Day 129 (9/22): Montezuma Wild Life Refuge to Camillus, NY

Mileage: 52.4; 4,135 total

We took a long detour south, into Seneca Falls. This was a pretty little town, and historic. But the museum was closed and there really wasn't much to see. We had thought we would find an alternate way to get back on route, but ended up just making a big loop and then riding past the place we had camped the night before. All in all, this detour cost us about 25 miles, and neither of us thought it had been worth it.

Late in the day, while having a dinner of a foot-long hot dog, french fries, and a raspberry sunday, we booked a motel room in Camillus. We knew we were going to have to hustle to get there before dark, but we weren't fast enough. Nightfall came as we were biking along the Canal's bike path, and it was hard for us to go very fast because our headlights didn't give us much illumination. There were bumps of course, and slushy gravel in spots, but our main concern was that some trees had fallen across the path and we didn't want to crash into any. At one point Steve got tangled up in a tree that had been partially bent over, into the pathway, and he took a bit of a tumble. Eventually, with about six miles to go, we had a chance to get off the bike path and onto a country road, and we decided that we would be able to make faster progress on the road.

It was a very dark night, and the stars were beautiful because there were no street lights or house lights to interfere. Fortunately, no cars to speak of, either. It was still somewhat slow, because we couldn't see very far in front of us, but it was safe and easier than riding on the bike path, and eventually we got to the motel.