Western NY Bike Adventure - Day 3

Total for this ride: 69.2 miles
Total for this year: 1800.9 miles

To see the route map for this ride, refer to the posting for "Western NY Bike Adventure - Day 1."

I didn't sleep well last night.  I was pretty tired so I hit the bed early.  But then I got a call from New Mexico just before 11.  It woke me out of a deep sleep, so I was kind of disoriented when I finally found the phone and said hello.  It was the father of one of my riders.  He couldn't reach his son on his cell phone, so he called me to have me pass along a message - "Tell him we'll be there tomorrow night."  OK.  Did he really need to wake me up for that?  So I went back to sleep but woke up again about 3:30 and couldn't doze off again for a couple hours.  I just lay there worrying about getting everybody back to Rochester in one piece.  After nodding off a couple of times, I got up for good about 6:30.  I wasn't well rested, and I didn't feel too good.  I was a little worried about making it back myself.  Thinking maybe I just needed some protein, I devoured a power bar and hoped for the best.  I got dressed and went out to fix Andrew's flat tire.

I had expected my riders to get flats, so I bought a patch kit and a couple of spare tubes before the ride.  I got tubes that would fit my tire and I assumed that everybody would have pretty much the same size tire.  As I found out when I went to replace Andrew's tube, that was not the case.  I had a 26x1.50-2.00 tube.  He had a 700x45c tire.  The tube I had wouldn't even fit around the rim.  So I was forced to use another one of my patches to get him fixed.

By this point the breakfast was coming out and the kids were wandering in to the Emerald Room to eat.  Brooke was one of the first.  I wanted to tell her last night that she was taking the shuttle back to campus, but when I went to bed she was still playing cards with the other kids.  I didn't want to embarrass her and ruin her night.  So when she came in for breakfast I pulled her aside and told her that I was concerned about her health.  I said that today's ride was going to be longer and hotter than yesterday's, and I wasn't going to take the chance that she'd get sick again.  I told her I had already called for the shuttle, and I didn't give her an option - she was taking the car ride back to RIT.  She was disappointed, but agreed without complaint.

Excellent.  One down - one to go.

Little Jeremy came in shortly after that.  I cornered him and told him that based on his struggle to finish the previous day's ride I felt he should take the shuttle back.  I was a little less forceful than I was with Brooke, but it didn't matter - he jumped at the chance.  Turns out he really wasn't looking forward to the ride anyway.  With the dirty business of the morning out of the way, I finally sat down and had breakfast.

Before I finished eating, Dan showed up from Rochester with the shuttle car.  Not only was he there to pick up Brooke and Jeremy, he was also delivering my boss, who decided that she wanted to participate in this adventure.  This turned out to be a huge mistake.  She caused problems all day long...

We packed up Brooke and Jeremy - and all of our extra equipment (my idea to send it back in the car) - hit a gas station to put some air in Celia and Andrew's underinflated tires, and started the 69-mile ride back to Rochester.

I let my grad student Dave take the lead through town, since he was the one who had diverted most of the riders away from the "Stairway of Death" two days earlier.  He zig-zagged his way through town and down to the bridge over the canal.  We crossed, pointed the bikes east, and started pedaling for home.

As was the case yesterday afternoon, the kids knew the way back so some of them picked up the pace and set off on their own.  In fact at one point, I showed the lead group of 5 guys how to ride in a paceline.  GPS data later showed that we were hitting a sustained speed of 18 mph - pretty darn good for fat tire bikes on a crushed stone surface.  But this burst of speed meant that my group was getting very spread out.  The old folks were now way behind the pack.  I dropped back to check on them.

When they finally caught up with me, it was apparent my boss was in serious trouble.  We hadn't even gone 20 miles and she was already struggling.  She was sweating profusely, feeling badly, and in need of a break.  This was not a good sign.  She regained her composure and we set off again, unsure of how far ahead the kids were.  Within 3 miles she was down again - and this time it was worse.  She was displaying clear symptoms of heat exhaustion.  She was so bad that for several minutes she just laid on the ground, unable to get up.  When she did finally manage to get on her feet, we had to use the garden hose at a nearby house to cool her down.  This was not a good sign.  Fortunately we were at a bridge in a small town on the canal, so I called Dan and told him to stand by for a pick up.  I told the boss it was time to throw in the towel.  She insisted she was going to keep going.  That's when I went ballistic on her.  I told her that it was stupid to continue - she was having this much trouble now, before noon, and we still had 46 miles to go during the hottest part of the day.  I wasn't going to take the chance that she would go down in the middle of nowhere, in a spot where I wasn't able to get help to her.  She needed to get off the trail and into a car home.  But she's completely irrational, and apparently selfish - it didn't matter to her that I needed to focus on getting the kids home safely.  She wanted to finish the ride in spite of the fact that meant I would have to trail along with her at the back of the pack to make sure she didn't die.  At that point I completely lost what little respect I had for her.

