Day 48 7/21/19

Bay City, MI to Fish Lake Rd (North Branch, MI); 73 miles, 5-8 NE, sunny, 70-80’s

Some days are routine meaning you ride the route according to the directions in a reasonable amount of time without any impediments. Fortunately most days are routine. In Bay City the route followed a bike path along the river. Until it ended at an intersection with no signage. My dead reckoning took over  (works two out of three times) and I found the trail after navigating city streets. Then the trail was fenced off due to the tall ships festival underway. It apparently has a pirate theme. Repeat the process of re-finding the trail. Then it was closed due to high water in the river, so more route finding. But once I cleared Bay City things were back on track. We passed through Frankenmuth, MI. It is a tourist town known for Bavarian traditions. The route passed through a covered bridge, the second of the trip. And then east of town, the road was closed with no detour marked. Google Map provided guidance on a reasonable detour that only added a couple of miles to the trip. The remainder of the ride was routine on county roads and two more nice rail trails. The storms of yesterday knocked out power that has not been restored in some of the towns we passed through. The trails had a lot of tree debris on them. Day’s like today are all part of the adventure of course, so not complaining, just reporting.

 

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Day 49 7/22/19

North Branch, MI to Marine City, MI; 77  miles, partly cloudy, 10-15 NW wind, 60-70’s

The first 5o miles of today’s ride felt a lot like eastern North Dakota. This part of Michigan is mostly farms, and the roads were flat and straight as an arrow for several miles at a time following state highways. Traffic was moderately heavy and the shoulders were somewhat narrow, so not a premium cycling experience. However, there was a generous tail wind so I made good time. The remainder of the ride was a  combination of short bike trail segments and local highways from Port Huron down to Marine City on the St. Clair River. The St. Clair River flows out of Lake Huron and divides Michigan from Ontario in Canada. The river is high too. The prescribed route would have us cross the river from Marine City into Canada on the family run Blue Water Ferry. However, it is closed down due to ice damage a year ago (we knew in advance). So we packed up, and drove north to cross the border over the Blue Water Bridge between Port Huron and Sarnia, Ontario, then south along the river to the town of Sombra, Ontario where the ferry would have delivered us. We are headed to New York through Ontario along Lake Erie.

So Ontario is not actually a US state as you may have noticed. Since I have plenty of time to think about stuff when I am riding, it occurred to me I can’t really call this a cross country trip. It is really a cross continent trip. I kind of like the sound of that.

 

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Day 50 7/23/19

Sombra, ON to New Glasgow, ON; 67 miles, sunny, 10-15 mph N wind, 60-70’s

The ride started at the Ontario side of the closed ferry in Somba. The route followed the St. Clair river a few miles before heading east and south on county roads before turning east to parallel the shore of Lake Erie. I enjoyed a nice tailwind on the south legs. This is flat farm land  similar to Michigan. This is the most southerly part of Canada so agriculture is big. We had lunch with an unobscured view of a fine looking soybean field. The roads have been generally good with moderate local traffic. Although, they sure move a lot of dirt and rocks around judging by the volume of large trucks doing so. We passed through many small towns and cross roads. The Lake Erie shoreline is about a mile away from the road we are following so not many views from the bike. You have to like progressive Canada, eh. We have seen several large solar farms and there are many windmills along the lake shore.

 

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Day 51 7/24/19

New Glasgow, ON to Port Rowan, ON; 78 miles; sunny, 10 mph NW, 60-70’s

Yet another good day for cycling. Overall we have been very fortunate to have good weather much of the time. On today’s ride we continued to follow county roads along Lake Erie. The land is mostly flat. However, I learned that when you arrive at a town with “Port” in it, it means that there is a river involved going to the lake. And that means there is a steep hill down to the level of the lake. And that means a steep climb out of the mini-valley to continue east. The lake shore is on a bluff otherwise. In the town of Port Bruce we encountered the dreaded “Road Closed” sign due to bridge repair. Fear not, there was an alternative temporary bridge. The route there took us along the local beach and the discovery of a local food stand we stopped at, that we would not have found otherwise. In reference to the photo of corn, those readers familiar with riding across Iowa will understand the context. For others, please use your imagination. Windmills continue to be located along the shoreline, although I saw at least one sign against new windmills so there is some controversy. And I added a photo of our trusty SAG wagon that just turned over 100,000 miles.

 

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Day 52 7/25/19

Port Rowan, ON to Lowbanks, ON; 73 miles, sunny, SW at 5-10 mph, 60-70’s

Today’s ride continued to follow the Lake Erie shore line on local, low traffic side roads. The terrain was a little more rolling than the pancake flat farm land earlier. There were gullies every now and then with short but steep grades to spin up. Momentum from the down was good enough to get half way up the up. There are many cottages along the lake shore with the occasional public access beach. We noticed that it was becoming more commercialized as we head closer to the Niagara River. We passed one giant industrial plant that I believe is an iron ore smelter. We had our share of road construction to deal with, but only the SAG wagon had to actually detour. We had lunch at Peacock Point in a nice local park overlooking the lake. Down the road I had to stop and take a picture of one person’s solution to launching their boat in high water, a garden tractor.

