This is the day we really started seeing people on the Erie Canal trail — walking, biking, even some who, like us, had gear and probably also are end-to-enders.
And then the boats. The canal is still in use for pleasure!
We also detoured away from the Erie Canal so we could reach Seneca Falls (women’s history museum has to wait until tomorrow). That meant going past farmland, including a Mennonite family selling baskets of freshly picked strawberries.
Stop!
No surprise they are nothing like the ones I buy in the supermarket.
We’ve also now had to stop for each bike. I had started hearing a clicking sound in my front wheel after the hose-down, and it didn’t go away the next morning. Checked the spokes — all fine. Parts from the Cateye computer I have yet to take off? Not that either.
Time to head to the bike shop in Fairport, which diagnosed it as grit in my front axel. Thank you RV&E Bike and Skate for taking it apart and cleaning it and more; no more clicking. And for fixing Jennifer’s squeaky brake.
Fairport looks like a lovely village, and not just because of the bike shop. If you want a condo overlooking the water, start here.
But all that time in the bike shop put us behind schedule, so I forsook the Coverlet Museum in Palmyra. And the printing museum. We didn’t stop again until Newark and that sign for a cafe/bakery/ice cream along the trail. Plus Erie Shore Landing supports those with disabilities. (Breakfast was a Rochester recommendation — Pittsford Farms Dairy and Bakery just a few blocks from the trail.)
The trail took us through woods (and on roads) through Lyons and onto Clyde, a town that seems to have fallen on hard times but still has mansions that allude to better days. There we turned south for Seneca Falls (a route that makes the guidebook and deserves to be signposted).
That made the 58-mile day, the longest so far, also the most varied.
And after a delicious and plentiful dinner at Sackett’s Table (which got a mention in the New York Times and which other cyclists have described as the best meal of their bike ride), I am refueled for tomorrow. And ready to sleep.
Practical stuff: that dinner
The foodies were very happy with this choice. We tried a few appetizers — a salad so we could say we were eating vegetables (in my view) and the gnocci with garlic sausage (more my speed) — and then four main courses. My half chicken decontructed to fill three cooking rings was more than enough food. The steak picked from the butcher’s counter and cooked on the rare side was melt-in-your-mouth delicious. The meatloaf was seared, think trying to elevate it to a steak but but that dried it out. And then a pork chop, also from the butcher’s case.
After all that, we still had to try two of the three desserts on the menu. If you also love rich dark chocolate lover, go for that one.
Exploring by bicycle 