Ride, Interrupted...

Total for this ride: 32.1 miles
Total for this year: 1923.8 miles

This is precisely why I prefer to ride alone...

So a few days after the Western New York Bike Adventure I decided it would be nice to give the kids a little time to get settled in and then offer them an "encore ride" - one that would give them a chance to see what's on the canal towpath going east, instead of west toward Niagara Falls.  It looked like I didn't have any other commitments this weekend, so I sent out an invitation to the group - if you're interested, show up at the Carlson Building at 1:00 on Saturday.  The plan was to ride to Schoen Place, have some ice cream, and head back.  21 miles in maybe 2 1/2 hours.  If they weren't in a hurry, and wanted to do some exploring, I could add a few miles by taking them up to old Lock 50 (?) behind Pittsford Plaza.  If they were real ambitious we could ride through UR and into town.  The possibilities were endless...

I could have driven out to campus to meet up with the group, but there's not a lot of time left in the season and I really want to put in as many miles as possible before the weather shuts me down for the year.  So I decided to drive to Bushnell's Basin and ride from there to campus.  We'd do the encore ride, and then I'd ride back from RIT to the Park-N-Ride where the truck would be waiting.  I figured that would be enough riding to give me my 15th ride of the year longer than 50 miles.  It was a plan.

I started riding about 10:30 and hit the canal in Bushnell's Basin a few minutes later.  First thing I noticed was a big orange sign which said "NAL CONSTRUCTION AHE D".  For a second I thought about climbing back up to Marsh Rd. and taking the surface streets to Pittsford where I figured I could catch the towpath.  But then I decided that I wasn't in a hurry, and it would be more of an adventure if I stayed on the towpath, so I pressed on.  As it turned out, there was no construction on the nal.  It was smooth sailing the whole way.

It was very apparent on this ride that fall is upon us.  It was cool enough when I took off to wear the lightweght blue shell.  I left it on all day.  The trees have definitely started changing color.  Not at peak color yet, but it won't be long.  And many of them are starting to deposit their leaves and seed pods (or whatever they are...) all over the trail.  In some places it's like a little obstacle course, trying to avoid all the debris.

I got to RIT just before noon and figured I'd eat before we started the encore ride.  I was hoping to go to the Crossroads Cafe and get a quick sandwich, but they were closed.  Instead I ended up going to a new restaurant that's kind of a "Moe's" on steroids.  They feature southwestern fare... burritos, tacos, nachos, quesedillas, and specialty SW pizzas.  I went with the burrito.

I wasn't sure how many of the kids would show up for the ride.  I'd heard from a few of them, but you never know with college students.  It could have been most, or it could have been none.  In the end, four guys showed up.  My current student Kevin, and three of the new freshmen, Andrew, Jeremy, and Evan.  I waited until about five after one before pushing off.

Things went pretty well on the ride out to Schoen Place.  We had the wind with us so we were making pretty good time.  But when we got to our destination, the little ice cream shop at the east end of Schoen, it was closed.  Kevin suggested we press on to Bushnell's Basin and go to the Abbott's.  I asked the group if they were up for it, and they were.  So we pressed on.

We got to Abbott's and everybody ordered their ice cream (frozen yougurt, really).  We didn't linger too long though, because Andrew was supposed to sit at the Engineering House table at the open house, so we needed to get back.

We crossed back over the canal on the Marsh Rd. bridge and started west on the towpath.  We had only gone about a mile and a half, most of the way past the Great Embankment, when Kevin starts shouting for me from the rear of the pack.  He noticed that Andrew's rear tire was flat [the picture I took of the guys as we left Abbott's clearly shows that the tire was flat before we got back to the canal].  Nobody had brought any spare tubes or patches (I specifically indicated in my invitation that I would NOT be fixing any flats on this ride...).  We were still 13 miles from campus so walking back wasn't an option.  But we were only about two miles from my truck.... So there weren't many options - Kevin, Jeremy, and Evan would continue the ride back to RIT.  I would ride to Bushnell's Basin and get the truck so I could pick up Andrew and his bike and drive them back to campus.

Right then and there my plans for a 50 mile day were trashed.  I guess it could have been worse.  At least it was a short ride back to the truck - if I had driven all the way to campus Andrew would have had a much longer wait until I could rescue him, and I would have had to drive twice as far to get him, return him to campus, and then drive home.  And it was also lucky that for some reason I decided to bring both of the racks in the truck.  Really don't know why I did.  There was no reason to.  Maybe I had a premonition...

Anyway... that was my ride.