We eventually made it to lunch in Albion - after the kids had already gotten their food.  Fortunately I had given Bob the credit card and had him go ahead so they didn't have to wait to be fed.  When the boss and the other old folks had finally finished, we took off again.  I asked the kids in the lead group to meet us in Brockport, since we were trying to coordinate a rendezvous with the school's president for the final few miles of the ride.

Bob and I took up the sweep position at the back of the pack, trailing several yards behind my boss, who was riding alone, unable to keep up with even any of the other old folks.  We made it to Brockport, and expected to see the rest of the group there.  No sign of them.  I tried calling several of the kids.  Everything went to voice mail.  I could only assume they would wait at Spencerport, the next major town.  Bob and I assumed our positions at the back of the pack and took off at a snail's pace.

Not much later we did run into a minor problem.  One of my undergraduates, Kevin, started having stomach cramps.  We were about a mile past Hulberton when he told me.  I sent him back to town, and called Dan for a pick up.  Dan, realizing it might be a rough day, had been driving parallel to our route for hours, and was only minutes away from Kevin.  He phoned me once he made contact, and told me he'd meet us at Henpeck Park in Greece, several miles up the trail.

Just before we hit Spencerport I got a call.  "Hey Joe?  This is Sam.  I'm at the bridge at Long Pond.  Which way do I go?"  "Where's the rest of the group?"  "They're somewhere up ahead of me."  So now I had a problem.  I had a kid out there by himself, who ran the risk of getting lost.  And I apparently had a group spread out over 10 miles.  All because my boss was so self-centered and out of touch with reality.  Well, that was it.  She was on her own.  I gave Bob my assessment of the situation and he agreed we needed to regain control of the group.  We immediately took off and left the old folks in our dust.  Within seconds, we couldn't even see them any more.  Before long we flew past Celia and Andrew.  As we were blazing along, my phone rang again.  This time it was the president's office.  They wanted to let me know that the president was waiting to meet us at Genesee Valley Park.  I wasn't going to be there for at least another 45 minutes, at best, I told them.  "Well, he won't be able to wait that long."  I said I understood completely, apologized for wasting his valuable time, and hung up.  Bob and I pressed on as fast as we could go.

We got to Henpeck Park where Dan and Kevin (who was feeling much better) were waiting.  Just as we pulled up, my phone rang again.  "Now what?"  It was Jarrett, who was probably the strongest rider in the group.  "Where are you?" I asked.  "We're in Genesee Valley Park."  "Who's with you?"  "It's me, Dave, Carl, and Evan."  I was thrilled to hear that Evan was there.  I hadn't seen him for hours, and wasn't really sure where he was.  I don't like it when I can't account for the whereabouts of a kid.  So at least I knew where he was now.  But Sam was still a no-show.  I asked Bob to stick around and wait for Celia and Andrew while I took off with the hopes of catching Sam and meeting up with the lead group.

As it turned out, Sam eventually found his way to the leaders and was waiting with them when I got there.  They were all fine, having spent the time waiting by jumping off a dock into the Genesee River.  I called Bob to check on the others.  He had everybody in tow (including the old folks), and would meet up with us soon.  When they got there I let everybody catch their breath and grab a quick drink before having them mount up for the final few miles home.  I just wanted this ride to be over.

In what should have been a leisurely 5-mile ride back to campus, my boss had to stop three times.  She was cramping badly, and she fell off the bike a couple of times, needing Bob's help to get back on.  He called me (since in a very short time she was no longer within eyesight of the group) and said that we should press on without them.  I told him that Jarrett insisted we finish together.  So each time she stopped, we waited.  Eventually she rolled in and we continued.  We finally crossed Jefferson and made it to campus.  We rode up to our original starting point at the entrance of the Carlson Building - Jarrett getting there first, and then the rest of us, except for Bob and the boss.  When she got there she literally fell off the bike and laid on the ground for a few minutes, unable to even walk.  She asked Dan to drive her home, which he did.

We arrived at 5:30, which gave the kids enough time to go back to their dorms and get cleaned up before the catered Dino BBQ dinner back at Carlson.  They all showed up for the meal - except for my two dropouts from Sunday, Tal and Drew.  And they seemed none the worse for all the effort they put in over the 3-day ride.  In fact we were all in great shape, physically and mentally, and they thoroughly enjoyed the meal.

Before they left I formally thanked the two "Trail Angels" Bob and Dan, without whose support we wouldn't have made it.  Then one by one they left, ready to begin another adventure when classes begin next week.

