Upcoming bike ride: Adirondack and Green Mountains
I have promised my daughter I will not get killed. She is
getting married in the fall and so I've had to plan bike tripping around this
important event. Thus, no long summer excursion and obviously nothing in the
fall when it is cooler and the colors will abound.
Not that it is "settling" to go to the Adirondacks
and Vermont--it's just that I might not have chosen early August during the
height of tourist season, heat, and bugs. Times choose us.
The plan is to detrain in Albany on August 3. I booked space
for the bike and so I am able to roll off and begin riding. I will post an
itinerary once I confirm my first night. Since making the train reservations I
have purchased an ACA Green Mountian Loop map. A cursory review of it indicates
many turns, some onto gravel roads. I'm sure there is a reason but in some
cases I will deviate.
From past trips (chronicled at Crazy Guy on a Bike and at
this blog) one can read that I easily get lost. So I will use physical maps as
well as Google maps on my phone. My carrier is T-Mobile, so hoping they're
everywhere. I can also use Mapsme offline.
I'm not exactly kidding about not getting killed or dying.
Call it pre-jitter fears, but as a solo cyclist there is always that nagging
thought. This past weekend I went on an overnight ride--cue the theme song to
Gilligan's Island--what seemed like an easy ride along the I & M
Canal/Towpath Trail turned into an exercise in survival. We hit it all: bugs,
high heat and humidity, single-track path, no track, bushwhacking, mudfields.
The only thing we thought we had covered, weather with an 80% chance of no
rain, turned into 20% chance of HARD DRENCHING DOWNPOUR. We were caught in an
electrical storm and subsequent flash flood when it rained 3 inches in 40
minutes.
We had to call for help.
So my confidence has taken a knock. I'm sure this trip will
have its ups and downs, literally. But I'm also concerned about heat and the
considerable chance that I'll encounter endless rain (I've read some past
diaries here). I also think it will be beautiful and charming.
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