Brian Richardson

It is not often the case that the wise decision is also the easy and attractive one. This morning was one of those lucky few times. We had been monitoring the weather forecast for today-rain all day with thunderstorms in the morning. Our wise decision was to sleep in, let the worst of the storm blow over, and have a shorter mileage day. This plan kept us off the roads during the lightning and low visibility from the torrential downpour. It was not an issue for us to do only 50 miles today since we put in some serious miles over the last week. We slept in, watched stage 11 of the Tour de France, and starting biking around 11:30.

It rained on us for the first 18 miles into Redfield, but it wasn’t the kind of cold rain we’ve had in the past. It actually felt pretty refreshing, especially after the 106 degree heat index yesterday. After our lunch break, the rain let up, but the low temperatures and cloud cover remained, which made fire really pleasant riding the rest of the afternoon.

Since yesterday, the hills have gotten longer and steeper; we climbed 3,000 ft today over just 50 miles. We expect this trend to continue as we head into the Adirondacks of Eastern New York, the Green Mountains of Vermont, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. There won’t be much flat riding at all between here and Bar Harbor.

Evan and I both commented today on how quickly we transitioned from the busy streets of Niagara Falls and Rochester to the remote roads that we biked today. Going through East Osceola State Forest, we saw more horse-drawn carriages than cars!

Here is Boonville, we’re camped out by a pavilion in one of the most beautiful town parks we’ve seen so far. The clouds seem to have passed so we can dry out our wet clothes and tents.