By the way, if you want to see the "official" video from our ride, you can find it online by CLICKING HERE (courtesy of our videographer, Dave).  You can also CLICK HERE to view other photos from the ride.

Western NY Bike Adventure - Day 2

Total for this ride: 50.2 miles
Total for this year: 1731.7 miles

Day two of the pre-orientation ride with the incoming freshmen started with a catered breakfast of scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausages, fresh fruit, pastries, and juice in the "Emerald Room" of the Holdiay Inn in Lockport, where we spent the two nights of this adventure.  After breakfast, first order of business was to fix Brooke's flat tire - the one which depleted our supply of patches the day before, and the one which forced her to take a cab the final 12 miles of yesterday's ride.  Bob and I walked down to the Lockport WalMart last night to try to find a replacement tube, but since the store doesn't cater to people with high-end racing bikes, they didn't have the right size.  The closest was one size wider.  We decided to try it.  So after breakfast we crammed the oversize tube into the tire, and pumped it up as high as we could with Bob's little emergency pump.  I wasn't very confident that the solution would work, but it was the best we could do at the time.  Thinking ahead to tomorrow's ride, we anticipated that we would need an ample supply of spare tubes to get her back to RIT.  We decided to leave money at the front desk, and later in the morning call the bike shop about a mile up the street to have them drop off a few tubes which were the proper size.

With everyone rested, fed, and suited up, we left the hotel at 8:30 sharp, bound for Niagara Falls.  Unlike yesterday, today's route would require us to ride the majority of the time on-road.  Fortunately, in spite of the fact that we had to deal with vehicular traffic, the road we were on is a desgnated NY State bike route, with nice, wide shoulders.  We didn't have any significant problems as we rolled due west, past the Tuscarora Indian Reservation, just south of the large reservoir that augments the flow of water from the Niagara River through the Edwin Moses Power Station during daylight hours.  It was on this stretch of road, just outside Niagara Falls, that we had one of those cool experiences that you can only get on a bike ride.  We stopped briefly in the parking lot of an Antiochian Orthodox Church to rest and let the slower riders catch up.  As we were getting ready to hit the road again, a priest from the church drove up to the group and started chatting with a couple of the kids.  I asked him to give us a blessing.  He was happy to oblige.  He got out of the car and shared a couple of quotes in various language, I believe Arabic and Greek, and he wished the kids good luck with their studies and with their job searches, and then he bestowed a blessing on the group.  After thanking him and saying goodbye, we went our separate ways.  It was a small gesture, and I'm sure not as exciting for the kids as seeing the falls would be, but I thought it was the neatest part of the entire trip and I'll remember it for a long time.

Not long after our encounter with the priest, we passed by the Occidental Hyde Park Superfund site, a former hazardous waste dump which is now in its post-remediation monitoring phase.  Eventually, if all goes well, it will be dropped from the EPA's National Pirorities List.  I tried to explain the significance of Superfund sites to the kids, but I don't think they really cared.

From there, it was a short ride to the Robert Moses Parkway Trail.  Reclaimed from the southbound lanes of a former 4-lane divided highway, the trail provide a straight shot from the Devil's Hole down into Niagara Falls and the State Park.  Well, almost a straight shot.  As was the case a couple of weeks ago when I did my reconnaissance with Bob, constrction blocked our travel at one point a few miles from the falls.  So just as Bob and I did on the earlier ride, we had the kids "portage" their bikes over the 24-inch pipe before heading down to street level in NF.  We were on the surface street for less than 1/4 mile before I took them under the old Parkway and onto a path which connected with a paved trail running directly to the falls.  It was from this trail that the kids got their first glimpse of the Rainbow Bridge, Niagara Falls, Ontario, and the actual Falls themselves.  Since we had kids from as far away as New Mexico, most of them were pretty impressed with the sight.  We rolled into the park at about 11:00 - earlier than I thought we would.

First order of business after gettting to the park was to take them over to Goat Island and show them where the "Top of the Falls" restaurant was located, so they'd know where to go for lunch at noon.  At that point we turned them loose to explore on their own for an hour.  But as it turned out, they pretty much stuck together.  Most locked their bikes to a railing along the Niagara River, just before it hit the Falls at Terrapin Point.  They walked down to the lower level to get closer to the cataract and stare down into the gorge.  But after that, most of them just kind of hung around.  Several even napped on the grass just outside the restaurant.  None of them walked out on the Rainbow Bridge to have their picture taken on the international border, which kind of surprised me.  Oh, well.  It was their time to do whatever they wanted.

