Day 4: Glenn Falls NY, to Utica NY

Today I rode 129 miles with 5577 feet of climbing from Glenn Falls to Utica NY. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

It's the end of day four. Today I rode 129 miles from Glen Falls, New York, to Utica, New York, and climbed 5,577 feet of elevation game. Uh today was really difficult. I think that's par for the course being day four, but really day three of a full day. Um the wear and tear in my body is accumulating, and I just don't have that much to give. I notice uh my knees are more sensitive than they were on days one and two, and I don't have that much power in my legs. Um the muscles just don't have as much energy. So I'm pedaling lighter with more strokes, but making it happen. This morning I chose to take the scenic route, which meant a lot more climbing than I needed to do. It was really beautiful heading west from Glen Falls. Um, there was a huge 800-foot climb, which kind of astounded me. Um, but I had a lot of fun with it. It, you know, was a challenge, and I lived up to it and then got to ride a little bit higher with some trees, which provided shade. I really struggle in the direct sunlight, which was a big part of the afternoon. And so having shade for the majority of the morning was really a blessing. Um I had the best part of the day cycling by Great Sangadaga Lake. Sakandaga Lake. Um, the road along that lake is just exquisite, and I felt so thankful to have that experience. After that, the day kind of sucked. Um, my butt really started to hurt, and that was compiled with my right foot feeling kind of irritated and my wrists getting tired because I wasn't able to put as much pressure through my feet. My wrists and my butt were compensating more, and so they were getting considerably more irritated. Um, and then I was out in the sun heading above Jonestown and crossing through a lot of farmland and quieter neighborhoods, which were really beautiful but quite challenging. I made the mistake of going down a descent I didn't need to do. It's like 300 feet down. It was awesome. But then I had to go straight back up the other side of a valley that I'm pretty sure I could have easily gone around. Um, but that's what I get for calling an Audible in the middle of the day. When I got to Fort Plain, Nelliston in Fort Plain, um, I picked up the Erie Canal Trail and rode that. That was really fun and uh pretty easy, except for when there would be some um detours due to road construction. Those could be kind of confusing for me at times. There were lots of clouds by like 1 p.m. now, which were accumulating, and then it started to rain, but it didn't cool off. So I was sopping wet, and the rain was increasing the level of irritation my body was experiencing. And um, then the sun would come out again and beat mercilessly down the westward facing trail, and just all this steam would rise up from the asphalt, and that was like so trying. Um, I got my first flat tire of the day during this period. I remember being kind of confused and upset about it, and I was like, oh, the trail provides this, isn't that big of a deal, Andrew? It's a force for rest. And it actually worked out great because I rode the wilted or wilting tire for like, I don't know, an eighth of a mile, and there was a bathroom with air conditioning, which was a miracle, and there was a shaded picnic area where I laid on the ground for 25 minutes and um eventually changed the tire. I was stupid though, I didn't put a new tube in. I just tried to patch the tire I had, which I failed at. And so when I rode, um maybe after an hour and a half of laying there on the ground, I uh ended up at a like milkshake spot at one of the locks along the canal, and ended up eating a grilled cheese and a milkshake, changing the tire again, and there were two iterations of company during that experience. The first ones were these little kids with their grandparents. Um, the girl's name was Lennon and the boy's name was Ford, which I thought were totally like millennial parent names for their kids. And um they were so eager to touch everything and and you know, try to torque the wrench and see if they could slide their fingers under the tire. It was really sweet. Um I think their grandmother was a little embarrassed, but I am you know happy to let them experience. And then they eventually started eating their food, and um Cindy and Rich, who were locals from this part of New York, came down and kind of gave me some mental stimulation about um yeah, the locale and some of their experiences in it. And it was really nice chatting with you both as well. Um, they gave me some advice about camping, which I'm not sure I've completely followed this evening. I'm pretty close to a road right now. But I needed to make camp because after uh flatting the first time, changing it at the picnic, flatten a second time on the way to the malt station, I flatted a third time, this time the front tire on some glass through Udaka, which was a very confusing detour around um some construction on the canal road. And so ten minutes before I intended to camp, I once more was sitting on the ground changing a tire. And that was just uh a good time. Um so yeah, I'm camped at Bird Sanctuary in kind of the corner, hidden behind a tree. So hopefully no one sees me. I uh this is the the not peachy part, if you want to turn off now. Um this is a little bit of body talk, but uh it's pretty common for me on these sorts of experiences to use the camera function on my phone to check out parts of my body which cannot be visualized directly with my eyes. And I have skin opening up on my right butt cheek, which is crazy. That's never happened before. Um so I have lathered it generously with antibatterial cream. And tomorrow it's time to find a shower. I uh should be staying with a warm shower house, which I'm very thankful for. And I will rest. That was the day. Can only go up from here, right? Bye.