Old Lyme

Total for this ride: 22.8 miles
Total for this year: 2128.3 miles

Riding on borrowed time...  At this point in the season, every time I get on the bike it could be my last ride of the year.  Got to enjoy them while I still can.  I did enjoy this one. 

I know I've done parts of this ride in the past, but I can't remember exactly when.  All I know is that it was a long time ago.  May have even been back when I was in college, riding the bike I used to commute to high school (which was stolen during my move to CA in 1984, necessitating the purchase of a new bike - a Trek 420 which I still occasionally ride to this day...).  Anyway, even though there were some familiar sights on this ride, the bright sunshine and breathtaking fall colors made for a thoroughly enjoyable ride.

I started from my parents' house in a neighborhood off the Boston Post Road in East Lyme and headed south toward the beach on the Long Island Sound in Niantic.  The traffic was, as usual, fairly heavy between Flanders and Niantic.  But I've ridden that stretch of road so many times I've kind of gotten used to it. 

When I hit Rt. 156, which parallels the coast, I turned west and followed the road for several miles, past the prison on Bride Brook Rd, and Rocky Neck State Park (which I visited earlier in the summer).  The road eventually turns north and follows the Connecticut River inland.

Just past where 156 goes under Interstate 90, I turned to the east and entered the village of Old Lyme.  It's a really neat old town, with a history that goes back to the late 1600's.  George Washington is known to have passed through the town on multiple occasions, and Albert Einstein had a summer home there.

I was apparently spending too much time "leaf peeping" and looking at the scenery -- and not watching for road hazards.  I hit a small pot hole square on, so hard that it rattled my teeth.  I was afraid I had damaged a rim, but I stopped and checked everything out.  Seemed like all of the critical components were still intact, so I pressed on.  After passing through town I made a quick stop at Rogers Lake to take a few pictures, continued on to Scott's Yankee Farmer, and then home.

Third Time's the Charm...

Total for this ride: 10.4 miles

Total for this year: 2105.5 miles

Today's ride was the third of the year through Turning Point Park up in Charlotte - once with the RIT bike group during the "regular season", once with a small group of colleagues from the office after work, and now once with Joe.

I had to leave work early for this ride.  It's starting to get dark around 6:30, and I needed to pick up Joe at his apartment and then drive all the way up to the lake.  I would have never been able to get in a good 10 miles if I waited until 5:00 to leave.  I'll make up the time some time in the next week...

When we got up to Charlotte, we parked near the Port of Rochester terminal, where the "fast ferry" used to dock.  We hopped on the bikes and head south along the Genesee River, past the Rochester Yacht Club, and toward the boardwak through Turning Point Park.  Just before we got to the boardwalk Joe caught sight of a deer on the trail up ahead.  We stopped, took a couple of pictures, then slowly worked our way closer as a second one appeared.  They watched us as we continued to inch forward, but eventually they got bored and took off into the woods.  We pressed on toward the boardwalk.

We saw a few people as we rode through the park.  A couple of fishermen, some dog-walkers, two or three other cyclists.  But it wasn't too crowded.  We got to the end of the boardwalk and started up the long hill which goes slowly up the side of the gorge until the trail reaches Lake Ave.  On the ride up I got a really cool picture of Joe as sunlight was streaming through the trees, casting long shadows on the trail ahead of him.  From there we continued south past Holy Sephlucre Cemetery, then crossed to the west side of Lake to make a quick stop at George Eastman's grave.  We didn't stay long though.  We turned around, started north, and crossed back over Lake at King's Landing Cemetery - the first in Rochester.  From there we just retraced our path back to Charlotte.  When we got there we poked around the terminal a little, checked out a group of people taking a sailing class in the river, and took a couple of pics of a paddle wheeler getting ready to take a group out onto Lake Ontario for a dinner cruise.  I hope the boat was heated... by then it was getting pretty cold out.  We wanted to ride out to the end of the pier, but it was closed for repair.  So with the sun down, dark clouds moving in, and the temps dropping, we called it a day and I took Joe home.