Just before noon I walked into the Top of the Falls to let the catering manager know that we were there.  I discovered three of the kids had already gone inside, just to get drinks and cool off - it was starting to get quite hot.  In spite of the warning we had received when we made the reservation that Mondays were typically busy, there seemed to be very few people in the restaurant.  I was escorted to a covered patio overlooking the Horseshoe Falls, where our tables had already been set.  The kids wandered in and sat down, and the waitress started taking our orders from the selections I had pre-chosen for the group.  Although I didn't really feel hungry, when I took the first bite of my Buffalo chicken wrap it tasted SO GOOD that I easily devoured the rest of the thing.

After lunch the plan was to let the kids ride the Maid of the Mist while the grown ups stayed behind and watched the bikes.  As we were getting ready to head over to the ticket office, one of the girls, Celia, mentioned to me that Brooke wasn't feeling well.  I went over to her and asked her if she was going to be OK.  She said she thought so, but she wasn't very convincing.  I offered to get her a cab ride back to the hotel.  She agreed.  Maria offered to go with her.  So while the kids were on the boat I went to an information booth to get a number for a cab company.

They enjoyed the Maid of the Mist.  In spite of the flimsy blue ponchos that they received before boarding, they were all soaked by the time they got back.  I guess they figured they were going to get me just as wet by smothering me in a big group hug when they got back to the bikes, but it was so hot that they were drying off pretty quickly, and the little water that they did get on me actually felt pretty good.

We could have stayed longer, and I offered them the chance to do some more exploring, but they all wanted to head back to the hotel.  So we mounted up and rolled over to the Niagara Gorge Exploration Center where we called for Brooke's and Maria's cab.  As soon as we had secured their ride, the rest of us took off.  The Western NY Bike Adventure was now officially 1/2 over.  We had gone as far from RIT as we would go, and all that was left was to retrace our path back to Rochester.  And since they now knew how to get back, several of them decided they could pick up the pace and break away from the group.  This was fine with me.  It gave them a chance to feel a little more independent and to enjoy each other's company without the old folks around.

Unfortunately, one of the kids just wasn't able to keep up.  Little Jeremy was fading fast.  Bob and I hung back to keep him company the whole 25 miles back to the hotel.  It was a long slow ride...  And other than seeing the Tuscaroras protesting on the side of the road, it was kind of boring.  But we couldn't leave this kid alone on a busy road in that heat.  So we just plugged along until we finally made it back to the hotel.

At dinner that night Celia and Andrew let us know that they both had flats.  No big deal... we had some spare tubes (for wide, off-road tires) and would fix them in the morning.  Later I conferred with Bob and Maria about how to convince Brooke and Jeremy to take the shuttle back to RIT in the morning.  It didn't take long before I decided that I didn't need to convince them - in my judgement as the group leader, Brooke wasn't well enough to make the ride and I wasn't going to take any chances with her health, especially since tomorow's ride would be longer and hotter.  And Jeremy... well, I'd just tell him straght up that I didn't think he'd make it.  So with that as the plan, I posted the day's GPS data on our Facebook site, and hit the sack for the night.

Western NY Bike Adventure - Day 1

Total for this ride: 69.2 miles
Total for this year: 1681.5 miles

I'd been waiting for this day and this ride for a long, long time.

Early in the year RIT's Orientation Office sent out a call for proposals for "pre-orientation" activities for incoming freshmen.  They made no restrictions on the nature of the activity, other than it had to fill three days.  To me, this was a no-brainer -- I'd propose a bike tour.  I immediately set about designing the trip.

At first, I wasn't sure exactly where the tour should go.  I can't remember all of the options I considered, but I do remember drawing lots of lines on a map of New York.  Ultimately I settled on a round trip to Niagara Falls.  I wrote it up, submitted the proposal, and a couple months later received notice that it had been approved.  I was on my way.  I threw together a web site to promote the program in the hopes that it would help me reach my goal of attracting 16 students.

The months between the approval of the proposal and the beginning of the tour were spent developing budgets, arranging meals and lodging, and lining up an adult support team.  Naturally Bob would have to come.  I asked Roger, but I knew he would find some reason not to participate (he didn't disappoint).  One of my colleagues at work volunteered to provide rescue vehicle service (thank you Dan...).  And few other co-workers (who I would call casual riders) heard about the trip and decided they wanted to come too.

Student registrations for the ride were slow coming in.  At one point I thought I'd have to cancel the trip due to lack of interest.  But right before the deadline to sign up we managed to get what I thought was critical mass.  The ride was on.

