Day 3 – Fairport to Seneca Falls

Poor Riley didn’t sleep great last night lying in the tent on an air mattress with his bruised and swollen leg. I made an ice pack using a couple extra ziplock bags we had stashed away but it wasn’t easy to keep it in place. Harder still was climbing in and out of our tent. That’s hard enough under normal conditions.

We planned for Riley to take a rest day by riding with the camp crew to the next overnight while I biked to Seneca Falls, but by morning he was feeling a lot better and against my advice decided to get back in the saddle. After all, it’s only 51 miles today. How hard can that be? Don’t be a baby.

We timed our start at 7AM so we’d be in Lyons around the time the Hotchkiss Peppermint Museum opens. That was one of our favorite places to visit when we did this ride in 2019 and have looked forward to going back since. I think that’s Riley’s true motivation!

The first part of the route followed the canal on a single track dirt path through the woods. It was nice to ride along the quiet woods in the cool fresh morning air. We passed what I later found out was a plastic factory alongside the canal and soon I passed under a large pipe overhead making a loud sound that could have been rushing water but something about it seemed different. A fellow at the water stop a short way ahead said they transport plastic beads through that pipe. Ah, yes. That made sense.

The morning rest stop in Palmyra was only 13 miles out but it was nice to stop and get off the bike. After three consecutive days on a bike seat my butt is happy to have all the breaks it can get.

The Newark chamber of commerce provided the next rest stop with water, cups of mandarin oranges, peaches and pears along with brightly colored reflective shoe laces. The waterfront murals are beautiful.

Next stop was the highly anticipated Hotchkiss Essential Oil (Peppermint) Museum in Lyons. The building holds all kinds of artifacts from the essential oil factory.

I found this information from an article in Finger Lakes Magazine.

In 1839, when Hiram Hotchkiss started the company in Phelps, Europe was the capital of the peppermint industry. Not long after he established a second business location in Lyons in 1841, the tide began to turn. The Hotchkiss Company won the first-prize medal at an 1851 international exhibition in London. Today, that large, framed award, signed by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s consort, is hanging proudly in the building’s reception room with other certificates recognizing the excellence of the company’s oils. A total of 17 medals were received, and are archived with other Hotchkiss business records at Cornell University.

We toured the museum and bought lots of peppermints and other things in the gift shop. I really like this place. When we rode up, the lady who greeted us said she remembered when we were there in 2019. Probably because we bought so much peppermint haha.

It was a short ride to downtown Clyde where we had lunch and the afternoon rest stop. A deejay played tunes and local ladies sold delicious sandwiches in the park. My favorite snack was Oreo cookies smeared with peanut butter and topped with a slice of banana. I’ll definitely have to try that again.

The last 15 miles of the route were rolling paved roads through Amish country between Clyde and Seneca Falls. It was gorgeous, hot and sunny. We stopped to buy cookies and lemonade from some young Amish girls we remembered from the last time we rode this section when they also had puppies for sale. When we told them we remembered that they said we have some puppies now but they’re all spoken for, not that we’re looking to stash a puppy in the bike bag.

We were both happy to see the campsite ahead after 51 miles of riding. The hot sun really made a big difference in how hard it felt. We set up camp, showered and rested for a bit before taking the shuttle to a laundromat in Seneca Falls along with several other cyclists. Afterward we called the shuttle to go downtown and had the best pizza and beer I can remember.

Downtown Seneca Falls has some really interesting sights including a museum and markers related to the women’s suffrage movement and the movie It’s a Wonderful Life.

Back at camp, we enjoyed a sunset concert by the Seneca Falls Community Band.

It really is a wonderful life.