tsl

Hammerfest, defined:







You'll notice the leader in this last shot has gray hair.

More here…

miss kenton

Yes, pretty much what I imagined. In photos like those, I'd be the one hiding in the woods.

tsl

One of the guys who does this ride every year works for Accuweather.com. I asked if he could order us something nice for the weekend. Here's how it looks:



Keep up with it at https://www.accuweather.com/us/ny/wat...t-weekends.asp

Over at The Weather Channel, they are less optimistic, calling for a 40% chance of t-storms on Saturday and Sunday. Boo Weather Channel!

Louis

Thanks for the report, tsl.

If it's high 80's with high humidity, I'd welcome any rain. Not quite so eager for lightning, though.

tsl

FWIW, you can start your ride any time you like. I start right after breakfast, others skip it to get an even earlier start. I'm usually back to camp by 2pm on Saturday, before afternoon t-storms get ramped up. Sunday's ride goes pretty quick too. I'm usually done a little past 1pm.

tsl

I'm looking forward to meeting everyone tomorrow!

I plan to get to camp between 2 and 3. I'm borrowing a car. Its owner has some errands to run before giving it to me, so I'm not exactly sure of my departure time.

Keep in mind that the Hidden Valley Group Camp is part of, but separate from, Watkins Glen State Park. Up the hill further, but you can ask at the park and they can direct you.

I've decided I'd rather wear my 50+ jersey on the Saturday ride.

Pre-ride on Friday, I'll be in a Kermit-green t-shirt with a bike on the front, then I'll ride in my blue and orange BikeJournal jersey. There are lots of BikeJournalers there, so I may not be the only one in a BikeJournal jersey. But, I'm the only old guy with a ponytail.

seenoweevil

Packing up today to head north. I'll be arriving probably around the same time, between 2 and 3 tomorrow. Depends on how many stops I take to nap! Pre-ride I'll have on a black t-shirt and khaki cargo shorts. I'll be speaking slowly in what may sound like a foreign language to most of you and saying "y'all" a lot. Pretty sure I'll be on a tan steel frame Miyata. Really looking forward to meeting y'all!

miss kenton

For all traveling to the Finger Lakes tomorrow: Be careful traveling and get there safely! I look forward to meeting each of you very much! See you there!

Louis

I'm looking forward to hearing any and all "accents". Living my entire life in this region, it gets pretty boring listening to nothing but mid-westerners.

Beverly

The packing is complete and the bike has been cleaned. I'm leaving SW Ohio at 7:00 am and stopping along the way to pick up 3 riders. If they behave themselves we should be arriving in the late afternoon

I'll be wearing my 50+ jersey on Saturday.

miss kenton

I'll be looking for you!

Beverly

I'll be wearing jean shorts and a yellow GOBA t-shirt. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone.

tsl

You know, I should have posted this ages ago. Sorry.

Here's a map to help you get from the village of Watkins Glen to the Hidden Valley Group Camp.



From town, just take 329 up, up, up. Hidden Valley Group Camp is that loop in the western (left) end of the park.

Louis

Uh-oh! Things don't look promising for the Ohio contingent.

miss kenton

Louis, you be sure to behave yourself and don't try to distract Bev while she's driving!

Louis

It's gonna be a struggle, but I'll try.

Ken Brown

The car is mostly packed and the coordinates for the campground are in my GPS. It they let me across the border I should be there between 2 and 3. See y'all then, eh!

Jim from Boston

This is probably too late of a reply, but I am about to leave Boston at about 6:00 AM for Watkins Glen, estimated as a 6 hour drive. I haven't checked the Forums in over about 16 hours, a veritable drought.

By way of ID, I ride a forest green (I think that's the shade) and white Bridgestone road bike, and wear an orange helmet with the number 1415 on the left side (from a previous organized ride) and a light blue surgical scrub shirt.

Beverly

The vehicle is loaded and I'm on my way with stops in New Carlisle, Fairborn and Norton, Ohio to pick up riders It's a 9 hour drive so we'll be there late afternoon. Just look for Ohio plates and four bikes hanging on the back!

cyclinfool

Hope it has not been raining for the gathering - looks like your weather is better than ours further east.
Let us know how it's going, can't wait for the pics.

tsl

I just got home from the Great Finger Lakes Bicycle Tour (GFLBT), site of the Second Annual 50+ Forum Ride Weekend.

We had great weather for two of the three days. Light showers before breakfast this morning turned into a torrential downpour just after breakfast. Weather radar on one of those fancy cell phones, and interpretation and prognostication by AccuWeather's own Joe Lundberg indicated a 60 to 90 minute hole in the rain. Several of us waited for it to stop, then went for a brief ride before the rains returned. Weatherman Joe--a self-confessed fair-weather cyclist--didn't join us, but his call was right on the money. We rode 45 minutes out, then 45 minutes back getting only mildly damp on the return.

Seenoweevil gets the prize for the longest trip to the ride, coming from Alabama--although sadly, without a banjo. He did it in a straight run of solo driving with one rest stop. The man's an animal! Seenoweevil also has the best story of everyone from our group at the event--perhaps the best story of all from the event. It's his to tell, so we'll wait until he gets home so he can tell us. We had a very nice--if aborted--ride this morning before he headed back to Alabama.

Beverly, Louis and company get the prize for the longest bike rack. Four bikes in a wheel-supported hitch rack hanging off the back of her minivan, made it look like the Queen Mary. Beverly is just as delightful in person as she is online, and Louis really comes out of his shell in-person. They and their friends set up a whole tent suburb of their own and were the center of socialization both nights.

Jim From Boston wins the prize for sartorial splendor. And he has a story to tell that I first heard from the SAG wagon driver. It was a great story, and we'll wait for his return to Boston to tell us about it.