That's when things started getting hinkey.  With registrations in hand a few weeks ago, I was able to finalize the contracts for the hotel and meals.  But shortly thereafter, the numbers started changing.  One kid dropped out.  Since I needed an even number of students (of each gender) I quickly asked one of my current grad students, who jumped at the opportunity to go.  OK, back to even.  I set up a Facebook page and sent an e-mail to each of the registrants asking them to use the site to introduce themselves.  A few did right away.  Others trickled in over the next couple of weeks.  But a week before the ride I realized I hadn't heard from three of the kids and decided to call them to see if they were still on board.  The first two calls went right to voice mail.  The third call reached the kid.  He was in a car, somewhere in Colorado, on his way to Rochester with his sister.  Among other things I asked him how he was transporting his bike to RIT.  He said he didn't own a bike, and was expecting RIT to provide the bike for the ride.  Since we weren't, he too dropped from the event.  Rather than tell my one student I no longer needed him, I invited a SECOND student to get back to even numbers of guys.  I was beginning to realize that it was going to be a challenge keeping the number of participants at the level I had requested when I signed the contracts for the meals and lodging.

And it wasn't just the students who were making life difficult.  The adults were pretty flakey about riding too.  One of my riders discovered he had written the wrong dates on his calendar and told me he could only ride the first two days.  Until he later changed his mind and decided he could ride three.  Another was originally going to ride three.  Then decided it would have to be only one, but she would check in to the hotel the night before so I should get her a room.  At the last minute she realized she wouldn't be able to get there until the morning of the last day.  And literally the night before the ride, two of my adults (married couple) dropped out because one (the husband) literally fell down a cliff and busted his face wide open, requiring 20 stitches across his nose, eyebrow, and forehead.  It was a circus.  And when on the Friday before the ride my contacts in the Orientation Office told me that I couldn't use the department credit card to pay the bills because the adult riders weren't eligible for tax exempt status, I threatened to cancel the ride.  They eventually relented, but at that point I had pretty much decided that this would be the one and only time I'd lead this event.

In spite of all the turbulence, the day of the ride eventually came and we all met in my building for a hearty catered breakfast before hitting the trail.  This was the first time I had to even see any of the bikes and equipment that the students brought for the three day event.  It was very obvious that some of them hadn't read any of the information about the ride I posted on the web site.  One girl, Brooke, brought a racing bike.  Not just a road bike - a racing bike with tires narrower than the ones I had on my own road bike.  And since this bike was never intended to carry any gear, she had clamped a rack on the seatpost to carry her oversized panniers.  The whole setup was a rolling recipe for disaster.  Another kid, Tal, came showed up with long black workout pants, a black long-sleeve pull-over jersey of some sort, and a huge backpack with all of his gear.  I didn't pick the pack up, but it was big, and it looked full.  I would guess at least 20 pounds - maybe more.  With temps on Day 1 forecasted in the high 80's, he was surely doomed.

As everybody was making their final preparations, a crew from one of the local news stations, YNN, came by to do some interviews and take some video.  Our departure was broadcast later that day.  At the appointed hour of 8:30 exactly, we rolled away from campus.

The ride started out uneventfully.  Everybody was in good spirits and ready for an adventure.  Since none of the kids knew the route, the group pretty much hung together as we rode northwest along the paved section of the Erie Canal Towpath.  But then at the 10-mile point, just as we were about to leave the pavement and hit the crushed stone which we'd be on for almost 60 miles, one of the riders had a flat.  It was the girl with the racing bike.  The flat came as no surprise to me, and with it, I realized that it was going to be a very long day.  Bob and I fixed the flat, and we hit the trail again.

That flat was just the first of several "adventures" we would have over the course of the day.  At the 16-mile mark, one of our adult riders, unaware of the fact that he was riding straight toward a large metal post in the middle of the trail, slammed into it, hit the ground, and tore up three of his fingers.  Fortunately I was carrying a first aid kit and we were able to bandage him up.  Not long after a quick break at the welcome center in Brockport, Brooke had her second flat of the morning.  Bob patched it up, and I offered to take over for him in the sweep (rear) position so he could ride in the lead for a while.  It was about this time that Tal, the kid with the backpack, started to fade.  My grad student Dave (who is a real saint) took Tal's load and bungeed it to the rack of his Schwinn.  In spite of this, Tal kept falling further and further behind the group.  So far, in fact, that soon he and I were riding alone, completely out of eyesight from the peleton.  Tal was sure his inability to keep up was due to a mechanical problem with his bike.  I knew better - the kid did nothing to prepare and he was never going to make it.  I started planting suggestions in his head that he could get picked up at lunch and given a ride back home.  At first he declined, but after taking several more brakes, and drinking my entire water supply, he accepted the offer.  I called Dan and asked him to head for Albion.

