Day 8 was one of my favorite days of the trip. East of Utica the Mohawk Valley has some very cool topography and towns. Also, I started to live with my saddle situation and it felt like my butt was getting calloused up. My morning ride was 24 miles from Utica to Little Falls.
After leaving the Red Roof Inn, I stopped nearby at Willie's Bagel Cafe. I got an everything bagel toasted with butter and it was excellent. I spoke to the owners and it was a family run establishment, by dominicans from New York City. Go figure, the only good bagel I had upstate was from people who migrated here from downstate! Yum, and a great place to load up on carbs before a long ride.
East of Utica, the Empire State Trail goes mostly on road, which was a welcome respite from the monotony of the canal trail. I took the photo below because it is a great example of signage showing distances between towns on bike. The size of the signs are for bike riders compared to large road signs for cars. There were a a few signs like this throughout the Empire State Trail, and there should have been more. There is no continuity on signage throughout the trail, which was a disappointment.
As I entered Frankfort, I saw these big bike sharrows. I had seen these before in other towns upstate, but I don't know effective they are. At least drivers are alerted to bikes sharing the road here!
Frankfort, NY had a somewhat spooky vibe, with a large boarded up church, and a few stores here and there. Whitey's Brass Tack restaurant looked interesting, but I wasn't hungry yet.
Four miles past Frankfort I arrived in Ilion which had a cute marina. The marina was a good example of trail oriented economic development. Or maybe it just was a coincidence they renovated the marina next to the trail. Either way it was a nice place for a respite, with bathrooms.
At the Ilion Marina I befriended some other people traversing the Empire State Trail on bike. These three men were bikepacking, camping together in different locations along the way. I had considered bikepacking, but it was my first multi-day trip and I knew after a long day of biking all I wanted was a hot shower and a clean bed. Bikepacking would also have required me to buy and carry more gear on my bike, which I was concerned about. I also felt that bikepacking would be easier if you did it in a group instead of solo.
After explaining my issues with my saddle, all three of the guys swore by Brooks saddles. They had gone on many bikepacking trips and said that Brooks was their favorite. They also indicated that the Brooks saddles take up to 1000 hours of riding before they truly break in. Wow! One of the gentlemen also was very fond of his Surly Midnight Special bike. He said he bought the frame and had everything installed custom for him. Cool!
The bikepackers had a lot of cool gear, like this butane burner, which made instant coffee.
After Ilion, the Empire State Trail goes back onto the canal trail until I arrived at Little Falls. I skirted the south side of Herkimer, NY. There was a bunch of fun wildlife on this section of the trail including chipmunks, and some turtles.
The trail in this area is mostly paved and goes through some beautiful countryside. This part of the Mohawk Valley was picturesque.
My lunch stop was in Little Falls, one of my favorite towns along the Empire State Trail. It has a unique topography and an inviting atmosphere. Here was one of the few locations where there were restaurants right along the trailside. More towns upstate need to do more of this.
To get to Downtown Little Falls I crossed over the Mohawk River. Little Falls has a very interesting history as a mill town in the 19th century. There is a lot of cute architecture right next to the river. Unfortunately, a large section of historic buildings were torn down in the 1960s in the name of urban renewal. What is ironic about many upstate cities, is that their historic walkable architecture is one of the biggest reasons to visit them, but so much of it has been torn down for ugly buildings.
I stopped for lunch at the Cafe at Stone Mill, a cute restaurant in a renovated mill building. There were a lot of people with laptops working and it had a nice community vibe. I had a soup and salad, and then I was on my way. There also was a fun gift shop in the building hustling Little Falls merch. I wanted to explore Little Falls more, but I had a lot of riding ahead of me and I was already running a little late.
Canal/Waterfront area of Little Falls had some nice restored buildings friendly to tourists. I enjoyed it thoroughly and would recommend it to any traveller.
My afternoon journey was 43 miles from Little Falls to Amsterdam. East of Little Falls is a very rural area along the canal trail. One town I passed through, Fort Plain, had a lot of amish/mennonite people walking around. I saw a few horse and buggies in this area. East of Fort Plain is Canajoharie. There is a little downtown here but not a lot to see. Very limited lunch options here as well.
Many shops in the downtown area of seemed closed. The sign showing "no biking on sidewalk" was sort of ridiculous because the entire town felt empty, with virtually no one walking around.
East of Canajoharie in Fultonville was Betty Beaver's Fuel Stop. It was right on the trail and I had to snap a photo of their sign! By this point I was getting hungry and I got this Met-RX Peanut Butter Pretzel meal replacement bar. It was sort of gross but I wolfed it down.
Canajoharie to Amsterdam was another 22 miles, and there is very little going on in this area. By this point it was getting late and the afternoon was getting hot so I wanted to get to the hotel as fast as possible. Outside Amsterdam I stumbled across this crossing, with a nice planted barrel. Plantings at the crossings were a nice touch.
Originally, I wanted to stay at a hotel called the Amsterdam Castle a historic armory turned into a hotel. While it looked cool, the prices were a little high (like over $250/night), especially for a place where I was going to spend 2-3 hours and then crash. Instead I booked the Microtel Amsterdam, which was about a mile off the trail. The ride from the trail to the hotel was very steep uphill and was tough at the end of a long day.
If you book a cheap hotel in Upstate NY, it is highly likely you will observe people setting up and grilling in the parking lot.
While my room was small, it was neat and tidy, and I was able to fit my bike. The air conditioning was excellent after a hot day of riding.
Due to the topography of Amsterdam, the downtown area was a couple miles walk from the Microtel. I was not able to check out downtown Amsterdam, but from what I read online I wasn't missing much. Unfortunately, like many small towns I visited in upstate NY, urban renewal was not kind to Amsterdam. In fact, 400 historic buildings downtown were torn down to build a mall in 1970s, and now the mall is dying too. Amsterdam had a small burst of activity in the 1980s with a factory producing Cabbage Patch Kids and Colecovision but has not had much going on since. I decided to order cheap chinese delivery for dinner instead of exploring Amsterdam.
Stay tuned for Day 9 - Amsterdam to East Greenbush, my most arduous day! My journey involves getting head to toe soaked from the rain and my phone screen gettin wet and damaged!
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