Albany, New York!

My Roman host, Larry took my picture in front of his house

The morning I left Rome, my host Larry made me a packed lunch for the road and sent me off with well wishes and a well fed stomach 🙂 I loved the decor of their house, as the theme was my favorite color of blue, birds and bikes.

Utica

I spent the day completely on the Canalway trails, which varied in quality from Paved, to a narrow small dirt track depending on the area I was biking through. Larry, my host from Rome told me that I could camp at pretty much any of the Locks along the trail, and informed me that Rome was the location of the inital digging of the Erie Canal.

Bluffs along the Canalway trail

It was pretty fun seeing the scenery along the trail away from cars. Anything from Bluffs to farmland surrounded my route. Even though the rough trail slows me down about 2-3 mph, it is way flatter than the roads. If I didn’t take the trail, the two day trip from Rome to Albany would have 3000 more feet of climb, so I think that the slow down is worth it.

 

Piglets!

I set up camp at Lock 15 in Fort Plain to spend the night, which apparently offered Potable Water. I couldn’t find the water in the next morning, after depleting my three water bottles in the night, so I went to a tasty diner to get breakfast and a water bottle refill. I was surprised when I got there about how cheap the food was. I ordered some pretty filling Strawberry waffles, and it cost me less than $4! I continued along the trail to Albany, but I had a few more technical issues today with the trail, mainly a tree blocking the trail. I ran into a few more people today bikepacking, which was super cool.

Trail blocked

Tonight I am spending the night in Albany with my hosts, Alice and Alex. They are working on fixing up the building that they live in/rent out/own, so Alex’s Dad is also staying with them. I had a lovely evening with them eating Pho and Ben and Jerry’s while discussing their relative adventures. Alex’s Dad (trail name – Pilot) is an avid Hiker who is over 1700 miles into hiking the Appalachian Trail in chunks. After reading the Wild and hearing stories about hiking, I must say that hiking the Appalachian Trail is on my bucket list.