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.