Biking Dude Blog

I traveled about 79.9 miles today.
What a day. About five miles longer than expected due to a (very worthwhile) detour and plenty of hills to make sure I wasn't slacking off. I spent some of my morning bike ride on one of the Massachusetts rail trails, old railroad paths that have been converted to walking/biking trails. I really liked these trails because they were so flat and car-free. The only downside was that they were dirt roads, and I had to keep an eye out for large rocks. This picture is from one of those trails. I stopped at a little reservoir thus morning for a rest, and meet Scott and Jeff, who were fishing for trout. We chatted a bit before I hit the road again. If you're reading this, hope the fishing went well. I also met Debbie, Bruce, and Allie at a rest stop on the Norwottuck rail trail, just outside of Amherst. We talked about my trip for a while, and they gave me done good advice about the roads in this area. I was able to visit one of the breweries in Northampton this afternoon, before making my final push to Chester along the hilly route 66. My host tonight is John, who had been very gracious in letting me stay with him and feeding me dinner. Thanks John! I'm quite tired from today's ride, and tomorrow will be another long one, but I'm confident that I will be able to complete it successfully.

This is Dave, from Building 8 Brewing. I stopped by their location in Northampton MA this afternoon to sample the beer. They're less than a year old, and only make one beer (an ipa), but it sure is good. When I stopped by, they were working on installing a second set of fermentation tracks to step up their brewing capacity. Dave was very supportive of my trip, and offered me two cans of their beer that had been short filled for free. Taking on an extra quart of liquid before a step hill climb may not have been the wisest choice, but it was definitely worth it to have a tasty beer at the end of the day. Thanks Dave!

Hi RFA. Hope all is going well. I found a cat on my travels, thought you might appreciate the picture.

I traveled about 75.3 miles today.
I didn't actually go down the road less traveled today, opting instead for the paved county road. Today was good, a few big hill climbs, but nothing unreasonable. I caught a little sun today, despite putting on sunscreen this morning. I'll have to be better about that in the future.
Tomorrow looks like it will be rainy, which will give me a good opportunity to test my rain gear (that's how I'm choosing to look at it...).
I'm staying with Al tonight in Freehold. Al is a very cool guy, his background is in electrical and computer stuff. He's worked at companies that develop audio equipment for recording and radio studios, and has also taught at university, so we some great discussions about audio equipment and engineering. His current venture is in making kits for radio station mixing consoles, specifically for the low power community radio market that has cropped up in the last few years. He has a very cool modular design scheme that he designed for these consoles. You can check out his company, Kaatskit, on the supporters page.

I traveled about 67.6 miles today.
Today was pretty uneventful. Had a few good, but manageable, climbs. No rain today, which was certainly nice. I briefly met Eric in Windham today when I was stopping to check my directions. He walked over to see if I needed any help. Turns out he's also a cyclist, and gave me some advice about the roads in the area before I left. Thanks Eric, if you're reading this! My gear has been working well so far. I'm going to try adjusting the cleat on my left shoe tomorrow, it's been feeling a little off the past few days. Al rode out with me for a few miles this morning, it was nice to have some company to start the day. Tonight I'm staying with Ed, who lives near Delhi in an awesome mountain cabin turned into a house with his dog Huck. He's been cycling for many, many years, and shared some pretty interesting stories about how touring was done before the advent of the internet.

Ed rode out with me for 20 miles this morning, which was really fun. We saw some great scenery, and Ed knew the best roads to take out of town. Thanks Ed!

I met Debbie on my way from Delhi to Binghamton today, and she was kind enough to fill up my water bottle. She even gave me a banana to snack on while I took a brief rest. Thanks Debbie, your kindness and generosity was greatly appreciated!

I traveled about 75.7 miles today.
Good day today, if a bit long. Saw some beautiful scenery in the Catskills before stopping in Binghamton for the day.
I got a new sticker for my bike when I stopped at Water Street Brewing. They have a wide variety of very tasty beers, including an English strong ale that I quite enjoyed. I met Gary and Libby there, a very nice couple that I talked with about my trip. I also met Steven, an avid runner who likes barefoot running, which was of interest to me because I have 'barefoot' sandals as my secondary pair of shoes.

Don rode out with me for a few miles this morning. It was great staying with him, he likes to play bossa nova music on his classical guitar and is quite good. He has plans for a cross country trip when he retires on a few years. I hope that his travels bring him by wherever I'm living then. Thanks for your hospitality Don!

I traveled about 50.5 miles today.
This is my spot, it's how I track my location on my bike trip. I don't know the nitty gritty technical details of how it works, but it pings my GPS location every 15 minutes or so to a server, and those locations are then displayed on my website. It only works when active, and I try to turn it off when I'm taking a longer rest and when I'm done for the day. Today was pretty easy, just fifty miles to Ithaca, and very few hills to speak of. Overcast all day, but no rain, so things were nice and cool. I'll be taking it easy the next few days as I go to Rochester and eventually Niagara Falls. My left knee had been bothering me a little. I tried adjusting my cleat position, which seemed to help a little. I have half and half pedals (clip on one side, flat on the other) and I tried riding about half of today with my left foot on the flat side instead of clipped in. My 'natural' foot position was very similar to the position when clipped in, so maybe that's not the problem. I'll try raising the seat post a bit more tomorrow, I think another half inch or so might help. I'm also going to try to take a rest day soon, that may also help. I'm stay with Geoff today, a friend from college who is going to graduate school at Cornell. As fun as it has been meeting many new people the past few days, it's very nice to see a familiar face.