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.

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.

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.

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.

Cornwall, VT to Sharon, VT; 61 miles, 5-10 SW, rain early, then sunny, 70-80’s, muggy

We delayed riding a bit this morning to let the heaviest rain pass. I decided to ride the “Covered Bridge” alternative to avoid riding through busy Middlebury. It was nice riding on back roads but no covered bridges. Next up was the 10 mile climb to the Middlebury Gap. It wasn’t too bad as there were stretches of lower grade between the steeper pitches. The downhill was quite exciting on a steep and curvy road. The remainder of the day followed VT 100 and VT 107. Both follow the White River valley and I was riding downstream in both cases. So it was essentially downhill the remainder of the ride with a few up hills as a reminder that you are riding in VT after all. There are not a lot of lodging options in this part of VT besides B&B’s. Since we do not have a fixed destination in mind at the start of the day, our accommodation search is always just-in-time. The Adventure Cycling maps list possible lodging options. In Sharon we called the one and only B&B and it was our luck that it is run by a cycling couple who welcomed us with open arms. They have also done cross country trips so we had much in common.