 

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Day 53 7/26/19

Lowbanks, ON to Wilson, NY; 78 miles, sunny, PM pop-up storm, 5-10 SW, 60-80’s

The first ten miles or so continued to follow Lakeshore Dr along the lake until we reached the city of Port Colborne. Port Colborne is the southern terminus of the Welland Canal. It is the bypass of Niagara Falls for St. Lawrence Seaway shipping. I next rode an eighteen mile bike path to Fort Erie which is just across the start of the Niagara River from Buffalo. Fort Erie is the end of the Lake Erie Connector map section that we have followed for 505 miles from Wolf Lake, Michigan. We have now rejoined the Northern Tier route that will take us to Maine eventually. From Fort Erie we biked to Queenston, ON on the Niagara Parkway along the Niagara River. Niagara Falls was busy of course with plenty of tourists. Once we reached Queenston the bike was ferried across the Lewiston Bridge back into the US and NY state. About the time I was ready to continue riding a pop-up storm struck. We waited until the worst was past then continued to ride east on NY 18. This is familiar territory so we are not following the maps.

 

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Day 54 7/27/19

Wilson, NY to Braddock Hts, NY(Rochester); 65 miles, sunny, 8-10 SW, 60-80’s

Part 1 of the trip has been completed, Anacortes, WA to Rochester, NY and home. So far we have covered 3485 miles in 54 days. We will take two days off at home to rest and catch up on real life. Part 2 of the ride to end at Bar Harbor, ME will resume on Tuesday 7/30 for a couple of days. Then back to Rochester to host our daughter and her husband over a long weekend before continuing the ride where we left off to the finish. Watch this space for future posts. And thank you for following the ride.

 

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Day 55 7/30/19

Webster, NY to Fulton, NY; 74 miles, 5-10 SW, sun and clouds, 70-80’s, muggy, dodged all of the rain showers

We resumed the ride today from the east side of the Irondequoit Bay outlet in Webster, NY. The bridge over the outlet is swung open for boating in the summer. To avoid a long detour on very busy roads, I rode the 12 miles from our house to the west side yesterday, We wouldn’t want to miss any miles. Since this is our home territory and we know all the roads, I am not going to follow the Adventure Cycling route through New York. We will rejoin it at Ticonderoga, NY where we will take a ferry into Vermont. Instead today I followed Lake Road, then Ridge Road, and state highways to Fulton. From Fulton we will head to Rome, NY tomorrow and then cross the Adirondacks south of the Adventure Cycling route on NY 8. Sorry, no photos today, I guess everything is too familiar to inspire a shot. I hope to do better tomorrow.

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Day 56 7/31/19

Fulton, NY to Hinckley Dam, NY; 70 miles, 5-10 SW, 60-70s, muggy

We continued east on NY 49 along the north shore of Oneida Lake through Rome, NY to the Hinckley Dam on the West Canada Creek just short of entering the Adirondack Park. Part of the route followed the Erie Canal trail to Rome along the original Erie Canal. The weather was better with lower temperatures. The day did have its challenges, in this case with road construction on NY 49. Our tax dollars were at work to mill and repave. Milling is where a machine scrapes off the top layer of asphalt to make room for a new layer. The result of milling is a very grooved road surface that results in a very vibrating ride on a stiff road bike. I made it through a stretch of six miles and was very glad when it was over. But wait, 20 miles down the road there was another stretch of 3-4 miles. I graciously accepted a ferry across that one from the SAG driver. But wait, there was another one toward the end of the day east of Rome. That was only a mile that I rode through. And to put a cherry on the day, I got a flat tire about a mile away from finishing for the day. All part of the adventure of doing a long road trip by bike.

These two days give us a good start toward the end of the ride in Maine. We are now home for a few days to entertain guests and will resume the ride early next week.

 

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Day 57 8/6/19

Hinckley Dam, NY to Baker Mills, NY; 65 miles, 10 SW wind, sunny with threatening storms in PM

We are back on the road after a nice long weekend with family. We drove to where we ended the last ride and started riding at 10:30 AM. The route followed NY 365 to NY 8 in the Adirondack Park. The terrain is now rolling/hilly through forest. We stopped for lunch after 25 miles at the Morehouse Lake camp of our friends Jim and Ida. They are graciously hosting us for the night. After lunch Jim joined me to ride another 40 miles toward ME. This is the first time the entire trip that I have had someone ride with me so it was a welcome change to have company. Late afternoon threatened storms but we managed to dodge them so our weather luck continues. It did rain on the drive back to their camp.

 

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