FLCC> Newfield-Alpine Sunday Ride 6/22

[Brenda Smith]

Challenging, yet spectacular.....  is how I choose to describe the
Newfield-Alpine route that was slated for Sunday's ride.  Since the
route was a hybrid of a couple other ride routes, I mapped it out, and
here is the link for the ride if you want to check it out:
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ny/ithaca/472716543673.

About ten of us met at the professional building up by the hospital at
9am.  Steve Powell, Bobby Nunnink of the Big Horn Velos, Carl Wharton,
Steve Bowman, Don, Eva and Jason, and two other men who I've
apparently not introduced myself to three times yet, because it seems
like it takes three introductions in order for me to remember
someone's name.

We headed west on Hayts Rd. and then South on Sheffield.  From there,
we began to head in a westerly direction again, toward Trumbells
Corners Rd., the first big climb of the ride.  By this time, the group
had split into six "fast" riders and the four of us who are "not so
fast:"  Steve P., Eva, and Jason, and me.  I'd say it's about a mile
and a half to two miles of gradual climbing which I had to do in my
granny gear.  The good thing about going at a snail's pace up this
road, is that I got to admire the two creeks that run down either
side.  They're difficult to see from a moving car, especially when
you're trying to focus on negotiating the twisty turns of the road.  I
decided that they're quite beautiful, and would be worth going back to
photograph on foot one day when I have some free time.

When we finally got to the top of that hill, we began heading in a
south-easterly direction, continuing down Trumbells Corners Rd.,
eventually turning left onto Blovsky Hill Rd., which, by the way, was
named after one of my uncles' grandparents.  We crossed rt. 13 and
headed south on Main St., and then Van Kirk Rd.  I have mixed feelings
about Van Kirk Rd.  It took us through some beautiful countryside, no
doubt about that.  In fact, all the roads we took on this ride were
low-traffic and very scenic.  But I think I lost my soul somewhere
along the first half of this road, as I did some bargaining with the
devil in order to make it up a couple of those hills....  What does
Andrejs call them... "undulations?"  That sounds so much more
interesting than "hill."  Anyway, there was a fairly steep section of
road that we cranked up, and we stopped at the top and looked back
from where we'd just come.  It was a beautiful view of the valley we'd
just left.  After a few minutes of rest, we started off again, going
down a short descent to a sharp corner to the right, and suddenly out
of nowhere there was another steep section of hill that reminded me a
lot of "The Wall" on the Hollenbeck's race course.  Only I think it
was steeper.  Because I was in my granny gear, and I still had to
stand up, get out of my saddle, and pedal to get up it!!!!

But holy cow......  what a descent on the other side of that hill,
just as Andrejs had promised in his ride description!!!  I was braking
fairly regularly going down the other side, and I still hit a max
speed of 41mph.   I kept squashing thoughts that popped into my head
while going down that hill, such as, "Boy, I would really hate to blow
a tire right now," and "I hope some rogue deer doesn't come dashing
out of the woods across the road in front of me."  We had a fairly
easy pedal down the rest of Van Kirk Rd., passed by Arnot Forest, and
practically coasted onto 224.  By then I had forgottne the first half
of the road and was thinking that Van Kirk Rd. had come to an end all
too soon.

Even rt. 224 was a fairly pleasant ride.  Even though it's a highway,
there wasn't much traffic and the shoulders were ample, although you
had to be careful where there are bridges.  They don't seem to take
care of the shoulders on the bridges very well, and there's a lot of
missing pavement.  We stopped at the convenience store at Alpine
Junction, where the faster riders had been resting for about 20
minutes.  By the time I'd gone inside and bought a gallon of water and
some fruit, they'd taken off to finish the rest of the ride.  Steve,
Eva, Jason, and I spent 20 or 30 minutes there and then we continued
on our way as well.

We headed west across rt. 13 and onto County rt. 14 for a bit, and
then took Pertl Rd. to County rt. 10 (I think Schuyler county rds.).
The incident of note on this road was when Jason happened to notice
some gigantic mutant fish in a pond along side the road.  These fish
had to be at least 3 feet long!!!  I thought one of them was a log
that had fallen into the water until I saw it move.  I think they were
pike, but the water wasn't clear enough to get a really good look at
them.  We also seemed to have broken the Odessa Curse, as it always
seems to rain when we ride out in this area, but the thunderstorms the
meteorologists were predicting never materialized.  In fact, the
weather couldn't have been more perfect.  It was warm, but not too
warm, there was a nice breeze that seemed to work with us for most of
the ride, and there were bountiful big, puffy clouds that seemed to
block out the sun whenever it started to get too intense.  We coasted
down into Mecklenburg, took 79 back toward Ithaca for a short jaunt,
and then made a left onto Buck Hill, and finally a right onto Hayts to
take us into the home stretch.  Steve, Eva, and Jason headed back for
their cars, and I headed directly for home sweet home!

~Brenda