I joined Tyler and his father, Cliff, for breakfast; a fantastic omelette with an english muffin. We talked about touring and where I should head from Buffalo. They recommended that I take the Peace Bridge over to Canada and ride back to the U.S. in Niagra Falls.
Just before taking off, Cliff insisted we weigh my bike. I didn't have much water weight on it (my 3 liter reserve is empty, and I keep it that way in metropolitan areas), so it clocked in at 85 pounds. A significant reduction from the 110 it weighed in Montana.
Their house is only minutes away from the Peace Bridge and I quickly discovered that the crossing is closed to bicycles and pedestrians. The bridge offers a shuttle that you can call... so I left.
I'm not going to bother with a shuttle.
Over there... that is Canada.
Instead, I rode the bike path on the U.S. side all the way to Niagara Falls. I kept leap-frogging a group of local cyclists, including one who grew up in the area but now works in Seattle - for New Belgium. And he was riding a New Belgium bicycle.
Then, I came across Sam, Gene and John.
They were sitting in the grass, fixing a flat tire. Only problem was that this was the second flat in ten minutes, had no spare tubes and there were several punctures in the tire.
I gave them one of the spare tubes in my bag. They were up and running within a few minutes.
Pay it forward.
New York has some fantastic bike routes. I pedaled all the way to Niagara Falls on this bike path. Even the massive bridges accommodate bikers.
The falls appear abruptly. The bike path follows the river, which goes from complacent to rapids instantly.
Then, throngs of tourists. And the falls.
I wanted to experience the other attractions at the falls, but I didn't realize they'd be like amusment park rides, with visitors lined up waiting for hours.
Nope.
I rode north to the devil's hole and met a fellow traveler. She decided one day to go exploring and now lives out of her truck, traveling all over the states.
She found me, noticing the bags and gear.
Safe travels.
She was not a fan of the gondola that slowly crossed over the water.
And that was only half the day.
The rest was spent getting as far away from Niagara Falls as possible. Too many people.
I ended up in Wilson, New York, where I setup camp in a butterfly preserve. There were no butterflies present, probably due to the rain, but it was big and secluded.
Joe