Day 46 – Locks in Little Falls

August 2, 2018

Day 46 – Liverpool to Little Falls, NY – 80 miles, 1,820 feet vertical 

We’ve ridden 3,400 miles so far with ONLY FOUR DAYS OF RIDING LEFT!   

We spent last night in Liverpool – that’s New York, not England – just a few miles northwest of Syracuse near Onondaga Lake in the Finger Lakes region.  Once again, dinner was celebrated at a nearby Mexican restaurant with good food (fajitas!) and monstrous pitchers of margaritas.  (If you happen to come across a photo of me sipping through a straw from one of those giant pitchers – don’t believe it.  It was a set up.  I swear.)  

After raining overnight, we were again lucky to have a rain-free day, although it was so humid and sticky this morning that it felt like it was raining from the inside out.  Still, with “only” an 80-mile ride, we were happy.  We’re on a bit of a “mileage taper” with our previous rides being 103, 92 and now 80 miles.  I’m already starting to think about my eventual “calorie taper” as I cannot continue to eat like this when I return to a more sloth-like existence (by comparison). 

By the way, a quick shout out to Evin who cracks me up with his tee-shirt featuring the “Sloth Cycling Team”.  Their motto is:  “We’ll get there when we get there.” 

After yesterday’s morning debacle, I set four alarms for this morning, starting at 5:00 am and repeating at 10-minute intervals.  When the first one went off, I shot up like a rocket and didn’t need the others.  I made some coffee and had a leisurely non-frenetic morning – a welcome respite. 

Breakfast featured lots of hugs, kisses and “bro-shakes” as one by one, everyone took turns saying goodbye to Tom Gjelten and wishing him well.  As I mentioned yesterday, Tom is putting a giant bookmark here to attend a family wedding in Charlottesville and plans to return to resume his journey (solo) on Monday.  Without Tom, I had no one with whom to share my Outrage of the Day (of which there were several quality candidates.) 

We had a large group of riders leaving town together this morning.  It took several miles of turns and navigation until we got back out to the beautiful rural countryside with more mild rollers and tracking alongside the Erie Canal for miles.  Two SAG stops and 80 miles later, we found ourselves in the beautiful town of Little Falls.  We got in rather early and so we showered, walked the two blocks into town, had lunch and were then free to explore the canal.  

One serene mile walk later, we found ourselves at Lock 17, which is the single largest lock on the Erie Canal with a total lift of 40.5 feet!  You can read a pretty good description here, and check out this nifty time-lapse video of a boat going from the lower portion to the upper.  We also met the lock operator, Paul, who was quite friendly and demonstrated the operation of the lock.  It takes about 5 million gallons of water to fill what is essentially a giant bathtub!  The downstream gate is a cantilever type and comprises a giant metal wall that lowers into the river bed.  The upstream lock is a traditional swing gate type.  The highlight, for me, was a small label on the operator’s console for the massive gate that read “Look under gate before lowering.”  Yeah, no kidding. 

Our special guest this evening was Jon Dobbs’ close friend and best man at his recent wedding, Steve Thomas.  Steve joined us for RAP and dinner and was able to get a real feel for what we are experiencing.  “It’s summer camp,” he observed wryly.  You got it, Steve. 

Please enjoy these photos from a really great day and check out Where’s Jeff at jeffblye.com.  Only FOUR days left.  (Oops, I said that already.  Sorry.) 

Thanks for following.

…Jeff