Day 29 - June 8, 2023. Erie, PA - Dunkirk, NY

I was kind of sad to leave last night's hotel so soon; such a nice room!  There was a local reporter interviewing some of our gals out by the vans this morning when I got out.  Slow day for news in Erie PA!  Apparently there will be another reporter in Dunkirk NY tonight.  We're famous!

Fewer turns today than any other ride so far!  A short bike path ride (less than 2 miles) and then on to SR 5 for the rest of the day.


The road stayed close to Lake Erie all day, although there were usually houses whose property backed onto the lake so we generally weren't cycling right beside the water.  The houses were more modest than much of what we saw yesterday, but there were a few really nice ones.  Vineyards were abundant today.  Even Penn State has a presence here.




Also saw cherry trees (I think).  A first for me on this trip.


And just before  mile 20 we were into our next (and final) state - New York.


At about mile 30 was the town/village of Barcelona.  The lighthouse there is now a state park.  They have recently raised sufficient funds to restore the lighthouse (including redoing the steps to allow people to climb up) and they are now raising money to augment the grounds to make it more of a tourist destination.  This was the very first natural gas lighthouse in the country, and was first used in 1829. 












We passed by this sign, but sadly the statue of Marmaduke was several miles off our route so I didn't go.  I did lift this picture from their website, though.



This is just a picture of our typical road today.  Constantly rolling little hills that added up to over 1000' during the course of the day.  No big climbs.  We had a nice shoulder all day - a first!  PA had no rumble strip.  NY did, but the shoulder was quite wide so no problem.  With no big challenges on the ride (no big hills, not being quite as attentive to traffic since I could easily stay on the shoulder) it makes for a more relaxed day, for sure, but I'm probably not as attentive to all there is to see since my mind tends to wander a bit more.


Once into our destination town of Dunkirk I took a detour towards Point Gratiot, which is a lovely big waterfront park with a bike path following the shoreline; beautiful!  I followed the path around to the Dunkirk Lighthouse where I met up with a lot of our other riders.




















An easy day, nice & cool.  One more day closer to Canada.  Three riding days to go!


Dunkirk, New York

Population 12,743 (2020).  Dunkirk is the westernmost city in the state of New York.  It is named after Dunkirk in France.  A major employer here in the second half of the 19th century was Brooks Locomotive Works.  It built almost 4,000 steam locomotives.  It thrived as a steel town through the 1950s.  The coal-burning Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation coal-burning power plant was closed in 2016, and has since been converted to run on natural gas.  The population has declined since the 1970s.  In 2010 the median household income was $28,313.  22% of the population lived below the poverty line.


Stats for the day:

Distance:  79.6 km /  49.5 miles

Elevation (Garmin):  390m up / 397m down.  1278' up / 1302' down.

Elevation (RWGPS):  510m up / 510m down.  1673' up / 1673' down.  

Weather:  13C - 18C.  A bit of drizzle when I took luggage out before breakfast but it stayed dry (but overcast) all day, so nice and cool.  Wind wasn't a factor - we might have even had a bit of a tailwind at times.  Smoke wasn't a factor although the air quality index said "unhealthy for sensitive groups."  




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