Tal and I rolled into Albion and up a short hill to the Subway where the rest of the group was waiting for us (I had the credit card...).  As soon as I got there, someone pointed out to me that we had a problem - another one of my riders, Drew, was sitting by himself in a booth sobbing his eyes out.  My first reaction was to go all "drill sergeant" on him and slap him around a little.  But instead, I went over and sympathetically asked him if he was OK.  He blubbered something about having a headache.  I suggested that he get in line for a sandwich, that maybe he would feel better if he got some food in his stomach.  He said that he just wanted to think.  OK... so I got at the end of the line, ordered my own sandwich, and paid the bill for the entire group.  While I was eating, Drew, with tears streaming down his swolen red eyes, came over and asked if he could use my phone, since he wasn't getting any reception on his.  My first thought was "must have ATT."  My second thought was "he's gonna slobber all over my phone."  Which he did the whole time he talked to his Mommy and Daddy.  When he finally finished his call, he asked if he could get a ride home, which I gladly agreed to arrange.  Having him out of the group wouldn't bother me in the least.  But what did bother me is that after I had already paid for everybody else's lunch, he had the nerve to ask me if he could get something to eat.  It was about then that Dan rolled up with the car.  We loaded the two wimps and their bikes into the car and we set out once again to the west.

After lunch the group started to spread out a little.  I was up near the front group - the first ones to reach our destination for the day, Lockport.  I've been on the Erie Canal Towpath in Lockport a few times before.  The last time was two years ago when Bob and I made this same ride.  When we got to the locks, there was a jersey barricade across the trail with a sign indicating that it was closed.  But it was no problem getting around the barricades and we were able to walk our bikes up the one big hill on this ride to the street level of downtown Lockport.  Unfortunately, this time the trail really was closed - blocked by a chain link fence that extended over the canal.  There was no way to get up to street level, short of climbing an enormous set of stairs which zig-zagged up to the top of the escarpment.  A couple of the guys in the group started carrying their bikes up the stairs.  I decided it would be easier to make two trips, so I took all of the gear off my bike before making the trip to the top.  It was a killer climb.  When I got back down, I asked Dave, who was taking video of this whole episode, to ride back and have everyone behind us to use a bridge about a half mile back to get over the canal and take surface streets to get to the hotel.  I grabbed my gear, climbed back up to the top, and took the small group to the hotel.

Just as I was checking in, Bob called to say Brooke was having more problems.  She flattened out again, for the third time, near a house where the owner was taking target practice in his back yard.  Bob got it patched up, only to find that another leak sprung up somewhere else.  He patched that one, and another appeared.  And then another... soon he was completely out of patches and stuck in Middleport.  He said that he was going to need transport to the hotel.  The nice lady behind the counter gave me the number of a local cab company, who agreed to pick up Bob, Brooke, and Maria (who was also riding back in the rear).  While I got all of the other riders checked in and started on dinner, I waited for those three to show up.  When they did, I had some dinner myself, and crashed for the night.  It was a long day...

Boughton Park With My Buddy

Total for this ride: 15.2 miles
Total for this year: 1612.3 miles

If all goes well, this will be the first of five straight days of riding...  been falling behind in my mileage lately... need to do some catching up...

Anyway, today's ride was my first with Joe since we rode (OK, coasted) down Haleakala on Maui almost exactly one year ago.  We didn't go quite as far today, but we definitely put in more effort.  After rolling out of our neighborhood and through the Village of Victor, we headed up the dreaded Boughton Hill, former home of the largest village in the Seneca Indian Nation, and probably the highest spot in town.  After getting to the top, we kept going south until we made a left toward Boughton Park - a quaint little local park, formed as were other parks in the area, by glaciation during the last ice age.  We took a quick break, rehydrated, then continued our loop, riding past several horse farms before rolling back through the Village and then home.  An excellent ride on a beautiful day.

A Tale of Two Trails

Total for this ride: 14.3 miles
Total for this year: 1597.1 miles

An RIT group ride from Scottsville to Rush and back along the Genesee Valley Greenway and the Lehigh Valley Trail, both former railways.

I think this was probably my first time on the Greenway this year.  For good reason.  I really have to be in the right state of mind to ride it.  It's almost completely unimproved, practically primitive, with lots of roots and ruts and rocks that do nothing but slow you down.  Fortunately, we were only on it for about 2.5 miles before we took a left turn onto the Lehigh Valley, which, as a Monroe County "linear park", is in much better shape.  It starts with a cool old train bridge over the Genesee River.  I remember the first time I saw that bridge several years ago it was closed while work was being done to allow hikers, bikers, and horses to safely pass.  A sign as you approach the bridge demands that cyclists dismount and walk their bikes across (supposedly so you don't spook any horses?).  Nobody does.  After crossing the bridge, it's about 5 miles on the Lehigh Valley until we reach the Village of Rush.  Not much to do there except turn around and go back.

