This was a lovely day’s cycling through the pastoral backwaters of New York state. We hardly touched a main road all day, and I felt more than a little in tune with the local Amish families, passing in their horse drawn buggies, in their rejection of the petrol engine. 

This is hilly country, still quite heavily wooded, and we were cutting across the grain of the land – constantly up and down steep valley sides. This was the first sustained climbing since we left the Black Hills, and it was a welcome change! 

New York may not have as many lakes as Minnesota, but it makes the most of those it has. They really are little gems.

  
At Madison we happened across an enormous antiques fair. There were hundreds, possibly over 1000, stalls stretching about a mile on both sides of the road, and back into the fields. There were huge car parks, and people milling everywhere. We considered buying a very nice table and four chairs, but the logistics of carrying them looked tricky.

  The lunch options were limited and we ended up in a pizzeria in Waterville. So we each ordered a slice of pizza and a side salad. Well, we are realising that you haven’t really experienced US portion sizes until you reach New York state. The ‘slices’ were about a quarter of a large pizza and the chicken ‘side salads’ contained more poultry than my Christmas dinner! And that’s before you consider the huge amount of salad veg and parmesan cheese …. and the free garlic bread (nearly a loaf!). I went in starving hungry after more than 3 hours of hard work on the bike (1500-2000 calories?) and I still couldn’t quite finish it all. No wonder so many people are so obese. 

The ride finished with the descent of a narrow, winding, canyon-like side valley, ending at Ilion in the Mohawk valley. This is a major transport corridor, with our old friend the I90 passing through, a rail line, the Erie canal, and the Mohawk river winding down to Albany and then south to New York. But it was still surprisingly rural, even with some old mills. It reminded me of the Derwent valley, south of Cromford. 

We are staying in Little Falls, the remnants of which still exist, particularly since the weirs for the mills have fallen into disrepair.

   
 
Tomorrow we head even further from civilisation as we climb up into the Adirondacks.