Michelle and I are just two mid-lifers rediscovering all the things we love to do, and making great friends along the way. Get up, get out, and find your adventure!
Jeff - I never grow tired of your videos. You are so unobtrusive as we ride - when I see them they are almost like a magical surprise out of nowhere. And now, you are even sponsored by chapstick! Thanks again for your efforts and artistry.
At 72 I guess I'm living the "Late Life Adventure". A few weeks ago I rode from Columbus to Cincinatti and back. Last year I received a new hip and a new knee, and I wanted to try them out. I had been in training since Christmas Eve. It was glorious. I caught a week of perfect weather (upper 70s and dry in mid August!), and I had no mechanical issues there or back. My new mantra is "Better Late Than Never". I'm about to have the other knee replaced , and I found out that I did that 250 mile ride with a hernia! Who knew? I'll be laid up this fall and winter, but I'll be back on The Trail next summer and ready for more adventures (Cleveland or Bust!). You guys are inspiring. Keep up the good work. Be Well, my friends, and Prosper!
Hey Jeff, another great video. You guys amaze me with your stamina and sense of adventure. I was praying for you and your team the whole time and of course Sam driving! I'm glad it all worked out, nice that you had some relaxing days and good dinners and beautiful views. Thanks for always being an inspiration! I hope you and Michelle have a more adventures to enjoy this beautiful fall season. God bless you always in Jesus mighty name!✨✝️🕊️🧡😍🌻🌾🍁🥰🐿️🌄💓🚴🏼♀️🚴🏼♂️🚵🏻♀️🚵🏻
Thanks for sharing. I live in Ottawa so I am pretty close to this route but there always seems to be another trip I need to do first. I think you made a wise decision to not do the loop since, as you remarked, those Laurentian roads have no shoulders and vehicle travel at high speed. If you want to try something a bit more adventurous you should do a search for the “Logdrivers Waltz” which is a roughly 800km route that can be done as the full loop, or can be broken up into several smaller routes. It is more of a bikepacking route so less manicured, but this does address the concerns about the traffic. I also liked your segment on the Lake Champlain route. Will have to add that to my ever growing list. By the way, you did pretty well with the French pronunciation. Bon travaille!
Hello from Omaha. Looking forward to doing this trail maybe next year. We like camping at the Rafter J Bar Ranch just south of Hill City. Just did the first day of RAGBRAI last week, the weather was great. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the very informative video! I am interested in camping around Amsterdam but I can't find any information about the place you mentioned. Is it a lock or something else? I believe you mentioned it would be a good campsite? thanks
i want to ride the trail on a recumbent trike . i might start in Syracuse . but the trip is up in the air right now i only live 53 miles north of Syracuse . wish i could the way there and camp along the way .
Just looking for advice from everyone here. What is the best way to plan out your stays, how far you would like to ride in a day, water, and food along the way? I am not somebody who is going to want to wing something like finding a place to eat daily. I would love to ride this trail by next summer, but i am not sure what how exactly to plan something this massive.
Food and water are easy on this ride. You go through little towns numerous times per day, which is also where you can grab food. We kept about a days worth of calories on our bikes, but otherwise we ate when we needed to. Deciding on miles per day is a personal decision, and we booked campsites/hotels in advance shooting for 40-70 miles per day, while trying to not have back to back long mileage days.
I rode the Erie Canal Trail last year with friends. Re camping at some of the Locks, we were told that some had been closed due to homeless problems and drug dealing the year before. But we didn't have any problems with closed camping in 2023, so it worked out. Overall it's a pretty trail with lots of riding through the woods. Thanks for video!
Thanks for video, nicely filmed and edited! I remember the Alum Creek Trail that I rode NE toward PGH when crossing the U.S. Took the GAP/C&O into DC for a nice peaceful end to riding across again. ☮
Hey, I found this video while planning to do a little Gettysburg tour on my unicycle. I'm wondering what kind of mount you used in the shots like the one at 1:23, to film yourself riding? Great video, by the way!
Thank you for posting this. I did this exact route in September’23. That Reformed Church pavilion was an utter delight, 😀 as was Syracuse, primarily because the trail runs smack through the fun, downtown area with all its many eateries. Great memories. 😊
Southern Akron!! Super-sketch. I would have liked to do this part of the trail earlier in the day, but we were behind schedule and we also just happened to be riding through that part of town after a police shooting (lucky us). If alone I would only do it early in the day.
