Day 93: Schenectady to Waterford

September 1, 2021

The end to Part 4

“Hello fine people,” Rachel shouts to the touring cyclists ahead of us crossing the road. It’s the family from Boise Idaho we met on Rachel’s birthday on the road to Niagara Falls. The greeting is reminiscent of their greeting to us on their first day cycling. Today is their last day cycling into Albany. They are all still smiling! They had also stopped at the church in Sparkers providing water for the “Bike Pathers” and had seen our comments in the guest book.

Our first meeting of a Boise Family on the way to/from Niagara Falls 8-22-21. Their first day cycling and tomorrow they'll start cycling the Erie Canalway.

We meet again today, their last day cycling into Albany

We decided to leave later today than usual since it’s a short day and we’ll be in a motel in Waterford. The unknown is when the rain will arrive; the left-overs of hurricane Adi are sweeping north and the forecast calls for 1.5 inches or rain tonight, starting at around noon. The morning is cooler and we both wear extra layers longer than usual.

The trail continues mostly flat until we get to the Hudson-Mohawk Trail and there a few steep hills going up and around private property. The trail is high above Cohoes where we plan to look for lunch and the new trail north to Waterford. We leave the trail and look for lunch and are happy to find a Subway. This has become our go-to place to eat. We work our way through town.

Crossing the bridge to Peebles Island, we see the confluence of Hudson and Mohawk Rivers and the end of the Erie Canal. We go to a supermarket for supplies by the bridge across the Hudson River. A few more miles and we are at the Waterford Inn by 1pm, just as it starts to sprinkle. We settle in the room, clean up, have Wi-Fi, and watch the news and Star Trek reruns. Dinner will be left over Pad Thai from last night’s dinner.

Tomorrow we start Part 5, Albany to Bar Harbor. Though our final destination is Boston, if we have time we’ll cycle USBS route 1.