We woke up this morning to cloudy skies and gentle rain. A look at the forecast showed it was going to be raining pretty much all day. This would have been a good day for a rest day, but since we just had one we needed to head on down the road. We had a quick breakfast before leaving town and the rain kept coming.
We knew we were on the Erie Canalway Trail again all day. We weren't sure how sloppy the trail would be so we decided to start on it and leave open the option to jump to the road if it was too bad. Amazingly enough, the trail was draining well. It wasn't muddy and didn't have a lot of puddles for most of the time today. Even though it was raining, it was in the mid-70's and so it wasn't cold enough to need rain jackets or vests.
Even though it was raining, we saw quite a few boats motoring west on the canal this morning.
We ran into two gentlemen early this morning who were riding the Erie Canalway Trail from Buffalo to Syracuse. They were staying in hotels and I was a little jealous of their 20 pound loads compared to the 40 pounds extra on my bike!
We went through several small, quaint towns along the canal today. We didn't stop to take many pictures because we didn't want to stand in the rain. Here are a few pictures of the towns I did manage to take, along with an old barge tied up in the canal.
We went through the suburbs of Rochester today following the Erie Canal. The best part about being in Rochester was that the path was paved all the way through. There were some confusing turns where the trail moved from one side of the canal to the other, and then back again, but we managed to get through there with only a couple wrong turns.
As we rode through the outskirts of Rochester, we saw an REI situated right off the trail. I had been wanting a Big Agnes inflation bag for my air mattress since Michigan, but hadn't been in a town with a store that carried Big Agnes gear. I knew my chances were good at REI. So we parked our bikes and did a little shopping! I found the inflation bag I wanted, and Rhonda and Jon found a few things they couldn't do without, either.
We decided to get lunch in Pittsford a few miles further down the trail. As soon as we left Rochester, the trail went back to the dirt/sand/crushed gravel it had been before Rochester. The rain was still light so it wasn't too bad. As we ate lunch, the rain started falling harder. We were hoping it was just a small band going through and would lighten up again soon. No such luck! As we left lunch, I put on my rain vest while Rhonda and Jon put on rain jackets. The additional rain was making the trail sloppy, and the mud and water started getting all over us and our bikes. We only had 15 miles to our planned campground in Macedon and knew we could make it that far. As Jon says, anyone can do this when the sun is shining!
We pulled into Macedon and found our way to the campground. The camping was at a park run by the NY Canals and was at the site of Lock 30 on the canal. We saw there was a pavilion and made a beeline for it. It was nice to get out of the rain for a little bit! We noticed there were other tents set up camping at the park and thought it was odd because when I talked to the park manager yesterday he made it seem like we would be the only ones there. Since we were so dirty, we wanted to get the bikes rinsed off some, along with all the grime on our legs.
While cleaning ourselves and our bikes up, we assessed the camping situation. Jon walked down near the other campers, and came back and started looking at the maps. It was only 4.5 miles to Palmyra, where there was a marina and community park open for camping. It was a quick decision, and we were on our bikes even quicker as we headed back out into the rain.
The Palmyra park also has a nice pavilion and we have set our tents and bikes up under the cover for the night. After talking to Dave today, i found out that this rain is the remnants of a tropical storm that came up through Florida and is making its way north. The forecast is for rain throughout the night and early morning, then clearing up tomorrow. Definitely hoping the forecast for tomorrow is accurate!
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