Day 6, The Final: Boonville to Rome, NY, 26 miles

(Note that this map is interactive. You can zoom in, show contours.)

I write this from the dry comfort of the Amtrak train taking me back to my car in Rochester. Although I changed my plans out of wimpiness, I'm still feeling pretty smart because it is raining steadily, and it's supposed to rain for the next two days. So the weather is helping make me feel better about quitting early.

And in my defense, I should say that my original thought for this trip was to do exactly what I'm doing, namely train to Maine, bike to Utica (or, in actuality, Rome, which has a more convenient train schedule.) Riding all the way back to Rochester was simply a late change that would have allowed me to technically ride across the country if I picked up the trip in Buffalo, since I had already ridden the Buffalo-Rochester segment. But you know what? That's a stupid reason to ride more than I want to (in the rain, no less). The cross-country-by-installments model is hereby defunct, but it wasn't really a good plan, anyway. Doing the whole thing in one shot for the sake of accomplishing it, well, that's one thing. This leg through spectacular country was reasonable. But why would I spend a week riding across North Dakota just to say I did it? I'm sure North Dakota is nice, but I think I can find a better place to spend a week riding.

So this change of plans does feel reasonable. I didn't catch the train two days ago in Ticonderoga (even though that was seeming like a mistake when I was in the middle of my long long day in the wilderness), so I'm not a total wimp. And, although not the motivation, the rain today and tomorrow helps.

And, in an unexpected bonus, today's short ride (I ended as I began, off the route guide) was absolutely lovely. The road was basically downhill all the way from Boonville to just outside Rome, through the gorgeous Black River Valley. Wow! It felt like a victory lap or something. I left very early, just because I didn't want to feel rushed packing up my bike, I wanted to avoid the morning rush hour traffic, and I wanted to miss the rain. I reached the Rome train station with two and half hours to spare, but that was fine. (It's a beautiful station, which made it pleasant to spend time in.) I will reach Rochester in time to drive home today.

Before packing up in the Rome, NY, train station

After the transformation. Ready to jump on the train.

I have now followed the ACA (Adventure Cycling Association) route guides for many miles, on several routes. They are very good, very accurate, very complete. But I am not convinced that they are good for me. There's something about being able to keep track of the route seemingly foot by foot that takes away from the general sense of where I am. Only seeing a tiny slice of the map, often pointed in the wrong direction (relative to north) can be disorienting. More than once, when I took out a normal map and looked at where I had been, I couldn't believe it. The distances and directions looked wrong. 

I think I may prefer relying on conventional maps, even just the state maps, using gray roads, or, even better, nice county maps, referring to GPS in problem situations. I don't know. Future trips may be circle tours of different areas, in which I improvise the route and find my own accommodations. The ACA guide is only marginally useful in recommending services, restaurants, hotels, and campgrounds. A grocery store is anything from Safeway to Mable's Beer and Cig Stop. Fred's Corner Motel was listed as one of the choices in Long Lake. One of hotels listed for Boonville was beyond scary looking. It's not really ACA's fault. They can't update every guide every year, although they try with regular addenda based on user comments (a few of which I'll be contributing). 

But I think future tours are going to need to be more carefully planned in advance by me; I'll create my own route guide. I'll make reservations, and not fret during the day about where I'm going to stay or eat. This is exactly the opposite of a Ken Kifer tour. Fine. I'm not Ken Kifer.

May I say a few words in praise of my "clown bike?" My Bike Friday New World Tourist was a marvel. It carried 35 pounds (at least) with no problem at all. With Schwalbe Marathon tires (also the best, the touring standard), the bike rode wonderfully. It didn't feel slow (in fact, this morning I was averaging 15 mph on my admittedly downhill run), it was wobbly in back, but every loaded touring bike wobbles. And, really, it was more stable than my touring trek has been when loaded in a goofy way. The Bike Friday never shimmied, always tracked true, and felt completely stable even going more than 30 mph.I loved having the step-through frame. If I were buying a full-sized touring bike, I would buy a Riv Mixte in a heartbeat. And at the end of the tour to be able to take the pedals off, fold up the bike, pop it into its soft case (which I carried with me the whole trip), and jump on the train, well, that's quite miraculous.

 

In the photo above, notice the handlebar bag. It is a Velo Orange bag for which I have crafted a "rackaleur" out of a 1/4" aluminum rod. The bag support wraps under the stem, over the bars, then forms a little shelf for the bag to rest on. Works great. 

So, that's that for now. I'll be refining these posts in the future, adding pictures, so if you were interested, check back for the more official edition.

(By the way, in case you're wondering, these posts were typed on a small Amazon Basics bluetooth keyboard into my iphone running the Blogger app. The keyboard fits perfectly into my handlebar bag, and the hard clicky keys (as opposed to rubbery squishy ones) are close enough to full size to make full-speed touch typing possible. Highly recommended.)