The Pedalshift Project 026: Bicycle touring upstate New York

Jul 23, 2015

Just me and the mic doing a little followup and giving an overview of a very fun upstate New York bicycle tour along the Erie Canalway route. It's an all sleep-deprivation podcast after a long weekend roadtrip too!

 

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Who else has some early bike touring overnight stories to share? Send your pics, audio or a quick tweet - all welcome. Email the show [e-mail] or call the brand new Pedalshift voicemail line at [phone].

July #podcastapalooza

• Pedalshift invades the Rose City and The Sprocket Podcast 245 (part 1 || part 2).

• The Erie Canal preview, episode 024
• The Amtrak adventure with Andrew and Stephanie, episode 025
• Volume 3 of Pedalshift Tour Journals podcast (wrapped up)
• This show... hi!

Follow up

More on the Oregon Outback - listen to Donnie Kolb's interview with OPB.

Bicycle touring upstate New York

• Want to see NYS? Do this.
• Don’t expect canal the whole way. Lots of road sections.
• Lots of small towns with charm.
• Fascinating infrastructure.
• Great history.
• Biking quality - pretty top notch. Trails are in excellent condition. The worst parts are still pretty great.
• Access to water/food - easy, but there are long stretches where there are no water sources directly on the trail. Didn’t carry food - picked up a spare meal as needed.
• Camping - more expensive generally than other options (C+O and west coast) and wild camping availability was a bit overstated in my opinion. Free camping on the lock properties was excellent.
• Good encounters - not a ton of bike tourists (although there were 600 two days behind me!). The ones I met were great.
• Prime time - Summer was a good time, but upstate NY can be muggy. The ideal time may be in September for warm days and cooler nights or October for foliage.
• BIG thanks to Tour Journals listeners and social media followers for tagging along! Special thanks to Rochelle in Albany (@lilithny on the Twitter machine) for some good tips and FOTS Ethan Georgie for his Canajoharie story, because I might have done the same without it.
• Speaking of… FOTS Ethan Georgie’s story has an explanation! FOTS Tony S explains...

Next tour

• DC to BOS the hard way
• Local transit only (no Amtrak, no BoltBus, etc.) plus a folding bike
• Union Station DC to Back Bay Boston in less than 36 hours
• The least efficient, most ridiculous bike and transit tour... ever

Music

The Pedalshift Project theme is America courtesy of Jason Kent off his self-titled solo album. Check out his band Sunfields' new release, Habitat, wherever cool music resides.