FLCC> FLCC Finger Lakes Weekend #2 -- Bike Tour Report

[Steven Powell]

Last weekend 10 FLCC members participated in the second of a series 
of weekend Finger Lakes Weekend bike tours.  We assembled late Friday 
afternoon in the parking lot of the Treman marina in downtown Ithaca 
where we fastened our panniers and packs to our bikes and did some 
last minute checks.  Present were:

Catherine Michael, Eva Tarcsai, Jason Stilwell, Holly Monkman, Paul 
Monkman, Oliver Monkman, Steven Powell, Bonnie Powell, Andrejs 
Ozolins, and Diana Ozolins.

This would be the very first time that 4 cyclists in our group would 
be riding with rear panniers and front packs, so there were a few 
comments about the bike handling characteristics as we dodged the 
potholes along Rt 89.  We cycled the short 8 miles to the campground 
at Taughannock Falls State Park on Friday evening.  Diana provided 
SAG vehicle support for the entire weekend (and she would be needed 
on Saturday as you will read below).

On Saturday, we climbed up to Trumansburg for some morning 
refreshments at Gimme Coffee.  Upon exiting the coffee shop Andrejs 
noticed that one of the wheels to his trailer was flat.  He was 
riding a Bike Friday and pulling a trailer that contained all of his 
camping gear and supplies, plus can be used as a shipping case for 
the bicycle.  It is a very neat system perfected by the Bike Friday 
company.  Andrejs removed the tire and inspected the tube which 
showed that it had ruptured in 4 or 5 places, with several 3 or 4 
inch long slashes in the tube.  He examined the tire, which was fine, 
so he concluded that the tube had basically disintegrated.  There was 
no hope in patching the remaining tube fragments, and this is a very 
special 12-1/2 inch diameter tube, and no spare tube was available, 
so Andrejs stashed the trailer at a secret location in Trumansburg. 
Diana came by later in the day with her car, picked up the trailer, 
and rendezvoused with the rest of the touring group at the campground 
near Seneca Falls that evening.  Thanks Diana for saving the day!

The ride from Trumansburg to Seneca Falls was mostly on small local 
and county roads, but did include a section of NY state Rt 414 which 
brought us into the city of Seneca Falls.  (Andrejs prepared a custom 
cue sheet for this ride, and we'll try to post this on the club 
website, along with some photos from this ride).  This was a terrific 
route, as we did all of the day's climbing (1530 ft) in the first 8 
miles and then enjoyed a slow descent for nearly the entire remaining 
30 miles or so.  Eva, Jason, and Catherine went off to the women's 
history museum in Seneca Falls while Bonnie, me, and Andrejs searched 
for ice cream and other treats along Fall Street in downtown Seneca 
Falls.  Andrejs reports that Jermeys Cafe has absolutely the best 
coffee for many miles around.  Bonnie and I discovered that "2 
Scoops" has the best ice cream, although it is located not in the 
downtown, but on Rt 89 southeast of downtown on the way to the Cayuga 
Lake State Park campground, which was our final destination Saturday.

While most of us were frolicking in Seneca Falls, we later learned 
that the Monkman's had taken a deviation to Ovid for some lunch, and 
then headed to the state park where they spent some time at the lake 
and the playground which helped entertain young Oliver.  Oliver is 
the enthusiastic stoker on the Bike Friday tandem that is captained 
by Paul.  We all got together at the campground for the usual tent 
setup, followed by a group meal orchestrated by Diana.  We snacked on 
baby carrots, chips, and salsa while a small team of cooks prepared 
pasta with sauteed vegetables, along with grilled hamburgers.  It was 
a delicious meal, and we hurried to clean up because we could see 
that the storm clouds were building and could hear the thunder in the 
distance.  We jumped into our tents just in time for the rain, 
thunder, lightning, and small hail of a thunderstorm that lasted for 
an hour of so, and then we all fell asleep.

The storm on Saturday evening helped clear things out for a 
beautifully sunny 80 degree day on Sunday.  We had a leisurely start, 
departing the campground around 9:30 am or so.  We travelled no more 
than about 5 miles when Eva got a flat and we all took advantage of 
the shade of a local fire station building to both fix the flat and 
administer chain lube to some rusting chains that had been flushed of 
their lube in the downpour on Saturday night.  Back on the road 
again, we headed south on Rt 89, enjoying the views of Cayuga Lake 
off and the wineries that would spring up every few miles.  We all 
stopped at the Cayuga Creamery on Rt 89 near Interlaken for what has 
become a Sunday bike tour tradition of lunch and ice cream 
(particularly the waffle cones).  Laden with ice cream we mounted our 
bikes for the last leg of the trip home, but deviated slightly to go 
through Trumansburg in order to avoid some of the camper traffic on 
Rt 89.  We all arrived back at the Treman marina around 2:30 pm, 
where some of us loaded our cars with our bikes, while Andrejs, 
Catherine, and the Monkman's split off and cycled directly to their 
homes.

Until the next bike tour in August........

--Steve

-- 
Steven Powell
Cornell University
School of Electrical & Computer Engineering
321 Rhodes Hall
Ithaca, NY  14853
Tel # 607-255-4551
Fax # 607-255-6236
e-mail: sp35 at cornell.edu