Whatever happened to 70 degree days? The weather has gone from 50 degrees and rainy to 90+. Wait - the day I rode to Utica was closer to perfect. It was another beautiful ride today, but it was very hot. It was a hazy day, humid, with temperatures in the 90s. I can't complain though, because the afternoon thunderstorms that were forecast never appeared.
It was a late biking start. My dad drove me back to Boonville, and I left there at 10am. One of these days I'll get my body schedule adjusted so I can start earlier. For some reason I had trouble falling (and staying) asleep last night, so it was hard getting started this morning. Hopefully I'll get to sleep earlier tonight.
I'm finding that I can't get enough calories into me at breakfast, so I've been eating whatever feels right for breakfast, and then stopping fairly early to fill up on Gatorade and to pick up something interesting for a snack.That seems to be working for me. My first stop of the day was at the Hilltop Market in West Leyden - for Gatorade and banana bread. I talked with the owners for a while - they let cyclists sleep in their screened room, and it turns out that their son Steven is riding the Northern Tier from west to east with a group from Adventure Cycling. They are telling all west-bound cyclists to say hello to Steven when they meet him, so he should get quite a greeting. One more message if any of you happen to see Steven - tell him he needs to put stamps on his postcards before he mails them! I got a bit further down the road when a man in a truck stopped to ask me where I was coming from, and where I was headed. Turned out to be Steven's grandfather. What nice people!
My target mileage today was 50 to 60 miles. I definitely made my target, but ten of those miles didn't contribute to forward progress. I was so fascinated by a combination gas station, store, diner, motel in Redfield that I didn't even see my turnoff on the other side of the road. I got about 5 miles up the wrong road before I woke up and realized that there should have been some small towns along the road, and I seemed to be getting into lonelier territory in a beautiful wooded area. I managed to flag down someone in a pickup truck, and he confirmed that I was still on county route 17. I was supposed to be on country route 2. Time to turn around and backtrack.
This morning had some rolling hills with a bit of a headwind. I actually welcomed the wind since it wasn't too strong, and it was helping to keep me a little cooler.There was one wicked uphill coming out of Osceola, with grades ranging from 8 to 15% according to the inclinometer on my cycle computer. Guess that was the payment for screaming downhill coming into Osceola. That little town was located at the bottom of a hill. To leave the town in any direction you had to climb. The end of the day was mostly downhill, heading for Lake Ontario. I ended the day in Port Ontario, after talking to some folks at a farmer's market in Pulaski. They recommended the Golden Fish in Port Ontario for dinner. That was a dynamite recommendation - I had an excellent fresh grilled haddock.
I was wrong about the black flies - they're still here. It was another day of getting swarmed whenever I stopped. Maybe they'll be gone tomorrow. I can always hope.
Wildlife, and not so wildlife for the day... I passed a field of cows and had to do a double-take. One of the cows looked like it was wearing trousers! That was an optical illusion caused by the cow's coloration. I definitely had to look at that one twice. I saw a groundhog run across the road while I was climbing the hill outside Osceola, and I saw and heard several deer in the woods. Then there were the goldfinch, the red-winged blackbirds, and the butterflies.
