Finally, industrial America

Jun 24 - Fort plain NY (lock 15) to Utica/Marcy NY (lock 20): 44 miles Google maps, 52 miles Heather, 61 miles Jodee 

Lock 15 was not so quiet in the night. We had warning: our lazy afternoon had been full of action with the traffic noise from I-90 and trains going by across the river. Somehow it's less enticing at 3 am.

So, we were up early, and not especially well rested. Still, the day started with the food bounty that we found the day before, and the forecast was for another beautiful sunny day, so all was not lost.

The plan was to get to lock 20, just past Utica New York, and then decide if we wanted to go another 20 miles on to lock 21.

Most of the path was along the canal , passing many small towns such as Little Falls with lock 17, which was very impressive- the tallest lock that we could access from the trail so far.  

We could see boats that we had previously seen go through our lock-side campsites at lock 2 and lock 15.

Just past Little Falls, the Canal path disappears and you join route NY-5S and then NY–51, eventually bringing us to the outskirts of Utica. Here it gets very interesting. We entered Utica  on a very industrial Road with a lots of manufacturing businesses where you could peer in through the large loading dock doors to see people welding and driving forklifts and doing various fabrication activities. It was with some nostalgia that I saw all this, as this was the kind of business that my father had worked for as I was growing up, and that I was peripherally involved with as a mechanical engineer. 

I really wanted to go up to one of the doors and take some pictures and video but it felt a little bit too intrusive ... kind of like chasing down one of the Amish buggies with my iPhone in fort plain which i had also been tempted to do the day before.

So I carried on cycling through these broad streets feeling kind of out of place amongst all of the big delivery trucks.

At some point the industry gateway gave way to taller buildings including the historic train station. Somewhere here, I got a little disoriented, and ended up visiting the historic train station three times before making my way onto the not very bike friendly N. Genesee avenue. Sadly, by the time  I'd gone in a big circle, accidentally taking the wrong turn on the bike path, landing me in a nightmare of broken glass and concrete barriers, which ended up bringing me around back where I started, and then coming back to meet up with Heather at a bike shop that I had the hardest time finding (this bike shop might need a whole blog post to itself), I did the N. Genesee Ave. strip four times. 

By the fourth time this time with Heather, we made it safely to lock 20 where we opted to go no further today! 

Again we had the whole lock-side camping space to ourselves. We had a quick chat with the friendly lock master and then the evening of cooking dinner and watching a couple boats go through the locks.

A long day. 

Utica NY