Old Erie

Total for this ride: 61.8 miles
Total for this year: 2095.1 miles

With good weather forecast for this weekend (probably one of the few I have left before the snow hits...) I decided to go for a long ride in an area I'd never explored before.  The plan was to go the entire length of the Old Erie Canal State Park from DeWitt (just east of Syracuse) to Rome and back, a distance of about 72 miles.  It promised to be a fun ride with lots of old canal artifacts and structures along the way.  And with the fall colors near peak, I expected some spectacular scenery.

I figured it would take about an hour and a half to drive to DeWitt from Victor, so I planned to get an early start - maybe even as early as 6:30.  But I got up at 6, it was still pitch black, and everything was covered with frost, so I took my time getting my act together.  I eventually ended up pulling out of the driveway at 8:00.  A little later than I hoped, but at least the sun was up by then.

As expected, it took just under an hour and a half to make the drive to the parking area at the western terminus of the state park.  There were several other cars in the small lot, so apparently the park was being put to good use.  I loaded up the bike, locked the truck, and hit the trail.

Right out of the parking lot the trail goes along an old aqueduct - one of several I'd see throughout the day.  This was a good sign.  If structures were maintained along the entire length of the ride, there would be plenty to explore.

More good news within the first mile - a perfectly preserved change bridge.  Back in the years when the old canal was in operation, a change bridge was used to allow the mules which pulled the barges to cross from one side of the canal to the other without the need to be unhitched.  This particular change bridge crossed over to a small park on the south side of the canal - a park with a bathroom.  It was one of precious few bathrooms I saw the entire rest of the day.

The path was the crushed limestone I'm familiar with from all my riding on the canal towpath in the western part of the state.  Good - I thought I'd be able to maintain a decent pace.  This was important since I needed to be back home in time for dinner with Joe and Molly.  And with the sun brightly shining in a blue sky, the colors of the leaves in the trees were indeed spectacular.  My pictures don't do them justice.

I rode a good 10-11 miles before getting to the first town, Chittenango.  I took a little time to explore the Chittenango Landing Canal Boat Museum on the south side of the canal.  Unfortunately, this being a Sunday morning, the museum was closed so there was only so much I could see.  But I did check out the ruins of an old cannery from the 1880's which were pretty cool.

The next town along the trail was Canestota.  Canestota was considerably larger than Chittenango - there was actually a small village center, and the whole town was at least several blocks across.  A quaint little place.  Only problem was that as I was heading out of town I was confronted with a large "TRAIL CLOSED" sign.  Hmmm...  That's not good.  I was able to look past the sign, and it didn't appear that anything would preclude me from using it.  Maybe there was some construction just beyond the farthest point I could see?  Normally I would have decided that it would be more of an adventure to just ride past the sign and see what was going on.  But for some reason I chose to heed the warning and take to the street (appropriately, Canal St....) which ran parallel to the trail.  So off I went.

I stayed on the street for at least half a mile, every now and then glancing up at the towpath which was above street level, on the far side of a drainage ditch.  Still no indication that there was anything going on that keep me from using it.  But I stuck to the street untl the speed limit changed from 30 to 55.  With a very narrow shoulder, I figured it was time to get back on the trail.  There was no way I was going to be able to cross the ditch and climb back on the towpath.  Fortunately, not far up the road there was a small driveway which connected the pavement to the trail.  I made the turn and got off the road.  It was then that I discovered why the trail was closed -- it really was under construction.  It appeared that somebody - presumably New York State - was making improvements to the trail.  The path had been cleared and leveled, as evidenced by the small ridges of freshly turned dirt running along each side.  And some sort of base layer of material had been laid down.  But this material was clearly NOT the final layer.  It was a fine, sandy gravel, which had not been packed down.  It was uneven, and it was soft, and it was not an easy surface to ride on.  But it was better than taking my chances with the traffic, so I dropped into a lower gear and pressed on.

