Katie MacDonald - Bike the US for MS
Day 8 - June 4 - Middlebury, VT to Newcomb, NY - 65.6miToday we said goodbye to Vermont, and entered our 4th state of the trip - New York! We took a ferry across Lake Champlain to cross the border, which was pretty fun. It was then just a short jaunt to our first rest stop at a Walmart in Ticonderoga, where I finally got the egg mcmuffin that I had been craving for days. Leaving the rest stop, we encountered a pretty big climb. Not as big as the ones in previous days, but a challenge nonetheless. After that, it was a lot of cruising alongside lakes until the next rest stop in North Hudson. The gas station here had little to offer, so my lunch consisted of chips, cookies, and Powerade. Yum! The last part of the day was pretty rough. We went up Blue Ridge Road, which is now my least favourite road in America. There were some pretty big climbs, and every time I thought I'd finally reached the top, I'd turn a corner and be faced with another uphill. Finally, after what felt like forever, we came across one of the downhill truck signs that I have come to love, but thirty seconds later there was yet another uphill. It seemed endless, and I was more than a little frustrated at this point. The ridge was definitely more of a mental game than a physical one, but it really had me beat by the end of it. The day did get better though, because we stayed at a lovely church in Newcomb, with the sweetest Pastor ever! He even offered up his spare bedroom, so I got to sleep in a real bed instead of camping outside. He also told us all about his life and all the places he has lived, which was really fascinating. Most of the evening was spent chilling outside in the lawn chairs. We made a group pizza order for dinner, and after hearing about this Father Peter came outside and handed us a $80 cheque to cover the costs! After pizza we sat around and played keep up with a soccer ball, while still seated in the lawn chairs, for at least 2 hours. It was really cool to spend the evening hanging out with the entire group. Day 9 - June 5 - Newcomb, NY to Old Forge, NY - 64.1miToday was wet. I mean, it was really pouring. We were drenched less than a mile into the ride, and I soon discovered that my waterproof gear was not as waterproof as I would have liked. We left at 7am in order to try and beat the thunderstorm that was expected to start at 2pm. The first rest stop was at a diner, and I walked in and just stood at the doormat, dripping and wringing water out of my gloves. We didn't stick around at any of the rest stops for long, and we tried to get to camp as soon as possible. I was pretty miserable for most of the morning, but at around 11am, I noticed a sign that said "Lake Ontario Watershed" and stopped to take a picture. It made me feel a little closer to home, which lifted my spirits. Also, at around the same time, I got a text from the route leaders saying that we had indoor accommodations! The prospect of setting up my tent in the pouring rain was really bringing me down, so this was very welcome news. We rolled into camp at around 1:30pm, which was a lot earlier than usual. Turns out, it was one of the resort employees' birthday, so we were invited to help ourselves to free hotdogs and cake! There was also a pretty cool arcade in the lobby, and wifi, which has been pretty scarce recently. Later in the day a big group of us walked into town for dinner, which was a lot of fun. Old Forge is a really cute little town. We also saw a deer lying in the grass on the walk back. While we were gone though, the guys back at camp had a bear walk right up to the cabin porch. Made extra sure that there was no food left on my bike before going to bed. Real bed two nights in a row? I'd call that a win. Day 10 - June 6 - Old Forge, NY to Selkirk, NY - 87.6miI was the first one ready today, out of our group of four, which was impressive seeing as I am normally the last one ready. A little while into the ride along Moose River Road Catherine and I got separated from Vikki and Alison, which resulted in is missing a turn on the route. Before we realized this however, we had an encounter with a rather nasty dog that chased us down the road for a little bit. When we stopped to text the group to warn them, we realized we were way off course, but couldn't backtrack because of the dog. This ended up adding 4.5mi to the ride. After reconnecting with the group and doing some grocery shopping, Catherine and I set off again, only to encounter another, slightly less aggressive dog, before the second rest stop. We stopped for lunch here, and Alison had some rather bad luck with some bikers who found her gloves on the ground and cut them up so they could have a strip of fabric to fix the loose mirror on one of their bikes. Vikki's bike also broke down, so she had to spend the rest of the day in the van. It was all worth it rolling into camp on Lake Ontario though. It's pretty cool knowing that everyone is just on the other side of the lake. We had showers, cooked dinner, then set up some chairs by the lake to watch the sunset. Somehow, that turned into line push-ups, summersault, and a three legged race. Great team bonding to end the day! Day 11 - June 7 - Selkirk, NY to Sodus Point, NY - 64.3miWoke up in the middle of the night to wind and rain pounding on my tent. Managed to get back to sleep before waking up at 6:30 to start the day. Rest stop 1 was at Walmart, where we spent too much time grocery shopping. When we rolled out, it started to rain. The day van had already left with my rain jacket in the back, but thankfully Megan let me borrow hers. We stopped for lunch in Fair Haven, where I got yet another breakfast sandwich. At this point we cold and wet, and ready to get to camp. 20mi later, we rolled into Sodus Point, where we camped out by the lighthouse. Some of the group went into town for dinner, but I stayed behind with some others to cook at camp. I made quesadillas with canned refried beans and an avocado, that actually turned out pretty well. Also, a very generous guy who lives across the street walked over and offered to let us put our bikes in his garage, and sleep in his spare bedrooms. A few of us took him up on this offer, as it was supposed to start raining at 6am, and we didn't want to have to put away wet tents.
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katie macdonald
Summer 2016, I biked 4,295 miles, coast to coast across the USA to raise money and awareness for MS. March 2017, I biked self-contained from San Francisco to San Diego with my friend Carissa. August 2017 I connected the dots and biked from Seattle to San Francisco. Summer 2018 I am heading to the UK! Follow my journey here! Miles biked for MS:
6,800.13
Updated August 27, 2018 Archives
January 2019
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