Maria (my 12yo daughter) and I road our tandem from from Ann Arbor to Wellesley MA in June. We started by going to Marine City on the St Clair River, taking the ferry into Canada, then across Ontario to travel along Lake Erie to Niagara, then across New York following Bicycle Rt #5, more or less along the Erie Canal to Troy. From there it was across the Berkshires, first to Lanesboro, going thru N. Adams, then down to Amherst, south of the Quabbin resevoir and then north to Barre, then east (more or less) thru Clinton, Sudbury and on to Wellesly. It took 9.5 total days, and it rained all or part of 5 of those! So we figure we road about 7.5 days, averaging 115-120 miles / riding-day. Not bad considering our shoes were full of a couple of pounds of water a lot of that time, and noting that the "prevailing westerlies" were apparently on vacation, as the wind was with us only the first 2 days. Mostly we road into East or SE winds--Argh.
The ferry across the St. Clair river going back to the USA
Maria in Ontario farm country
The rain begins...
The rain continues...but doesn't bother this kayaker at Port Stanley
Port Bruce...the rain follows us everywhere...
Port Bruce...Should we ride off? Dad says "I don't think so." "Great call" say
all t he local Canadians!
Port Bruce on the net(it didn't look that developed to us!)
The "hmmmm" of the mayflies was loud! (those are not spots on the lense--those are mayflies---the sky was filled with them!!)
...lots more rain, hail, wind...
The next morning...the rain continues, but off we go, up the bluffs, into the wind
across to niagara falls...
A peacock west of niagara.
A peacock west of niagara showing off.
We have to go under the Welland canal.
Marineland...and its (what else) raining sheets...
but these guys don't seem to mind.
The Erie canal, Lockport, NY.
We follow bicycle route 5 (the green sign) across NY---what a shoulder!
Ilion NY, aka as Ilium to all Kurt Vonnegut fans...watch out for ice 9!
(An old italian guy, driving a giant caddy at 18mph in front of us,
guided us out of Utica onto the road to Illion!)
Looking down into the Mohawk river valley.
Up and down the hills on the valley's side, several times today.
But the nice road continues, ...
as do the nice views.
Troy, NY...we rest for the Berkshires...we watched a lot of Ben Stein, ate a
lot of calzone and pasta...
A very tough wakeup call out of the Hudson R. valley---10 miles of mostly up!
How are we going to get over those?
Massachusetts at last! But look what's down the road---more big hills!!
But the rain stops us again...so we spend most of a day in Lanesboro, MA, in view of the mountains.
The next day, clouds over the highest point in MA, as seen from N. Adams.
After a beautiful 6 mile descent from those hills back there...
the Conneticut river north of Amherst...of course its raining.
The captain (dad) gets careless in the rain, and we fell hard going over some
wet railroad tracks just south of Barre, MA...
After the crash, the Butler Quarters, Jenkins Inn, Barre. (Dad wonders and worries: "Is it a concussion?)"
Check out this official picture of our room! (scroll down the page to the Butler Quaters...)
But we rise the next day to finish the ride, broken helmut and all---starting in the mist, of course! But before long:
We're almost there! (Note the "Town of Wellesley" sign.)
Stop and ask Terry about those chipped teeth! (see the gold sign in mid-picture)
We're there!!!
Both of us...
The Grand Total Distance.
The victory party with TC and X.
Great Barola, cheese, bread, and mystery sausage.
Yes, its really X over there.
Another view of the Grand Total and Destination.
