T2 Day 49 (Claire)

 Brighton to Syracuse, NY


After a restful sleep, we woke up in the home of our lovely host, Coleridge. He had prepared fruit and yogurt with orange juice in fancy little classes and coffee for breakfast. It was both adorable and exactly what we needed. We chatted over breakfast and made a promise to Coleridge, that we would reach back out to him to assure him we all finished school when we graduate in 2026. We all put a little note in our calendars to do so. We then sat in the living room and waited our the rain a little bit and chatted some more. Before long the rain had stopped and it was time to say goodbye. I can't express how much I loved getting to know Coleridge and getting experience his wonderful hospitality. What a wonderful person. We were then off to Syracuse! Only 88 miles to go. The first bit of the path was paved which was nice. We made a quick stop for some ibuprofen and to take off some layers, which was accompanied by an adorable little duck family on the canal. Then we hit the pavement, until it turned back into gravel. It was pretty decent trail until we got to Palmyra (fun fact, this is the town where the Mormon religion was founded). We stopped for some sandwiches at a little cafe and took a proper lunch break. .glad we did because the trail got pretty rough after that. I can only describe as mudslide city. I white knuckled my way through that tretchery and before long we were past it and found ourselves in a cute little town that I can't remember the name of, though I do remember the ice cream that we had there. I got myself a root beer float and Maura got a twist with rainbow sprinkles, our regular order it seems on this trip. Everything was going great until suddenly, Mauras ice cream seemed to separate from the rest of the cone. Luckily it landed in Maura's other hand, which she proceeded to put right back on the cone. we were following the empire state trail the whole day which alternated between road and gravel for a while. Once we got near Syracuse we were back on trails for good. We rode by a lovely lake trail lined by wildflowers, before finding our way to the heart of the city. Turns out, Syracuse is pretty cute! Breweries and string light lined pizzarias at every turn, plus well marked and quality bike paths! Our new metric for judging cities. We then pulled up to our hotel for the night (which my mom so kindly used points to get us for free), and it was STUNNING. Right off the empire state trail, beautiful hotel, beautiful big room, right next to many food spots, really just everything we could possibly ask for. And perhaps the most important perk, NETFLIX!!! Obviously we got a large pizza and watched bridesmaids. It was a dream. And then I went to sleep. Shout out to my mom for making that happen.



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