Day 61 – August 3 – Sodus Point, NY to Orwell, NY – 75 Miles

Today was the first day in quite a long time where we encountered hills for the entire day.  Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Erie Canal had spoiled us.  The hills today were not particularly challenging and they were a good warm up for what we will encounter in a few days.

What was a challenge today were mechanical issues.  The chain on Joe’s bike had been slipping periodically the previous day as we were climbing some of the hills.  I took a look at the rear sprocket yesterday evening and discovered that they were loose.  I tightened them as best I could with a pair of vice grips.  The tool I really needed was a cassette tool made especially for tightening the rear sprocket set.  I checked our Adventure Cycling maps and located a bicycle shop in the town of Fulton, about 40 miles into today’s ride.

Joe was able to nurse the bike 40 miles to Fulton where a local cyclist led us to Doyle’s Bike Sales.  The repair went quickly as all that was needed was to remove the rear wheel, put in the cassette spline tool, and tighten it with a wrench.  The process took no more than 15 minutes.

As we progressed, the hills became steeper the farther east we traveled.  As we were climbing one hill the chain on Joe’s bike broke.  This was a surprise to Joe, but not necessarily unanticipated.  We are each carrying significant weight and we have over 3,600 miles for the trip.  Our recumbents have long chains that are 2 ½ times the length of a normal bike chain.  We each carry a bicycle multi-tool that includes a chain tool.  We also each carry a length of chain with which broken links can be replaced.  Now we had the opportunity to put our skills to work.

No sooner had Joe called to me that his chain had broken, when we heard a voice call from the driveway we were passing, that we were welcome to bring the bike under the shade of a tree to work on.  Tom Wilson of New Haven, New York, was just getting home from work when he saw our difficulties.  We took Tom up on his offer and moved the bikes off the road and off the hill to the shade.  Tom not only allowed us the use of his shade tree, but he also brought us bottled water, a stool to sit on while we worked on the chain, a couple slices of some of the best tasting water melon as well as the hand cleaner we needed when we were finished.  He kept us company while we worked, and offered us the use of any of his tools that we might need.  Divine intervention or intervention of the divine? Of all the hills we have climbed and places to have something go wrong, we could not have picked a better one.  Thank you Tom for your gracious hospitality and willingness to invite a couple of strangers to work under your shade tree.

After having made the necessary repairs, we continued north toward the town of Port Ontario on Lake Ontario.  The closer we got to Port Ontario, traffic increased significantly.  After giving it some thought, it was obvious that we were riding in weekend traffic headed toward the lake.  It was a bit unnerving, and thankfully we turned east at Port Ontario and the traffic diminished.

We stopped tonight in the small town of Orwell, NY population 400.   Tomorrow we move closer to the Adirondacks.