The pace on the return trip was achingly slow (not that I couldn't have gone faster... but it's a group ride you know...).  So even though this was a short ride, it was after 7 pm by the time we got back to Scottsville.  Seems like every year at this time my patience for the group rides starts to wear thin...  Some people ride too slow.  Some have too many problems with their bikes.  Some talk too much.  I just want to put in my miles in peace.

Chili

Total for this ride: 22.1 miles
Total for this year: 1582.8 miles

A nice after-work ride with Bob and Roger through the farmlands west and south of RIT.  I had no idea where we had gone until I looked at the GPS data after getting home.  The result of being an east-sider, I guess.

Reconnaissance

Total for this ride: 52.7 miles
Total for this year: 1560.7 miles

Nothing better than getting paid to ride my bike...

Used the whole day to work on getting ready for the upcoming DiscoveRIT Western NY Bike Adventure, a 3-day ride from RIT to Niagara Falls and back that I'm leading at the end of the month.  The goal today was to do a reconnaissance of the route we'll follow on the second day of the ride, a round-trip from Lockport to Niagara Falls.  Although I've ridden from home to Niagara Falls a couple of times already, this is the first time I've done it leading a group of kids, with unknown abilities, and unknown equipment.  So I picked a route that I thought would minimize effort and maximize safety.  But I hadn't actually ridden on that route before, so I needed to scout it out to make sure I know where I'm going on game day, and there are no surprises.  Turned out it was a good thing I did.

I was accompanied on this ride by my buddy Bob Callens, who graciously agreed to drive from RIT to Lockport, since the rack he has in his truck can handle two bikes (mine only takes 1...).  When we got to town, we pulled into the Holiday Inn where we'll be spending the two nights of the ride.  We popped into the hotel only long enough to drop off some power bars and Gatorade that we'll make available to the riders on days 2 and 3.  Then we hit the road - about a mile down Transit St.., then west on Rt. 31, which is also NY State Bike Route 5, toward Niagara Falls.

That stretch of Rt. 31 really is pretty good for biking.  There's some traffic, including trucks, but the shoulders are wide and relatively clean, and there are no significant hills.  Still, it's a pretty long stretch - maybe 15 miles or more - and I'm not sure how my group of inexperienced riders will do after having ridden 60 miles on the Erie Canal the day before.  It will be interesting to see how they hold up.

We had one encounter with a local farmer along the way.  He was driving an old tractor on the shoulder, going in the same direction we were.  We were able to catch and pass him without much effort.  He pulled along side us when we had to stop at a light, and started chatting.  He wanted to know where we were going, so we told him.  Then he mentioned that he was headed, I think to some sort of farm show or parade or something, where his tractor would be on display.  He told us it was a '58 John Deere.  I almost said to him that my '57 legs were faster than his '58 John Deere, but I didn't.

When we got to the west end of Rt. 31, we needed to find the bike path which, according to Google Maps, would take us right down into the town of Niagara Falls.  After winding through a quaint residential area, we found it, right near the Devil's Hole State Park.  After crossing the bike/pedestrian bridge over the Robert Moses State Parkway, we headed south along the Niagara River toward the falls.  The path we rode on was outstanding... it appears it was formerly the two south-bound lanes of the Parkway, which had been closed to vehicular traffic and marked for bike and pedestrian use.  Although we did see a few others out using the path, I would have expected many more, given the location and the great weather.

We followed the path maybe two miles and then ran into our first problem - the path was completely closed for construction.  A few barricades and a chain link fence blocked our path.  Fortunately, the work zone was only about 10 yards long, and we were able to walk the bikes along the grassy area that separated the bike path from the Parkway until we got around it.  Once past the construction zone, all we needed to do was "portage" our bikes over a 24 inch pipe, and we were back in business.  At least for a while.  Another mile or so down the path and we hit another construction zone - which didn't afford any opportunities to bypass the area.  Our only option was to backtrack and try another path which branched off of the one we had been using.  This one quickly put us down on the surface streets in a neighborhood north of the falls, but we figured we had no other choice.  So it was surface streets into the tourist district.

We made our way to Niagara Falls State Park without any further trouble.  First order of business when we got there was to check out the "Top of the Falls" restaurant, where I hoped to bring the group for lunch when we arrived in a couple of weeks.  It's a really cool restaurant with an incredible view of the Horseshoe Falls.  There we were served by Magdalena, a nice young lady from Macedonia, who had just come to the US for the summer, and would soon be returning to her homeland for her final year of college where she is majoring in economics.  We also met the manager of the facility, who booked us for a group event on August 30th, the day our 18 riders will show up, and who will work with me to set up a menu.  This will be perfect - we'll show up, walk in, our food will be waiting for us, we'll eat, and then we'll cut the kids loose to explore the park until we get back together for the "Maid of the Mist" ride.  Perfect.

