing by our bikes because there really wasn’t a place to park them and it was pretty cramped inside. We may be vaccinated, but we’re still being careful. I tried one of their sandwiches today to make sure I got some protein. Brian got a muffin, but he had almonds too. I gulped down a plain cold brew because I must have my caffeine in the mornings. Then we headed off to meet the trail.
The trail crosses one of the main streets in town, so there was no problem finding it. As soon as we got on the trail, we found the “Five Locks,” which stair-step down (or up) the 70 foot difference from the Niagara escarpment to the area below. (Look at me still learning about geological formations and stuff!) There’s the original version, and on the far side of where we were, there’s the modern, still in-use locks. So that decline was the steepest gradient of the day. The rest of the time, since we’re going downstream, it’s pretty flat, to a very light decline.
Once on the trail, the whole trip, all 44 miles, until we pulled off for the night, was along the canal. The surface was really good almost the whole way – very fine, compacted crushed stone. Sometimes the larger stones underneath came through, but it really was on the high end of the scale of surfaces we’ve ridden on. It’s Labor Day, so there were frequent boats passing by in the canal. Super fun to wave as they went by. Most waved back.
We stopped in Middleport, near one of the remaining canal lift bridges for lunch. Just as we were finishing and ready to pack back up, we heard the bells for the bridge. The car gates came down and we watched the whole process of it going up, the boat coming under it, and the bridge going back down. You can see the video I took on our YouTube Channel here. Later down the trail, I got to video from right at the end of a bridge while it was lifting, so you can see some of how it works.
The weather was perfect all day, bouncing around in the low to mid 70s(f), with a stiff tailwind. It was nice since we didn’t get as much training in ahead of this trip as we would have liked. With a little assist from the weather, we made it to the finish just a little tired. Of course, at the end of every level, there has to be a challenge. For us it’s usually a steep climb to our hotel for the night! Sometimes, though, it’s nightmare traffic and today it was a street that was a bit of a climb with the added fun that the pavement has recently been ripped up for repavement. We’ve been on lots of surfaces, but this one was near the worst. Except that section on the trail today where it turned to some sort of concrete wall or levee with a sign warning of rough pavement and a warning to walk bikes across. It was about a quarter mile of some sort of ridging across it about every 4 inches, with the added fun of big broken patches. We rode across, but very slowly.
If you had asked me a couple years ago if we ever carry energy gels etc. on our trips, I would have looked at you like you’re insane. “It’s not like we’re elite athletes in the Tour de France or something. We just eat real food. It’s fine” Then our 2019 tour happened. We got caught off guard by a heat wave and a drought in September. Add in getting off-trail and lost a few times, and we ran out of food and water a couple days. Check out this blog entry for our worst day ever. Now we have our water skin with us – and we actually needed it today. And after trying the gels and the stroopwaffels on our test trip on the Cardinal trail last month, we’ll never travel without our Honey Stinger gels and waffles again! When you are spending 4-5 hours pedaling, you can’t possibly consume enough calories with 3 meals a day. I needed over 3000 calories just to break even today and I can’t eat big meals comfortably. I knew that. What I didn’t realize was how efficient getting some pure sugar and carbs in can be and the difference it can make in between the meals. Any time I started feeling hungry or getting tired, I grabbed a gel or a waffle and was shocked at how well it got me to the next meal or the stop. We also grabbed some of their Rapid Hydration mix. It adds some electrolytes without a ton of calories or artificial junk to your water. Most sports drinks have the ratio of potassium and sodium flipped from what you need (too much sodium) and add a bunch of artificial stuff and sugar. The Honey Stinger mixes make drinking water more palatable when the water in your bottles doesn’t taste great, too. I am not getting sponsored or anything, but we got the bulk quantities we needed for the trip from their storefront on Amazon, but your local bike shop likely carries them in smaller quantities. (Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk)
Tonight, we are tucked in comfortably in the Victorian B&B in Brockport. Snug, but lovely. As always, we found a place for dinner in walking distance – it’s nice to use some different muscles at the end of the day. Tomorrow we have a longer day, going through Rochester and on to Palmyra.
