Favorite Rides - Part 2

I'm still on the road. I hope to learn how to pronounce Wofford and learn why anyone would name a school Furman today.  Here's some more cool rides:

Lake Champlain:  My family and I took a vacation to Lake Champlain in late summer when our kids were little.  My wife took the kids kayaking on the lake and I rented a mountain bike.  The bike was a piece of junk, but I pumped up the nearly flat tires and hoped for the best. I rode north out of North Hero on the east side of the lake and just started meandering. I had never done any off road bicycling before so I was having a great time tooling around on dirt roads and single track. It was the week after Labor Day and most of the summah people were gone.  The weather was perfect.  I rode for about 4 hours and even joined some folks riding from Montreal to Boston on an AIDS ride.  I would love to go back and circumnavigate the lake by bike one day.

Erie Riding: In 2004 I rode from Niagara Falls to Albany.  From Freeport to Lyons, I rode along the Erie Canal towpath.  The day started in fog and I pedaled along the limestone trail with the canal to my right. Packets (canal boats) and other water craft drifted by so closely that I could chat with the people on board. I stopped in towns along the way for food and water. Everybody was so laid back.  This is New York?  The locals lacked the grating accent that everyone associates with New Yawkers.  After over 100 miles, I camped out along the tow path. Ducks quacked me to sleep. When I woke up, I could see that while I slept some boats had docked in the canal nearby.  Although the canal and Mohawk River are nice in the eastern half of the ride, they didn’t compare to the first 100 miles or so in the western area. The section of the canal from Freeport to Rochester was especially nice.  And watching a lock in action is worth the stop every time.

Ride like you mean it....