FLCC> Tioghnioga River Valley Tour notes: the view from behind

[Ben Gray]

Great writeup, John, one of your best.  I wish I could have witnessed the H2 
conversation.

The 76-miler was a great ride - main roads (the cue sheet is pretty short, 
because the ride ends with about 30-35 miles on route 11), but very little 
traffic, considering.  Evan and I found ourselves hammering along for much 
of the way - we made a wrong turn about 10-15 miles into the ride and were 
surprised to find that much of the group didn't stop - maybe they thought we 
were doing our own thing?  So we pounded back up to the main group and made 
it back eventually.  Evan said something to me at that point that when we 
got down to route 11, we should make the ride "fun."  I said I was in.  So, 
we rode (about 8-10 of us, as I remember it) along Taylor Valley, a great 
section of road, down to Whitney Point and stopped at a gas station for 
Gatorade, etc.  Nothing memorable happened at our gas station pit stop.  
Leaving Whitney Point, our group was single file, first because of traffic, 
and that led to a nice paceline up route 11.  After a little while of this, 
Evan sprinted off the group.  I decided to give chase.  It's worth noting 
again that Evan rode from Ithaca to the start point (maybe 30 miles?) and 
rode back at the end of the ride.  Anyway, I passed Evan and slowed at the 
top of the hill thinking we'd regroup.  Evan caught up over the hill and, 
sticking to his promise from the first half of the ride, suggested we keep 
going.  And so the last half of the ride went very fast.  We were hoping to 
catch the 46-milers, but like John mentioned, didn't quite make it.

Also, thanks to the Onondaga cyclists whose names I didn't catch that were 
nice enough to lend me some water bottles for the day.  I thoughtfully 
filled my bottles the night before and then less thoughtfully left them in 
the refrigerator.

