(Charlene and Robert before departure from the Naples High School parking lot)
Yesterday, two friends from work and I took a nice bike ride from Naples, New York. You can see the route by clicking on this
link. If you do follow the link, be sure to click on the jagged arrow next to the printer icon to display the height profile of the ride (give it a few seconds to generate the profile). (Note added after post: I was able to paste in an interactive map of the ride at the bottom of the post). We managed 4600 feet of climbing in the 47-mile ride. I love riding my road bike, but there are so many more opportunities in our area for riding trail or mountain bikes, that I am starting to love riding my mountain bike just as much.
It was a cool partially cloudy day when we started riding just after 11 AM. About 2 miles into the ride, I was sure I had forgotten to lock the van, so we rode back to the start of our ride to discover that I had indeed locked it. Not sure why I was feeling so neurotic.
There were a couple steep climbs along the ride. One in particular that was especially satisfying started at mile 25 and went up Jersey Hill, climbing out of
Honeoye Lake's basin. When we got to the top, we made a quick left then right turn and started up another hill. A person getting out of their car and heading into their house asked us, "Did you just come up that hill?" I replied "Yes, Jersey Hill." to which he replied "Awesome."
Near the top of that hill, my cassette (the collection of sprockets on the back wheel) seemed to be binding up. We all dismounted and began to investigate. Robert noticed that the cassette was not turning as it should. A small, plastic guard between the cassette and the spokes had somehow become damaged and was binding the cassette. We decided to excise the plastic guard, first with a screw driver from the small wrench set I carry, then with a cheese knife in Charlene's pack, only to discover that this piece of plastic was nearly indestructible. Charlene went up to a nearby house and the owner lent us pliers, diagonal cutters, channel locks, and a large screw driver, with which we were finally able to remove the plastic ring. It is ironic how the failure of this small plastic piece was sufficient to make the bike
unridable. Fortunately, the bike was
ridable without the small plastic piece.
(Mountain bike in the kitchen, before the plastic ring excision. It's an aluminum-frame Trek with a shock on the front wheel. Nothing too serious, as you can see by the kickstand.)
The ride past Canadice Lake was beautiful. It and Hemlock Lake to the west are part of the water supply for Rochester, NY, about 30 miles to the north. As such, there is no development in the surrounding area, so it is almost like a nature preserve. The lakes allow kayaks, canoes and row boats, but no motorized vehicles. So, it is especially tranquil. We stopped to look at the map and I considered taking a photograph, but when I went to cross the small wooded area between the road and the lake shore, I could see lots of poison ivy, which discouraged me from getting close enough for a nice shot.
From examining the map, we identified a challenging gravel hill headed out of the lake's basin. This is about mile 30 on the map. While the climb was short, it was particularly steep (I had to concentrate on keeping the front wheel on the ground, since each time I pushed on the pedal, the bike wanted to do a wheelie) and the loose gravel made balancing and traction challenging. I had to stop at one point and walked for 10 yards or so, until the incline became shallower and I could get back on and ride.
After that climb, we traveled south along a contour for a short while, then turned onto Luckenbach Hill Road to climb over the crest between Canadice and Honeoye Lakes. It was not a particularly steep climb, but I was starting to cramp up before the climb, so much so that when I was about halfway up, I had stop. I got off the bike, but could not find a comfortable way to stand, so I ended up sitting in the road for a few minutes until it seemed to go away.
After that, I sort of took it easy and slowly recovered to the point where I could just keep up with Charlene and Robert, but only just. The picture above shows the dirt road we came up, bringing us to the top of the ridge between the lakes. We rested a little there and some Fig Newtons were just the right nourishment to allow me to finish the ride.
Robert on the left examining the map. Charlene on the right with the critical Fig Newton nourishment. There was a picture of me too, but it was so unflattering that I refuse to post it. At this point in the ride the clouds were breaking up and it was mostly sunny, though after we descended from this ridge, the sun was behind it, so we were in the cool shadow. As Hope mentioned recently in her blog: when the sun is out, you warm up quickly even at 60 degrees, but as soon a cloud roles by or you go into the shade, it cools right off. Unfortunately, this may be the last such ride of the season. The cooler temperatures and shorter days make it difficult to spend the day riding.
Near the end of the ride, just south of Naples we came upon a view of a ridge containing a number of wind turbines. The turbines are quite controversial in the area. Some argue that the machines destroy the natural beauty of the area, others find them oddly alien and interesting and appreciate the renewable energy they generate.
(You may have to click on the image for a larger picture in order to see the wind turbines running across the ridge in the photo).
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