Well - it was beautiful, but the canal trail that I was on - ended abruptly here. And with that I had to ride on Route 5 S. I don't mind riding on highways, but I really need to get a GPS to better give me an indication as to where things are. I stayed on 5S till I saw a sign for Lock 18 in Jacksonburg and decided to ride down there to see if I could find the Canal trail again. No such luck, but I did get to talk to some very nice people traveling from Michigan to Florida using the canal system and lakes.
Anyway - 5S is hilly. Very Hilly. And I made it about .60 miles past the 167 turnoff when I realized that even if I did make it to the top of the blessed hill, I wasn't sure how far I would go from there to cross over to Route 5 and come back on (relatively) flat road. And I had one other problem. I was enjoying a very nice tailwind, as soon as I started heading back (west) I would be fighting the whole way. So at .60 miles east (uphill) from 167 I decided to turn around.
I usually can hit about 30mph going down hills that steep - not so yesterday - I was able to go about 20mph and had to use my brakes at times because the wind was so fierce and not only pushing in my face but would come at me from the south and make me feel like I was going to keel over. It was a long ride back.
My next ride heading east is going to involve a lot of research. It helps me tremendously to know distances between roads and landmarks. I put together a bike playlist of music to keep me rolling - it was pretty good. My favorite is the new album from DMB - Big Whiskey and the Groo Grux King. There are some good peddling ones on there. The only thing I have to remember is to not sing while riding as BUGS are everywhere.
If anyone out there knows more about the Canal Trail System it would be awesome to hear about it. The NYS website on the Canal system seems to be out of date.
6 comments:
Don't you have GPS on your iPhone? And Google Maps or similar? That's my favorite feature of my new Palm Pre :-)
I have google maps on my iPhone - it's a first generation version. In order to have GPS I have to get the 3G version. I'm debating that now - as the 3G version is going to drop to $99 in price in a couple of weeks, but I don't know what the fees are at AT&T - so have to look at that.
Get a Palm Pre. Tee Hee......
The web site is a bit lame. Going east it should gp right from Herkimer to Fort Plain with no break offs afer you catch it again in Fort Plain, it goes quite a ways
I couldn't find it again once I got booted off at the Historic Herkimer Church. I even went down to Lock 18 and still no go. Ah well - I will do it again - I just need to beat that hill! :)
If you stay on the canal trail from Herkimer on I believe its pretty flat, if you do 5s your at the mercy of the hills.I've walked from Herkimer to Canajoharie and know the terrain .
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