Little Falls, New York to Albany, New York

Today we had a truly great ride. I could not have asked for better weather conditions or a more scenic road. We enjoyed 71 miles of real fun today. It was absolutely great today.

Yesterday was June 21. That is the first official day of Summer and the longest day of the year. This morning then, as we were all eating breakfast, I made it a point to comment upon how obvious it is that the days are now getting so much shorter! I find it sometimes remarkable that precise and astute observations sometimes result in expressions of annoyance instead of appreciation. Oh well. Genius is rarely appreciated in its own time.

Roy is OK. He is profoundly sore. He has three cracked ribs. His right arm, right shoulder, and right hip are just like mine were soon after my fall in St. Joseph, Missouri, that now so long ago. I can feel his pain.

At one point early this morning, while we were still in Little Falls and getting ready to sign out and leave, it spontaneously happened that Roy, Craig, Bill, and I were standing together and talking in the parking lot. We were then casually speaking of bike accidents, and then we somehow came to the mutual awareness that it is the four of us who are the ones who have had mishaps on this trip. Each of the four of us is now sporting a brand new bike helmet, that purchased out of necessity during this trip. With each of us doing neurologically well (at least arguably) due to having trashed a helmet, we decided to call ourselves members of the "New Helmet Club". Someone took a photo of the four of us standing together, all in our new helmets. I feel special, being a member of that exclusive club.

Nice club, of course, but not a club that anyone would want to join!

The weather started out cool, but not cold. It was perfect for biking. As usual, I found myself wearing less clothing than the other cyclists. I just don't need the leg warmers and arm warmers, it seems. The sky was initally clear and sunny, but then it did become partly cloudy. It became warm, but never hot, even as of the time we arrived here in Albany at about 1:00 PM. We had a mildly annoying headwind during the last 20 miles or so, but even that wasn't too bad.

Little Falls, New York, is on the Mohawk River. I am learning that this river is the largest tributary to the Hudson River. It is also now part of the New York State Canal System, the successor to the older Erie Canal. The Mohawk runs pretty much straight east, to enter into the Hudson near Albany. Our trip today was primarily on US route 5, that just north of the Mohawk River and following it very closely. It was beautiful during the whole ride.

I have some really nice photos of the Mohawk River and associated valley. Sadly, I am now creating this blog post at a computer in which I cannot upload those photos. (This place has wireless Internet connectivity, but it doesn't like my Linux-based netbook. I am now therefore using a standard Windows desktop in their "Business Center". This computer does not allow me to enter in my photos from today, unfortunately.)

We left Little Falls this morning on US route 5, and that road initially had quite impressive hills initially, as it ran parallel to the river. This provided a variety of incredible views of the river, some from very high above and some from not far above the river at all. This place really is pretty. I have no difficulty in understanding how the Iroquois must have treasured this area.

Our route today took us through many various smaller towns, and then notably Amsterdam, New York, and then Schenectady, New York, before finally getting us in at Albany. There may be readers of this blog who may be in the process of planning their own future bicycle trip through Schenectady. I urge reconsideration. Don't bike through Schenectady if you can avoid doing so. Really.

Michel's wife is here now! I think that he and she had missed each other greatly, understandibly so, during these past several weeks. She made the 4-hour drive down here today, from their home in Montreal. It was nice to get a chance to meet her. Michel and she are in their own room here now, so I have his and my room entirely to myself. This seems different! With only one bike and one person in the room, it seems really big. He and she will follow the ride on tomorrow (to Brattleboro, Vermont) and Thursday (to Burlington, Massachusetts) in their car. I have the impression that Michel may not ride a whole lot of those next two rides on his bike.

It is truly difficult for my to really comprehend how this wonderful and long adventure is now soon to come to a close. I had been planning on this trip, daydreaming virtually daily, for much of the past year. It is difficult for me to grasp that I am now finally not only actually doing it, but almost fully done! Part of me tells me that it is indeed time to have this trip end, and return back to the so-called real world. The other part of me is already reluctant to think about giving up the routine of biking to a new location each day. I am so happy with how things have gone on this trip. My bike and my body have both held up well, at least if you don't ask for details, even better than I might have expected. I feel that I have had such a great time, and this trip has more than lived up to what I had been hoping for.

There are still three days of riding left, those being Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week. The ride on Friday, however, is a short 18-mile run from Burlington, Massachusetts, to the beach (Rivere Beach) in Boston. That being the case, there really are only two true days of riding left. Tomorrow, Wednesday, we go to Vermont. On Thursday, we leave Vermont, clip off the southwest corner of New Hampshire, and end up in Burlington, Massachusetts. These next two days promise to be as scenic as they will be arduous. They will both involve long mileages, and LOTs of climbing. We will contend with a small piece of the northern Berkshire mountains, followed by the Green mountains, and then the White mountains. I am simultaneously eager to see the views of these next two days and anxious about the degree of difficulty. I am reminded by the quite hilly ride Bill and I enjoyed with Bike Virginia two years ago; it does seem that scenic beauty in bicycle trips is inextricably tied to physical difficulty.

More tomorrow!