time to go over the falls...May 18, 2007
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Hello from Niagara Falls, USA!
In the classic novel Heart Of Darkness Willard travels upriver to confront Kurtz. heading deeper into the unknown attempting to flesh out who this unknown enemy will be. as we rode up the Erie Canal, I felt somewhat like the same character. where Conrad's protagonist was on a mission to kill a man he had never met, I was on a mission to reach out into the unknown, to look inwards as Willard did and to discover what lies just beyond the next bend.
the miles fell quickly as we gained speed - we reached the canal yesterday by about mid day. our plan was to follow the waterline on the road that parallels it. but once we got to the canal itself we happily discovered that there was in fact a pathway that shadowed the course of the water. The tow path was a relic to a lost age where horses were used to tow barges along the waterway. in recent times these rough pathways have been upgraded into pedestrian and cycling routes.
much like the Glenmore Reservoir in Calgary, the Queenstown gardens, or along the Yarra River in Melbourne if you have been to any of those places. it was perfection for riding, billiard table flat and heading directly west. at stages the canal path was paved, sometimes compact gravel. speed would vary from quick to blisteringly fast depending upon the surface. the real bonus was the fact that there was no traffic to deal with and the ever present water to our left to keep us company.
our approach to distance is a bit unique, my bike doesn't have a speedometer and the one on Andrew's bike is strategically covered with a piece of duct tape. this has a great effect, we become less focused upon the distance covered or the speed we are traveling. the attention shifts to how the ride is feeling, we stop when we are tired, travel at a speed that feels good and eat when we are hungry.
with that philosophy in mind I was a bit shocked to discover that yesterday we cycled for 130 km. it was a great feeling to know that we had covered that much ground, but I'm sure it would have been quite a different feeling if I'd been watching the clock all day.
today we continued on along the canal from Brockport, NY where we spent the night. the canal also holds special meaning for me as I recently learned that my ancestors helped with its construction 175 years ago. The first Kennedy's to come to Canada from Scotland traveled the same path that I have just gone in search of work. Two brothers worked for two years digging the canal that stretches the full width of New York state before returning to Southern Ontario to set the roots from which my family would eventually emerge.
In time the path turned south and we had to continue west to Niagara Falls. 30 km on the flat road with a brisk tail wind was a perfect way to finish off the day. pulling into town we headed to the falls to have a look. seeing them for the first time from the American side they were fairly similar to the view from the northern shore. it's hard to describe them as anything other than a really big waterfall, so I won't even try...
tomorrow we head across the border and into Canada, marking the end of my adventure in the United States. we will continue riding for a few more days before arriving in Windsor, the place of my birth. Andrew will continue on from there and I will head back to Calgary via a much faster form of transport of some manner. looking back on America it has been a very interesting and enlightening time. my secret desire to find the "real" America has been more then fulfilled. the view that the world gets of America is either of its horrific foreign policy or of its equally shocking popular culture. but the reality of this country is something different, we encountered people who were not war mongers nor reality TV obsessed. we met people full of enthusiasm for our adventure and warm greetings. today we received our first offer of a room at someone's house. a cyclist riding the other way stopped to offer us a place to stay out of the blue - it was an amazing gesture, seeing as we had never even seen this guy before.
so I will remember many things from the USA. big trucks, lots of flags, great apple pie, big wide bike lanes, lots of waves, not a single car passed us too close, 2 flat tires, 1 broken chain, 560 km, 10 km of going the wrong way, buts that's another story, 30 minutes of rain and two good friends.
tomorrow - CANADA!
~Scott
