Palatine Bridge to Round Lake - 56 miles
Average Speed -

The trains along the Mohawk ran very frequently last night. One of them had Mary Ellen as a passenger on its way to Buffalo. We left this morning a little later than usual and planned on having our second breakfast in Amsterdam.

The trail is an old rail bed and is very pleasant for riding, except it is a tad soft and provides a bit of resistance to heavily-laden bicycles. When we reached Amsterdam, we found nothing open. The trail is not in the main part of Amsterdam and we weren’t about to cross over the river to the business district, so we just continued on, planning to stop at the next restaurant that we saw.

Shortly outside of Amsterdam, the trial ends, so we rejoined 5-S for a few miles to Rotterdam Junction, where the trail starts again. We stopped for a snack there as we didn’t find a convenient restaurant and decided to have lunch in Schenectady. We just happened to bike right past Slick’s, a restaurant known for its sandwiches of mass proportions. When we saw how much meat was stacked in a sandwich, we decided to split one between us. Even Nate, had to pack half of is for a later meal.

We always have trouble finding the trail in Schenectady, so at least we know where to take it out of town, near the community college. The restaurant folks told us that there was some construction that made some of the trail heading to Colonie inaccessible, so we followed their directions to find the open part of the trail. We have looked at all of the available maps and books and still find it difficult to navigate the trail.

Nate decided that he would simply bike home to Troy, so we split off near the Rexford bridge and went our separate ways. I knew that getting home before the completion of the trip would be difficult and that I would be tempting to call it quits here and finish the rest of the trip at some later date.

There’s something to be said for sleeping in your own bed. It looks like we will have just a few more days until Portland and heaven forbid, I have changed the route again to what I think might be the quickest and less hilly(that’s relative) route to Portland.

From the start, I looked at different routes and have even dared to ask for route suggestions along the way as I have had enough experience with guidebooks and route maps that I know that the information isn’t always correct or ideal. The responses I got surprised me and even offended me. Get a map. Plan in advance. Do more research. Gosh; none of this answered my request for some practical information from people who have cycled this route or know the area. It’s amazing that we have made it this far across the country.

We are now planning on heading across Massachussetts because I want to avoid steep climbs and downhlls. Call me a wimp, but I am not trying to prove anything or torture myself. I know that there are hills in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Ohio, for that matter. Stopping at home may have been a mistake, because now my plan for the rest of the trip is to complete it as quickly as possible, perfect route or not.

We are dumping a lot of our gear here. We got rid of the camping gear when the refugees left. We are downsizing since we are in rescue range. Should we have any major problems, help is just a phone call away. We will take just enough clothes for the few days that we have left. I will leave all four of my panniers behind. Without all the gear, I will feel like I did on Pelee Island where I thought I had a lightweight carbon fiber bike because I had no panniers for the day.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 7th, 2007 at 9:03 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.