TOP: Carl in his natural state of affairs (ie. not pulling, or expending any energy)
2nd: Mark and John near the canal start, adjacent to the Mohawk River
3rd: Mark doing bike maintenance...we were in tears on this one, as he basically set his brake "on" for the entire ride
BOTTOM: Lumpy, John, Carl, Therese, and Mark ready to roll
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More pix can be found at: http://lumpydoestheeriecanal.shutterfly.com/
As many of you know, I've had a bit of a love affair with the Erie Canal, the first great infrastructure project of our young nation. It's what opened up "The West", and clearly what made Rochester into a city. A few years back a group of us kayaked the canal, and it was an awesome project. This past winter I started cross-country skiing the canal (THAT will take a few years...), and decided to bike the length of it this year. Joining me on the adventure would be my old San Diego (now DC) buddy John, local tri-geek/adventure racer/XC ski champion Carl, my recent hip replacement riding buddy mark, and for part of the ride our local "50 and tough as nails cycling chick" Therese. We rode mountain bikes/hybrids as a chunk of the ride would be on trails, or on the canal mule paths.
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The ride started with a mad dash to Albany on wednesday night. We elected to ride east to west, into headwinds the whole ride, to simplify logistics. Mark that down as dumb-ass idea number one for the trip. About an hour from albany, as we're tooling along, singing "the erie canal song" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23GDoyaxIig and eating our 2 foot long subs, I realize that I left my helmet back in rochester. So, a madcap stop at a local target left me with 2 choices...a Barbie lid that fit like a skullcap, or a blaze red lid that made me look like I belonged on a firetruck. And don't you think for a minute that I REALLY didn't want to buy that Barbie lid!!!! But, safety trumping coolness, I went with the fireplug.
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We drove directly into the Albany airport, dropped off the rental car, pulled the bikes out, and started our ride. This evening we were going to knock off about 20 miles so we didn't have to double back from the hotel in the morning, and to give us a more manageable first day of riding. Of course, that entailed a 20 mile ride in the pitch black, in a strange city, with no idea what we would encounter terrain or road-wise. The first 10 miles or so were very cool, on the actual canal path, with not a sole in sight. Well, not a sole except for the drunken mother pushing her baby carriage at 10:00 at night on the pitch black path, with no lights or reflectors. THAT was almost one dead baby.
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The trail dropped us of in Cohoes for a very cool segment, through this old canal town, in the pitch black, with not a car on the road. We cycled right down the middle of main street, all the way to the Hudson River. From there, we turned south to head to the hotel.
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Now, for those of you who understand anything about terrain, which clearly we don't, rivers are actually at the LOW SPOT of the local terrain, because apparently water RUNS DOWNHILL. So, as soon as we turned around, we started what was to become a relentless 8 mile uphill climb, again in the pitch black, with minimal shoulders. On a positive note, it didn't become a 55mph highway until mile 5!
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We finally made the hotel, tired and cold but happy that we had a segment under our belts. Mark went to the nearby mobil gas station for his mandatory 12 pack of cold beer, and the rest of us shut down for the evening. Carl dreamed all night of how many ways he could beg off taking his pulls....
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"Low Bridge" Lumpy out
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