Erie Canal Tour Day 5 - Verona Beach to Fort Plain.

We are camped at the free hiker-biker campground next to the lock at Fort Plain. This is a festival of transportation. Immediately across the Mohawk River and Barge Canal is the CSX (former New York Central) main line. Across the road is the New York State Thruway.

It might be a little loud here. There are amenities though. You can get water, and there is an outlet on the outside of the lock master's building. There is also a spigot where you can take a "shower".

It will do nicely.

There are also 3 other bike tourists here, so we've had a nice time comparing notes.

We had a nice dinner in Fort Plain, at a fancy place with a preposition called "Table at Fort Plain". I had a humongous ribeye, and Max had Kraft macaroni and cheese from the kids menu (which the waitress apologetically admitted was Kraft). Max was peeved when my ribeye was prepared perfectly.

The other meals today were really good. There was no breakfast at the campground at Lake Oneida, so we rode 17 miles to breakfast in Rome, NY.

Right in the middle of Rome was a reconstruction of Fort Stanwix, which was originally from the French and Indian War, and was in use during the Revolutionary War. It was very cool to ride around it and imagine how unpleasant it would be if you had to storm it.



Most of the day after Rome was spent riding along the Mohawk River and Barge Canal, which is in a valley, so we were pretty motivated to stay next to the river instead of climbing up a bunch of hills. Even if that meant riding gravel trails. So much whining from the boy. He would have whined more if he had a couple 500 foot climbs.



More perfect weather, moderate tailwinds, and a bunch of flat smooth pavement. Another great day of touring.