Ben


>From: "John Dennis" <jvd at baka.com>
>To: <flcc at icycle.org>
>Subject: FLCC> Tioghnioga River Valley Tour notes: the view from behind
>Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2007 11:09:04 -0500
>
>
>(Bill G., pls feel free to forward to your listserv. J.)
>
>
>
>FLCCers were sparse on this ride—6 of us--and no Big Horn Veloists in
>attendance. Last year three of us did the 76 mile version through Whitney
>Point and Marathon; this year a group of us did a 50-mile version through
>McGraw. Bill Goffe of the Onondoga Cycling Club led the overall ride again
>this year.  At the sign-up sheet, we learned that half the group had left 
>15
>minutes early!  We never did see them. Ben Gray, Evan Palmer-Young (who had
>ridden from Ithaca), and Jim Millar went out from our start at Little York
>Lake Park with the 10:08am lead group at a 20mph pace.  About 18 miles out,
>we moderates including Misty McPhee, David Sahn, Dan Barbasch, Lee Davis,
>Chris Newell, and Steve Ransford found Southern Jim waiting for us at the
>intersection of Taylor Valley Road and Telephone Rd.  The landscape was
>exquisitely bucolic and Chris Newell informed us that dairy farmers are
>doing well this year.  The price of milk is $23 per hundred when this time
>last year it was $11 per hundred. “Unfortunately, a number of last year’s
>dairy farmers didn’t make it, and so aren’t enjoying these boom prices.”
>
>
>
>The first half or so of that most cowless, most forested  portion of the
>ride on the Taylor Valley Road is misnamed.  We are actually going up the
>Chiningo Creek Valley and then cross a divide into the Mallory Brook Valley
>shortly after a (now houseless?) village called Taylor Valley.  I wonder if
>these headwater divides remained forested in the pioneer days largely
>because there was less water for livestock and agriculture?  Or was it a
>central place thing, too far from local commerce, by horse-drawn wagon? We
>came within a stone’s throw of the Village of Taylor, where last week the
>Grout Brook family was going to live. This week’s interview took place at
>our fueling stop in Cincinnatus, a picturesque little town a few miles 
>south
>of Taylor, with a couple who were the antithesis of the Grout Brooks.
>
>
>
>Coming out of the gas station with my Gatorade and oatmeal raison cookie, I
>notice a dazzling fire-engine red H2 Hummer being fueled at the pumps by a
>man who reminds me of Jesse Ventura.  He is large-framed and has a 
>confident
>(well, Misty used the word, arrogant) air about him.  As he is busy at the
>pump, I strike up a conversation with Mrs. H2, who is mid-30s and wearing
>sunglasses, a snug black satin tank top and a ring with a large diamond. 
>She
>has short straight hair in jaunty disarray, sort of like the woman in the
>Audrey Edelman real estate ad, except brunette.
>
>
>
>I launch into my dialogue without realizing that Mr. H2 is Paul Tuttle, 
>Sr.,
>the gris eminence of the Discovery Channel program, American Chopper, a
>program I have never heard of, but I’ve since been given to understand it 
>is
>all about large motorcycles.  Coincidentally, there is a 1450cc Harley
>Davidson at the other pump, whose owner later sets me straight about who is
>who in chopper land.
>
>
>
>JD: Great car!  How do you like it?
>
>
>
>Ms. H2: We love it!  You just can’t beat it. We feel so safe in it.
>
>
>
>I think of the broken remains of the Hummer shown in the morning’s 
>HYPERLINK
>"http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/magazine/02iraq-t.html?pagewanted=2&ref=m
>agazine"Sunday New York Times Magazine, the front end blown completely off
>by an IED on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, the new high-risk American
>alliances with Sunni extremists very much in question.  So, is it same
>strokes for different folks, or do some of our wealthy elite just pretend
>they live in a MASH sitcom?
>
>
>
>JD: I guess if you collide with another SUV, you definitely end up on top.
>And what a great color! You almost have to wear sunglasses to look at it.
>But, what about gas mileage?
>
>
>
>Ms. H2: Oh, it’s about 12 miles to the gallon. It’s well worth it though.
>It’s sooo heavy.
>
>
>
>I decide Mrs. Grout Brook is more real.
>
>
>
>At this point, David, who is also swilling Gatorade, has sidled up to Mr.
>H2, who is done pumping and by his demeanor is showing signs of having
>watched one Jesse Ventura video too many.
>
>
>
>DS: Are those 22” chrome wheels?
>
>
>
>H2: Actually, these are the 24” wheels.  And, they recently came out with
>the 26”ers.
>
>
>
>This is clearly a Hummer on steroids, jacked up to much more than the 
>normal
>clearance to allow the big wheels. (My van runs 15” wheels.) I suppose the
>roll-over quotient goes up exponentially.  Have the H2s checked out the
>capacity of the Cortland emergency room recently?
>
>
>
>DS: And the low-profile tires.
>
>
>
>H2: Yes, very smooth.
>
>
>
>The conversation more-or-less peters out at this point, not that David 
>isn’t
>making a valiant effort.  The H2s give dubious glances at our equipment. 
>Our
>wheels are bigger diameter-wise, but It’s clear that we don’t measure up.
>We are not kindred spirits. They know. We know. They hit the road. As the
>flaming red H2 rushes west toward Cortland,  one of the Harley owners
>informs us that the H2s own a cabin in the nearby hills.  So they are
>neighbors of the Grout Brooks!   That evening I listen again to HYPERLINK
>"http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/09/01/magazine/20070802_PARTNERSHIP
>_FEATURE.html"Michael Gordon narrating the horrific series of events on
>August 4th in Hawr Rajab.  I bristle at the emphasis of the editing: the
>three American fatalities are scrubbed nameless from the narrative without
>photos (Pentagon rules: airbrush the dead; sanitize the narrative). It ends
>with the upbeat information that the scholarly Colonel Odum himself—son of 
>a
>well-known general--has survived being blown from the first Hummer to be
>demolished and is making his recovery at an air base far from the fray in
>Alaska.
>
>
>
>Leaving Cincinnatus, Lee Davis, a botanist who has just moved to Syracuse
>from the Chapel Hill area, informs us that the full name of the large
>Catalpa in Cincinnatus is Catalpa bignoides, also known as the Golden 
>Indian
>Bean Tree.  Once again out on the open road,  we pass the Samuel G. 
>Hatheway
>House.  Hatheway came to Cincinnatus in 1805, building his stately 
>limestone
>block mansion in 1844 and dying there in 1867. Southern Jim elicits a
>chuckle when he observes it may have been the first Halfway House. It’s
>definitely got the “in-the-middle-of-nowhere” isolation. Coming into 
>Corning
>at Port Watson (where’s the water?), we pass the HYPERLINK
>"http://zoggauctions.com/history.htm"Xenodocha Stock Farm, a good place to
>pick up a few more animals if you arrive on the right day of the month
>(Where’s the beef?)
>
>
>
>Once in Cortland, Chris peels off for his home in Homer. We head up 281 for
>Little York and Upper Little York Lake, passing the thriving barbecue place
>in Pratt Corners. Odd how during the entire loop, the headwind never really
>seemed to leave us. Once we are loaded and driving back down 281, we see 
>Ben
>Gray and young Palmer-Young close to the finish, having just done the long
>version. Phew, were they just more focused?
>
>
>
>Ride safe,   John

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