After riding on this surface for a while I started wondering whether I'd be able to make Rome in time to get back for dinner.  I did some calculations in my head and decided that I'd turn around no later than 1:00 pm.  That would mean I'd been riding for 3.5 hours.  Assuming an equal amount of time to return to the truck (a reasonable estimate, I thought, since the route was flat and there didn't appear to be much wind), and an hour and a half to get home, I'd be back by 6:00.  That should be OK, I thought.

Eventually the trail ended where the park crossed over the New York State Thruway.  I wondered how many times I'd crossed under that overpass without ever realizing that it was part of the park.  I picked up the trail again, in all of its sandy glory, on the other side of the thruway.  It didn't go very far though before it abruptly ended in Durhamville, with a sign indicating that there would be no trail for the next 22 miles.  Great.  Back on the street.  Luckily, all of the remaining roads would have large, ample shoulders.

A couple of miles outside of Durhamville I noticed a large public parking area - like one of those rest stops without any amenities.  But there was a historic marker, so I rolled in to check it out.  After taking a picture, I noticed that there was an access point to the trail, again running right along the canal.  There was a red rope dangling between the two sides of the gate across the entrance of the trail.  Obviously a sign that the trail was closed here too.  Back on the road.

In the next few miles I crossed through a few towns that looked like they were nothing more than names on a map: State Bridge, Higginsville, Stacy Basin.  Aside from a few farms, there wasn't much to any of them.  Surely no place to eat - and no bathrooms...  I could deal with the lack of bathrooms, but it was now after noon, I'd been riding for a few hours, and had nothing to eat since a bowl of cereal at breakfast.  I needed food.  I dug into my handlebar bag and pulled out a power bar.

My map told me that I needed to keep an eye out for Lock Rd. just past Stacy Basin.  Lock Rd. would take me to Lock 21 on the current Erie Canal - the one which is still in use.  From there I'd hop back on the towpath and make a straight shot into Rome, where hopefully I'd grab a quick lunch, check out the Canal Museum, and head back.  It would be close, but I thought I could make it.

So I get to Lock Rd. and don't you know, there's a sign indicating that the bridge is out .8 miles ahead, and only local traffic is allowed.  What did that mean for my ride?  I didn't know.  But I knew I was getting tired of all the prohibited areas on this ride, so I ignored the sign and pressed on.  In a few minutes I arrived at Lock 21 - a really cool facility.  Very clean, very well maintained.  Apparently popular with the locals too - there were several fishermen with their lines cast in the canal on the east side of the lock, including a grandfather with his grandson, who looked to be maybe four years old.  The kid waved at me.  He was having a great time.  I took a few pics, then crossed over the lock gates at the west end in search of the trail.  No sooner did I find it than I saw the dreaded "TRAIL CLOSED" sign blocking my way.  That was it.  I'd had it.  I threw in the towel and decided to head back.  This meant that I'd have to go without lunch, since I didn't see any place to eat on the outbound leg.  But if my situation grew dire I was sure I'd be able to find something in Canestota when I got back there.  So I ate my last power bar and hit the road.

The ride back was fairly uneventful.  I did notice however that with about 20 miles to go, I was starting to get a little sore.  I thought that was unusual, since this was not a hard ride, and I've certainly had days when I spent more time in the saddle.  But the tightness in my upper hamstrings just didn't go away.  I actually took a couple of quick breaks on the way back just to stretch them out a little.  Maybe I just need a break from riding for a while.  NAH!

Made it back to the parking lot OK, packed everything back in the truck, and went home.  Had take out from the India House with Joe and Molly for dinner.  A nice way to end the day.

Trip To The Post Office

Total for this ride: 3.2 miles
Total for this year: 2033.3 miles

As the title says... just a quick trip to the post office to mail some bills.  When the weather is reasonable, it's the quickest and easiest way to get there.  Just cut through the school yards behind the house, zip down High Street, across Main, and over to School St, and you're there.  It takes literally minutes.  After dropping off the bills, I decided to do some exploring.  I haven't been on the Auburn trail south of Main in a while.  The trail's pretty much the same, but the Victor Hiking Trails organization has done a nice job of putting up some signage.  Really helps make people aware that the trail's there.  Anyway, nice little ride.

AT-TI-CA! AT-TI-CA!

