A Century through upstate NewYork

These long adventures never end easily. However, it only makes the accomplishment of finishing that much more rewarding. Reminiscing back to my Pacific Crest Trail hike last summer.... Tired from four and a half months of walking only to be faced with the steep climbs of the Washington Cascades, some of the most rugged terrain of the trip. Thankfully I had my brother, Kona coffee breaks, and the humor of his dozen hard-boiled eggs and half gallon Pic-a-cola tote of wine strapped to his backpack to help propel me along. The past three days have reminded me of those last few weeks on the trail.  We had two days with temps in the low 90's, crazy humidity, with no breeze to speak of....perfectly still. Like riding through an oven. The kind of day when every single pore on your body is sweating. That mixed with an endless rollercoaster of huge hills. Up and down, up and down, all day. However, definitely worth the work for the scenic stretches along Lake Ontario and through the many apple orchards.

 

 

Thankfully today the roller coaster ride mellowed out quite a bit as did the heat and humidity, however, it seems we traded those for rain. We picked an odd day to do it,  but today we rode our first Century! 103 miles, half of which through the pouring rain. The rain was actually enjoyable, as it was on the warmer side and helped keep us cool. The last ten miles things got a little chilly, but thankfully unexpectedly our campground destination for the night has really cheap little rustic cabins, so we're able to get out of the rain and dry ourselves out. Now that we're in real upstate NewYork, away from the bigger towns and cities, things are pretty wild and expansive. Deer, wild turkeys, and pheasants around every corner with big beautiful rivers cutting through the rolling hills, where it appears the salmon are running as there's hordes of fisherman in some spots. The Fall colors are starting to show in a pretty big way....thinking the last ten days of this ride should be a treat. However, along with Fall comes the unexpected weather patterns.  Yesterday was in the mid 90's, tomorrow is only supposed to get up to 50 degrees with rain! You never know what's gonna happen this time of year.
 

We had a rather interesting sighting yesterday....slowly inching up a steep hill we both happened to look over the same instant to behold a fella tending his garden wearing that of only the barest essentials...a pair of silky purple bikini briefs and boots. Hey, whatever's comfortable.