Miss Kenton and her husband win the "Ooops!" award. A minor adversity struck which didn't even prevent them from doing the longest rides they've done to date. Miss Kenton also wins the "You're So Sweet" award for for saying to Yrs Trly last night, "You look so much more youthful than your avatar." And I couldn't even convince her it was my under-eye moisturizing cream.

Ken Brown from Toronto, dragged along his longtime ride partner Wayne from Ottawa. They win the "Let's Linger" award, staying over tonight to do part of the Erie Canal tomorrow. Each brought a two-man tent, and one turned out to incomplete. Ken also has an oops story to tell.

Did I leave anyone out? It's hard to remember because there were also my friends from BikeJournal, friends from my club, and friends I've met over the years at GFLBT.

In any event, I think I can speak for the group when I say we all had a wonderful time, and got plenty of miles and smiles under our wheels.

tsl

My story from the 50+ Forum Ride Weekend:

I'd initially planned to the shortest of the circumnavigation of Seneca Lake routes, 79 miles. But I got a ride to the ride instead of borrowing a car as intended, and my ride wanted to do the half-century.

I also had a sudden attack of common sense.

I can do centuries and near-centuries, but what really makes me a happy man and leaves me wanting more, is a nice ride in the 50 to 70 mile range. In fact, in July on my annual cycling vacation, I do a ride like that every day. More than 70 miles and I become crankier and crankier with every mile, and by 100 miles I want nothing to do with cycling for a few days. So a shorter ride made sense for me.

Most everyone from our group was also interested in the 50, so we caravaned it to the starting point in Ovid, NY. The route was roughly a figure-eight. North to Waterloo, east to Seneca Falls, south for a ways along the western shore of Cayuga Lake before turning west again up and over the plateau and down to the western shore of Seneca Lake. The ride then proceeds south through Sampson State Park, then turns left for the climb back to Ovid.

Keep in mind too, that the GFLBT rides are self-supported and although breakfast and dinner are included in the event price, you're on your own for lunch.

It was on the climb from Seneca Lake back to Ovid where my story takes place. It's not necessarily a steep climb, but it is a long one. It's relentless for several miles. It was near the end of the ride, well past noon, getting to the hottest part of the day, I was hungry and I was out of water. Yet, hot, tired, hungry and thirsty as I was, I was patting myself on the back for being able to spin the climb on a standard double--instead of my traditional triples--and I still had gears to spare on the cassette.

Then ahead was a sight that made me shake my head in an effort to clear it. It couldn't be! But yes, it was a family in the GFLBT event t-shirts, climbing the same hill. Dad waiting ahead, an 11 or 12-year-old boy on a mountain bike, and the mom on her mountain bike--TOWING her daughter in a trailer. Yes, I passed them, no I'm not proud. We all were just doing the climb at our own pace. That knocked all the back-patting machismo right out of me and reset my humility. It was exactly what I needed.

Well, except for the shade, water and food part. The hope of finding a sub shop or something in Ovid, pulled me the rest of the way up the hill.

A couple of miles further on, in sight of where it levels out, I had to shake my head again. Was it a mirage? No, it looked real, and the aroma--you can't have an aroma mirage, can you?

I pulled off to the side and found, yes, it was a true oasis. A chicken BBQ--served out of a Winnebago. It was the Chicken Winnebago!

For $7 I got a half-chicken, a side of macaroni salad, a Pepsi and a water, along with a seat at a little bistro table under an umbrella at the side of the road at the junction of NY 414, NY 96 and NY 96A--barely off the white line. It was heaven-sent!

I came up for air after snarfing down half my meal and found I've been joined by some locals at the Chicken Winnebago. Striking up conversation, I asked if the chicken BBQ was a benefit for the volunteer ambulance, thinking they're a fixture of volunteer fireman's fundraisers, and an ambulance had just pulled out of what I'd thought at first was an old gas station.

"No," said the old farmer to my left. "They used to set up down the road [someplace I don't remember] and after that over by [some landmark I didn't know]. Now they give the ambulance some money to set up here."

And they were doing better business than the McDonald's across the street.

The Chicken Winnebago goes down in my ride log as the best SAG stop ever!

I was first of our group back to the high school. I put my bike in the truck, and sat with my water in the shade of a huge old red maple, and took pictures and applauded as the rest of the riders arrived.

tsl

For a man who has a handlebar camera mount, I have surprisingly few pictures from this weekend. Or rather, I have few pictures that aren't of people's butts ahead of me.


Beverly's bike hauler


On the Saturday ride: Ken Brown and his ride partner Wayne in front, Seenoweevil next. Followed by…


Beverly, friend of Beverly and Louis, Louis


Leaving camp Sunday morning: TSL's ride and ride partner, Bikerjohn, Seenoweevil, yrs trly (tsl), Ken Brown's ride partner Wayne, Ken Brown, Miss Kenton


In between rain showers on Sunday morning, Seenoweevil


Seenoweevil

tsl

Some BikeCam shots (including some unidentified butts).


Friday night ride. What goes up, must come down. Scene from the descent.



Dropping into the valley. In the distance, the other side of Seneca Lake.



Curvy, no-traffic farm road leads back to camp. With, of course, a beautiful descent through the trees just around that bend…



Saturday found us on miles and miles of fresh asphalt on NY 96. Blue Steel and I enjoyed it so much, I forgot to wait for the group at a turnoff some were going to take. It was flat, smooth, with a modest tailwind. I shifted Blue to the big ring, stretched-out and cranked. Pure joy!



Along Cayuga Lake, a 50+ Cadillac for sale.



Drat! Curvy two-lane ahead.



Oh no! Yet another undulating, curvy two-lane farm road. Too bad for me!

Gyro

Great report Tsl and pictures. How many people were there over all?