Biking, Walking - Mohawk River Bike Path and Local Roads

Today was a leisurely 20-mile ride with the Glenville Senior Citizens bike group, a bunch that Holly rides with twice a week. We were starting east of Amsterdam and riding west to Schoharie Crossing and back, with lunch somewhere along the route. I took the old 10-speed again, since it was a very flat and casual ride.

Reaching the easternmost Schoharie Crossing site, some of us rode the old Erie Canal towpath, a double-tracked grassy couple of miles. Then we rode west as far as the Auriesville Shrine, the turnaround point. There were no other takers to climb the 10% hill up to the shrine, so I did it alone, and coasted down the other side. We all rejoined for lunch at La Cucina in South Amsterdam, where I had a very good sandwich. After reaching the cars, after almost 20 miles, I dropped Holly off at the Exit 26 Park and Ride, and decided to ride some more myself. It was a beautiful afternoon!

I crossed the river and rode out to the railroad dead end on the bike path, then retraced my route back to NY 5S, and biked the other more western part of the Rotterdam bike path sections. Heading back east, soon after crossing the NY103 bridge to NY5, I heard a pop-fffffftt, and my rear tire was flat. I had it fixed in about 10 minutes and got on the road again, only to have it pop-fffffftt again a few minutes down the road. I thought I had checked and cleaned the inside of the tire, so this was a mystery I'll need to unravel later when I fix it. That was my only spare, and rather than take the time to patch it, I chose to walk the 1.75 miles back to the Park and Ride and just be done for the day, after about 30 miles total actually in the saddle. More on that once I figure out where I went wrong.