This could be a great song to listen to. "a little too easy seems seems just a little too hard today"...
Long day in the saddle.
Out of the Grand Canyon of PA, heading into New York, and up to Watkins Glen.
In the first 5 miles we saw a bear ahead. A BIG bear. We kept riding up to it, and it decided to run down between the trail and the river. I felt like we might be trapping it, which might lead to it ripping our faces off. Instead it jumped into the water. Mike was yelling "dude can you see it.... it is swimming"... But I was more concerned with THE OTHER BEAR I could hear below us. That one also decided to jump into the water. We watched both bears swim across the river. So awesome.
We cut through the Finger lakes National Forest and then over to Ithaca. We poached showers at a campground outside of town so we could be fresh to dine at the Moosewood, a famous restaurant and cookbook. I got lasagna that had polenta instead of noodles. I meant to take a picture, but I didnt. And chocolate cake. Then Dr Stubna and I rode at night like 10 miles to an observatory to camp. We were able to see a lightening storm rolling in, which was cool, despite the rain.
Bear #1 in upper left corner, bear #2 is in the water. Awesome.
Fog lifting off of the ridges around us.
The area around wellsboro, PA was like being out west. Everything was state game lands or state forests. It was empty.
We love railtrails. This one saved us from a brutal headwind.
Watkins Glen.
Drought summer left these pools wanting water.
Finger lakes national forest. Bonus miles as we took the scenic route to Ithaca.
I like this photo. Stubs riding with a lake in the foreground (the dark blue)... as we descend towards Ithaca.
BIG waterfall. Check out the people in the bottom right. It has been a dry summer for sure. Awesome bike touring destination, we didnt even get off of our bikes to see it.
Camped on a mountain outside of town.
124.8. 9:04 ride time.
We woke up and descended back into town. We rolled through Cornell. The campus was a great mix of old stone buildings and awful 70's architecture. We got bagels and watched the freshman. I guess it is a good school or something. Dr. Stubna got a phd there in dynamical systems (get my dynamical bear bag joke?)... and I have never actually heard him tell anybody this without prompting. I ate dinner last week with some chick who was bragging about some fancy pants school that she went to for music. No I didnt not mention the dirty dozen at all during dinner. Digression...
We rolled out of town and rolled fast toward the Catskills. We stopped in Owego, which was a surprisingly nice place. Stubna napped in the town park while I paced around and read historical markers. We headed on, stopping in Binghamton. We were pleasantly surprised by it. We went to a grocery store and there was a big poster for the Chris Thater memorial crit that was upcoming.
We pushed on a bit further to the town of Windsor, where we stopped and took in some culture before eating dinner and poaching a place to camp in the town park.
Every time I camp somewhere that it is illegal, I think of the above song... "See I only want to be a Free man but it's against the law to sleep on the ground in Gods land"
Nice outlook above Ithaca and the lake.
Bike only bridge in Binghamton!
Lots of bike routes at the end of the bridge.
The town of Windsor was proud to be on the NY17 bike route.
Taking in some culture. They were an old time band. They jammed. We felt real young.
Enjoy the weekend.
Cross starts in 8 days. Wow.
No comments:
Post a Comment