FLCC> Sunday Newfield-Alpine ride notes

[John Dennis]

Hi All, 
 
This is one of my favorite rides.  Punching down into the SW quadrant
from Ithaca has not been one of the Club's forte's until Andrejs--It was
Andrejs??--created this ride a couple of seasons ago. So, it has a
certain freshness to it, and there is one long hill on Van Kirk Road
where we all breeze downward at about 45mph. 
 
We were 14 riders at the start including Chris Kourkoutis, Stewart
Wolsh, Steve Bowman, Ruth Sherman, Terrie Kingsbury, Gary Hodges, Alex
Specker, Mark Sorrells, Kevin, Carl, Jack (not Ruckheim), Doug (from
Vestal), and Neil?..(sorry, but I didn't have a pen to catch names).
The six miles on Route 224 north to Alpine Junction is an exquisite
stretch of landscape, low-lying meadow lands winding between forested
hillsides...would love to see a conservation easement put on the whole
stretch. 
 
At the convenience store at Alpine Junction, Jeremy Wickham joined us.
It is always good to see Jeremy.  He modestly informed us that the day
before he and a member of the Cornell cycling team had ridden around
Seneca, Cayuga and Owasco lakes at one go, 161 miles in total.  There
was not a hint of fatigue about him. Sounds like a warm-up for the
Quadzilla!
 
Although I didn't have any mechanicals on this ride, I must confess that
my impulsiveness broke up the group near the beginning.  While leading
going west on 327 past the entrance to Upper Treman Park, I took the
first left whereas the que sheet has the ride going another mile to
Trumbles Corners Road and then left.  I knew that my way connected to
Trumbles Corners via a less travelled and perhaps slightly shorter
route. After milling about a bit at the turn, we broke into two groups
and when we reconnected at a southerly intersection on Trumbles Corners
Road, Keith and Jack were nowhere to be seen. Gary (and Alex?) went off
to look for them while others headed for Newfield.  More dispersion, but
we recoalesced at Newfield without Jack or Keith.  
 
Once on CR6--the road to Mecklenburg past Cayuta Lake and the longest
(9.7 miles) segment of the ride (compared to 8.4 miles on Vankirk Road),
I found the lead pace a tad brisk and formed a second group with Mark
and Ruth.  As we came out of the undulating wooden section east of
Cayuta Lake, we spotted fresh cut alfalfa being loaded into three or
more large trucks on the west side of the road as storm clouds piled up
in the sky. On the right side, a woman was driving a hay rake at a  high
rate of speed, so I guess "haylage" needs to be dried somewhat and not
rained on before being pushed into haylage bunkers, where it ferments.
At the end of field the road makes a 90-degree turn, climbs a hill and
then descends into a shallow valley where the haylage bunkers were being
filled. A new farm building was under construction, so apparently there
are some farmers in central New York who are making money.  Skillful
dairy farmers feed their cows a mix of corn silage, haylage, and hay
daily throughout the winter.  
 
My milage was 61.3, but I detoured for a meeting in Tburg, and just
managed to get home for the second half of the World Cup. I guess most
people did about 57 miles.  
 
Ciao,   John

 
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