Once we had taken care of business at the restaurant, Bob and I packed up the bikes and got ready to head back.  As we were getting our act together, we chatted with a few folks who were clearly part of a large group of riders who were on some kind of tour.  We found out that it was a group of about 120 people (wearing tie-dye shirts) from Oneonta, who were affiliated with a "Youth For Christ" chapter.  This was the 30th annual ride like this one.  Real nice people.

After mounting up Bob and I intended to retrace our steps back out of town and toward Lockport.  However, as we left the park and headed north through traffic, Bob noticed some trails off to our left, toward the river.  We decided to explore a little and see where they went.  We discovered to our surprise that they led right back into the park - in fact when we were checking out the schedule for the Maid of the Mist, we could have hopped on right there and saved ourselves all of the winding through pedestrians and cars.  This was a major discovery, because we were now confident that we would be able to get both in and out of the park without having to deal with traffic.  Turns out it wasn't quite as easy as we had hoped... there were still a few minor detours along the way, but all in all, we think we're in pretty good shape for the group ride in a couple of weeks.

On the way back up to Rt. 31 we ran across a couple of stragglers from the YFC group (apparently one of them had gotten a flat).  We rode with them back to the bridge over the Parkway where their group was waiting, and then we hopped back on Rt. 31 for the long ride back to Lockport.

Albion

Total for this ride: 52 miles
Total for this year: 1508.0 miles

Took a nice ride through sparsely populated farmlands west of Rochester with a colleague from work.  A fairly uneventful ride, fortunately.  We just had a general idea that we wanted to start at a county park in Churchville, have lunch in Albion, and then work our way back to the starting point.  But other than that, we didn't know exactly what route we would take.  In fact, neither of us even brought a map.  And the display on my GPS is so small that the map view is fairly useless.  So we were kind of winging it.  But everything worked out, and in spite of a little breeze from the west, we actually made pretty good time, finishing the ride in four hours, including the stop for lunch.

As it turns out, it was good for me that we went to Albion.  I'm taking a group of new students through there on a 3-day ride from RIT to Niagara Falls in three weeks, and the plan is to stop in Albion on both the outbound and return trips for lunch.  Jill and I had scouted out a couple of restaurants a few months ago, but I discovered today that one of them has apparently gone out of business.  Need to figure out a "Plan B" before then...

Turning Point Park

Total for this ride: 13.3 miles
Total for this year: 1456.0 miles

Seems like it's been forever since I did a ride with either of my RIT groups.  What with schedule conflicts and vacation, I'm sure it's been at least a few weeks.

Today's ride is traditionally a favorite among those who roll with the groups.  It's short, it's scenic, and there's an Abbott's ice cream shop at the turn around point.  The only down side for some is the fact that there's a little bit of climbing.  But not enough to deter anyone from making the ride.

Historically we start at a parking lot just outside the Seneca Park Zoo.  Cross the street, and a path takes you down to a footbridge across the Genesee River Gorge.  A short climb out of the gorge takes you to Kodak Park, which was at one point in time the hub for Kodak manufacturing operations (much of which has now moved overseas...).  In fact, George Eastman himself is buried just off the street outside one of the manufacturing buildings.  Although we didn't stop there this trip, I know I have some pics of it somewhere.  If I can find them, I'll add them to the post at a later date.  Anyway, the route follows Lake Ave north past a cemetery, then heads down into the gorge on the Genesee Riverway Trail.  The trail meets the river at Turning Point Park, apparently a wide spot in the river where large boats had enough room to turn around before heading back out into Lake Ontario.  The cool feature of Turning Point Park is the boardwalk that runs all through the marshes along the river.  It's pretty neat.  After leaving the boardwalk, the route follows the river through the Port of Rochester to the town of Charlotte, where a large concrete pier extends out from Ontario Beach Park into the lake.  It really is a fun ride.

After we worked our way back to the zoo, Bob, Roger and I went out to dinner at Famous Dave's BBQ.  Jill was upset that she couldn't make it.

Just Another Commute...

Total for this ride: 27.7 miles
Total for this year: 1442.7 miles

Yes, it's Sunday, but I had to go to RIT this afternoon to attend an orientation for a workshop I'm giving this week.  Decided to ride in.  It would have been a typical, nondescript commute had it not been for the following:

1. For the first time, I made the round trip in under two hours.  This is a big deal.  I was hammerin' the whole way.
2. I saw a great blue heron on the way home.  These incredible birds are by far my favorite in the world.  Just beautiful.