FLCC> early bird Sunday ride notes

[John Dennis]

There was also an early bird Sunday ride that departed East Hill Plaza at
6:25am.  Tommy Beers, John Paul Mead, Jeb Mead, Dave Iannello, and I kept to
a leisurely pace; at times I wondered if my heart rate monitor was runnin’
slow. Air temp was still in the low 50s and I was glad for tights. The
amazing thing about a departure at that time of day—it was still
windless—was that smells in the air were an order of magnitude more
powerful.  The smell of festering road kill was overwhelming, a manure pile
on Stevenson road was dank, pungent, earthy, and, yes, there were some sweet
aromas from unidentified flora in the forest, though it seemed late for
things to be in bloom. The dog-walking crowd was out.  It seemed a softer,
gentler time of day to be up and about and we all felt more energized.  We
turned right onto Valley from Boiceville and then left onto White Church,
almost cutting off a couple about to cross with their large dog. 

 

At the T-junction with Coddington, the Meads headed back to ITH after some
poetic thoughts by Tommy. As we stood beside our bikes, it seemed such a
contrast to rowdy jostling at the turn that happens there every other
Tuesday night.  The general plan for the remaining three of us was to pass
through Wilseyville, turn right at Gridleyville and head over to Spencer and
then head home. We were about half-way down Gridleyville Crossing when Tommy
initiated the first turn into what was for me at least “new territory”:  a
right onto West Candor Road.  After climbing over at least one ridge, we
followed the road down to the valley floor where it ran along a forested
north bank of an eastward-flowing creek.  Just as thick tree canopy darkened
the roadway, I looked up in time to see a black pickup truck bearing down on
us.  The roadway had turned to single-lane dirt without warning. We all
hugged the right shoulder to let the on-coming truck past.  We reached Route
96 just where Tallow Road heads north from 96 and proceeded to Spencer
passing the turn for Crumtown Road on the right and for Halsey Valley on the
left, not to mention about ten orange seismic cables crossing the roads
between Gridleyville and Spencer. 

 

 

As it was still cool and fresh, we did not need to refuel.  So we took the
soft right onto Owego St and then headed up North Main St. following a
seismic cable running along in the right gutter.  We stopped at an ancient
town cemetery thick with trees for a look about.  The cemetery lies just
south of the Main St. café, which doubles as an art gallery and does not
open until 11am on Sundays.  At the edge of the cemetery, I read a plaque
commemorating 11 of Spencer’s Revolutionary War dead whom I assumed were
buried within. I was puzzled at how a town that was founded in 1806 could
lose so much of its population to a war that took place in the 1770s.  But
more puzzling were the deaths of Rev. Asa Cummings, Rev. Michael Burdge, and
Rev. Phineas Spaulding.  Were 27% of the town’s war dead men of the cloth?
This seems like an extraordinary figure if they were non-combatants!  Did
they succumb to scurvy or malaria?  Or were they also combatants?  Does
anyone know how the deal worked with ministers in the Revolutionary War?
Was there some ratio of ministers to soldiers that was expected?  Were
ordinary laymen deputized on enlistment to maintain the ratio?  Or were
these men who had left existing congregations in Spencer to serve the more
noble cause of ministering to the able-bodied, the wounded and the dying?
Would these men have likely each represented a different branch of
Christianity?  Perhaps the total war dead for Spencer was much greater with
most being buried near the battlefield, but with special efforts made to
return ministers, Lt. John English, and seven others back to Spencer?
Perhaps these 11 died in the depth of winter making transport of their
bodies many miles back to Spencer “non-problematic.”  Or perhaps this was
just a commemorative plaque erected at the cemetery while the mortal remains
actually lie elsewhere?  Did Lt. English’s kin ever wish he had entered the
war with a more auspicious surname?  

 

Coming out of Spencer we proceeded NE and N on Fisher Settlement Road,
turning NNW onto Signor Hill Road.  Although Signor Hill Road is dirt, we
knew it was little more than a mile to regain paved road at Michigan Hollow
Road whereas Fisher Settlement settles into 3-4 miles of dirt.  We met more
seismic cabling and our first beehives with actual honeybees near the top of
the Signor Hill valley.  It was the first honeybees I had seen all summer.
We stayed on Michigan Hollow just long enough to cross from Tioga to
Tompkins County and to turn left onto Hillview Road.  Back on 96-34, there
was little to do but to motor back to ITH while the air remained fresh and
cool.  There was a single car parked at the Lindsay-Parsons Biodiversity
Preserve.  After about a mile on 13, Tommy led us left onto Seven Mile Drive
and then down Bostwick Road to 13A. We all had a tad more than 50 miles in
before brunch. 

 

Anyone want to carpool to the Tour de Keuka next Sunday?  The century starts
at 7:30am, so I’m planning to leave ITH about 5:45am. 

 

Ciao,  john

 

 

 

 


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