My partner Lance and I are planning the Ohio to Erie at the end of May and were excited to find your video. Thank you for posting. We have completed the Erie Canal Trail from Buffalo to Albany, NY several times as we live close to it, the GAP/C&O, and Katy Trail in MO, as well as a number of homemade routes. We are riding Cleveland to Cincinnati and found a good deal on a shuttle back to Cleveland. It appears that Michelle might be riding Lance's bike, a Priority 600, and has my shirt (the peach one). :) We would be interested in what bikes you were all riding. I am debating between my Priority Apollo gravel bike with stock cogs or my fat bike with mountain biking gears. I had no issues on the GAP/C&O (Pitts to DC) with the gravel bike, but struggled mightily with the hills in western PA when we did a self made route from Buffalo to Pittsburgh with 5,000+ ft of elevator over 55 miles. Appreciate the heads up about navigating through the cities and the fact that food and water are abundant. We had issues with that on the Katy Trail after Jefferson City. Ride safe!
What do you mean by too much gear? You don't need much gear to ride the C&O and the GAP ! Jump onto the trail right there in DC and do it ! You won't regret.
I agree with first comment on gear. I've ridden across the U.S. touring with 22 pounds of gear. That's camping gear, cook set, clothes, and some bike tools. GAP/C&O towns are every 10 to 20 miles.
Brrrr! But it looks like your weekend adventure was well worth the chill. So much for peace and quiet, with that jet flying by, lol, but pretty cool. Enjoy!!
Researching a trip out cycling some rail trails in SD and Montana area. Funny enough, switched up from week end kayaking paddles , many from near home and Big Mc Coy island and saw you also cycled out west! How long did it take you from Buffalo to trail head area, drive pretty much straight through or sample other trails along the way?
Good video, I'm hoping to arrive from the UK set off from Niagara Falls following the same trail then head on to NYC Brooklyn setting off back home from Newark
My wife, who rides the 600, occasionally wishes she had bought the 600X. The dynamo on the 600 is used to power the head and tail lights, neither of which are very powerful and she runs with additional, battery powered lights. The 600X has ALOT more mounting points. The suspension I could take or leave. There have been days with wash-board dirt roads where I am happy with it, but I know it adds some additional weight. But it is the 650B tires that I hate the most; tougher to find tires and tubes. But neither of us are ever going back to a chain!!
Thanks for sharing all this great information! I am planning a solo bikepacking trip this spring and it was great to see what camping options you chose. Thanks for taking the time to document your trip for us.
What size are the Marathons you got on the 600, we have two 600's and I am having a heck of a time finding them in the right size, best I can find is 27.5x1.65 ...
We constantly struggle finding larger 650B tires for the 600, and we currently run with 38mm size. The 600 came with 50mm tires but they constantly rubbed on the fenders. Hoping some day to find something closer to high 40’s mm.
@@livingthemidlifeadventure5882 I had the same problem with the original tires on the 600’s rubbing the fenders. I have WTB’s on there now they are 47mm and the work good. I would prefer to have the marathons though, I had them for my first cross country trip on my Trek Checkpoint ALR4. They are great tires!
When we are on roads we are all pretty religious about helmets, but on trail we tend to go with comfort. FWIW, when I ran 5K's, I ran around 11 MPH but never wore a helmet, and I was more likely to take a spill running than cruising on a bike at 11 MPH. One could make the age argument, but some days it is just too damn hot!!
So far so good! I tend to use them for bulky/light items like quilts, tent body, etc.. I have the RockBros version, and I may make an alteration to add some additional connection points to where the bag is connected to the bag frame, but it may be overkill.
Till the adoption of the 911 system, Vintondale had house numbers but they were strange. Vintondale had adopted a borough ordinance that all homes had to have numbers, but Vintondale never assigned any numbers. People then just put whatever number they wanted on the house. No system, thus 324 could be next to 1510 which was next to 102. That was interesting when I had to visit someone in Vintondale. The actual residents did not care, everyone had a Post Office box at the local Post Office, thus as to mail delivery to the residents of Vintondale, everyone had to go to the Post Office to pick up their mail. Thus the lack of an actual numbering system was almot never a problem. In the late 1990s, Vintondale lost they Police Department. In the early 1990s President Clinton had Congress pass a law increasing the number of local police via Federal Grants, Vintondale applied for the money offered by those grants to hire a couple more police officers. The problem was the grant money was only for two years and the number of hired officers had to stay the same after that two year period, and if that did not occur, the grant money had to be returned. After two years Vintondale determined they could not afford to keep the new officers, so Vintondale laid the officers off. The Feds found out about that and told Vintondale to return the money for retention of the hired officers was a requirement of the grant. Since the actual grant money had been spent to pay the hired police officers in the first place, Vintondale had to come up with the money to pay back the Federal Government. Vintonale determined the only way they could raise the funds to pay back the Feds, was to lay off ALL OF ITS POLICE OFFICERS, i.e. close its entire police department, which Vintondale did. Thus a law passed by Congress to increase the number of local police, ended up eliminating the Vintondale Police Department. You have to be careful when funding programs, make sure it does what it is suppose to do (in this case increase the number of local police) not the opposite (as was the case with Vintondale).
