Day 90: Middleville, NY

The hills flattened out and the winds died down for the 40 mile ride into Boonville.  Once there, we left our Northern Tier route, loaded up my bicycle and headed to Middleville, where we are camping at the Ace of Diamonds Mine and Campground ($20, power, $1 minimum coin showers).  We'll return to Boonville to continue our journey after our visit to Cooperstown, NY.

Our campsite at the Ace of Diamonds Mine.

Herkimer Diamonds.

The campground is part of an old dolostone quarry, where piles of boulders are piled up for amateur geologists to hammer away in the hopes of finding Herkimer Diamonds, a very clear, faceted quartz found only in this area.

The campsite is pretty rustic, but it is awesome to only pay $20 and get a chance to fully recharge our camper battery.  And it is sort of cool to be camping in an old quarry - it's a nice change from the campgrounds we usually visit.

It took a while for the temperature to reach 70, but it has been a great day.  I had a front flat 35 miles into today's ride, caused by grit and debris working its way through the gash in my front tire and then through the temporary boot patch that I had put on south of Bar Harbor.  That was a nearly brand new tire, so I tried to see how long I could make it last despite the damage.  We're happy we got another couple weeks of riding out of it, but we swapped it out for a new tire since it will only be a matter of time before the second boot patch would also fail.

Moose River, above Boonville.