Total for this ride: 68.2 miles
Total for this year: 2030.1 miles

Another long ride with Roger.  The plan today was to start in Geneseo, a quaint little town which is home to one of the campuses of the State University of New York, and ride in a big loop which would take us to Attica and back.

I've always wanted to go to Attica - there's a huge prison there.  This prison was the site of a large riot in September 1971 in which 39 people died.  It's also where a number of infamous, high profile criminals have been incarcerated, including Mark David Chapman, the scumbag who murdered John Lennon.  My goal for the day was to have my picture taken in front of the main gate.

It was cool when we took off from the courthouse in Geneseo.  Cool enough that I layered up for the ride - three on the top and two on the bottom.  It was the first time I've ridden in the long tights in months.  Although I was warm enough when the sun was out to take off the jacket, it was overcast most of the day so consequently I spent a good portion of the ride with all of the layers on.

The ride was a little hilly.  I guess I didn't really notice it, but the GPS data shows that we spent about 15 of the first 18 miles climbing, reaching the highest elevation of the entire route right before we hit Warsaw.  From there the bottom dropped out and we descended about 600 feet in 1.5 miles.  We were dropping so fast that I rode the brakes most of the way down.  The road was kinda windey and there was traffic, so I wanted to make sure I stayed in control.  Thank God we didn't make the loop the other way... 1.5 miles of a 7% grade after riding 50 miles... not my idea of fun...

The only problem descending into Warsaw is that it's in a little valley.  So once you get through town (which doesn't take long) you have to climb your way back out.  Fortunately Roger and I picked a route which (we believed) would give us a climb which might be a little longer, but not quite as steep, as some others.  This route took us north toward the little town of Dale.  Dale is tiny - and has the tiniest post office I think I've ever seen.  After leaving Dale, we rode along the west side of the Carlton Hill State Forest, which was absolutely beautiful with all of the fall colors in the trees.  Riding in this part of the state you really get the sense of being out in the boonies.  For several miles we were riding on roads with no markings of any kind - no white shoulder lines, no lane markers, and in some cases, no street signs.  I was OK with that.  I was not OK with all of the loose dogs.  We were chased three times on this ride.  Thankfully we were never jumped while climbing up a steep hill.  I don't know what we would have done if we had been.  But it was still unnerving to be chased that many times.  It kept us on the lookout for other dogs for the rest of the ride.

We eventually worked our way back to civilization as we approached Attica.  My cue sheet indicated that we should take a left onto Main St. once we hit town.  From there, a left turn on Exchange would take us to the front of the prison.  Unfortunately, it appears as though I made a mistake when writing down the turn-by-turn directions.  We should have gone RIGHT on Main and then left on Exchange.  We realized after a mile or so that we were heading the wrong way.  We could see towers of the prison off in the distance, but it was clear that we were heading away from our destination.  In fact, we were riding along the back side of the prison property, as shown in the image below.  When we realized our mistake, we turned around and head toward the village in search of lunch.

We had lunch at a great little deli on Main St.  Roger generously paid for my ham and cheese sub.  When we finished, it looked like some nasty weather was headed toward us, so we decided not to look for the prison main gate, and just head back as quickly as we could.  I was only mildly disappointed, but I knew that it was the right decision.

As it turned out, it started sprinkeling shortly after we hit the road, and it didn't stop until after we got back to Geneseo.  The last 1/2 mile before the finish took us through the SUNY campus and up a nasty little hill.  The average grade was about 5%, but the last 150 yards or so were significantly steeper.  It was one of those hills where you wonder if you're going to be able to unclip your foot from the pedal in time if you have to stop.  Fortunately, when we creeped up to the stop sign at the top of the hill, there was no cross traffic coming so we could roll through.  Otherwise, it's entirely possible we would have fallen, still clipped into the pedals.

This ride was notable for a couple of reasons.  For one, it was my 15th ride of 50 miles or more, which is kinda cool.  But more importantly it was also the ride that put me over the top in terms of annual mileage.  With the completion of this ride I set a new PR, which officially makes this my best riding year ever.