7/3-7/6 Jill's Bike Log

7/3 Sat- Rest day at Bucktail Family Camping. At 9:00 am over the loud speaker blasted “America the Beautiful”…the start of a “Bucky” adventure day. At 11:00 we all headed, (now 15 with the Friedeborns and Bilsbacks), over to the Bucky train which runs twice a day. It made a loop through the woods. Just as the train lurched forward, the last car came off the tracks. Bucky called in the rescue team who arrived in their golf carts, but by the time they had arrived a contingency of mostly men had lifted the car back onto the track. (A lot of people seem to stay for the summer here and use golf carts to get around). During the train loop, we saw: a skunk; a bear; a frog; a turtle; a deer; and a grouse wedged between two trees; all of the ceramic species.

Todd and my cousin Lynne arrived around noon. Until this trip, the longest Todd and I have been apart in our twenty years of marriage, has been a week. It was wonderful to be reunited after a month of not seeing him.

Next we clamored onto the vintage carousel which operated twice a day. I rode on a chicken, and Tessa was on a pig. Mallory really wanted to ride on the monkey, but it is coveted so you have to be first in line to be able to ride on it... Trevor signed us up as two teams to play in the volleyball tournament. Each of our teams made it to the second round, but then lost our respective matches so was eliminated from the tournament. John and Mallory, and Trevor and Bryce played in the basketball 2 on 2 tournaments, which T & B won. Just as we were arriving back at camp the fire engine arrived with Bucky the buck dressed in his uniform, to give rides around the campground. Mallory, Jenna, Sebby, and Tessa partook on the ride. It was already 4:00 pm when we got back to the campsite. We were going to cram a laser tag or paint ball game into the line-up of activities during the day, but we were too late to begin a game. There’s only so much “Bucky” fun you can fit into one day…Rich and Denise cooked up a delicious dinner of sausages and salad. We took a walk around the campground after dinner. The population density I’m sure was much higher than in China. We headed to bed at 10:00 pm so we could get up to be on the road by 8:00 am.

7/4- Sun.-Destination-Oxford, NY. (Biked 54 miles; total-934 miles). With the Bilsback punctual and organizational influence, we departed the campground by 8:00 am; the earliest departure on this trip. We drove to the highway to avoid riding 4 miles on gravel roads.

My cousin Lynne took over driving the SAG van after my sister drove it for two weeks. She did an awesome job. We suddenly mushroomed from 4 to 10 people riding bikes. We’re definitely more of a presence on the road. Rte 6 passed wider valleys nestled in the hills with picturesque farms dotting the landscape.

The hot weather caught up with us again. We had a two day reprieve riding in 70-80 degree temperatures. We’re back in 90 degree weather again. We ate lunch outside of Towanda on the Dupont manufacturing’s grassy lawn with huge white pines and oak trees. It’s amazing what relief from the heat shade provides.

Further down the road, we came to a 5 mile grade. I was following Kelsey as we grunted our way up the grade with the blazing sun beating down on us, with lots of traffic on the road, including semi trailer trucks. Thankfully the shoulder was wide. At the top of the grade was a scenic overlook with a stone pavilion, which gave us relief from the hot sun. On the next leg, we had a fun, twisty road to ride down.

Mallory decided to sag all day, and read one of the Harry Potter books…At age 11, she’s already out-read Todd, Bryce and I in our life-time. I drove the sag van for the last 12 mile leg so Lynne would have a turn to ride.

Since we took an unplanned rest day at Bucky’s Family Camping Resort, we had to make up the miles by piling into the vans in Montrose and driving 60 miles to Oxford. We stopped for ice-cream…yum. We arrived at Bowman Lake State Park at 6:30 pm. We were bummed that the lake was closed to swimming because of algae, but was pleasantly surprised there were showers as they weren’t listed as a campground amenity. Set up camp and then took showers. Only two unisex showers so there was a line-up waiting for them. Rich and Denise make a delicious dinner of chicken, mashed potatoes and veges. I tried to blogasize and everyone else walked down to the lakefront to watch the distant fireworks in Norwich. Everyone headed to bed by 10:00 pm for an 8:00 start in the morning.

7/5-Mon-Destination-Poland, NY. (Biked 30 miles; total-964 miles).We drove from Montrose to Norwich to begin biking. Just as we were loading into the van, I shut Mallory’s fingers in the van door. Needless to say I felt horrible. We immediately iced her fingers and gave her a Motrin. Thankfully by the time we arrived in Norwich, she had recuperated and decided to ride. I drove the van for the first leg so Lynne could ride with Mallory, and Denise drove sag for their van. We stopped in a local restaurant for a bagel and coffee. Mallory, Lynne, Kelsey, Rich and Todd stopped for a morning ice-cream during the first leg of their ride.

We ate lunch in a shaded park in Waterville. With all of us sprawled out on the lawn, we occupied a fair amount of space... Lots of rolling hills, but the ride today was relatively easy without major grades to climb. We decided we wanted to finish riding by 1:00 pm since the campground advertised tubing on the river. It sounded really refreshing after biking in the heat.

Rode down a hill that kept warning to gear down because of a steep grade. I am not a speed demon going down hills, but ended up not having to break much going down it. Rich flagged us down to stop before we entered busy roads in Utica.

We loaded into the van outside of Utica and headed to Poland, NY, to the West Canada Creek Park. Our tent sites bordered the river. We quickly set up camp so we could go tubing on the river. We thought the campground rented tubes, but found out we had to purchase them. We almost bailed but had our heart set on tubing, so bought 12 inflatable tubes. Fortunately the campground had an air pump, or otherwise it would have taken a lot of time to blow up all of them up using our own hot air. We piled into a mini bus and were driven upstream for a 1 ½ hour float. Really refreshing. Evan rigged up a cooler which was bungied to a tube so we had a supply of beverages during our float.

Back at camp, Denise cooked up a huge pot of meatballs and noodles, and Todd cut up veges for an enormous salad. Trevor, Mallory, Rich, Todd, Lynne and Jenna took another float ride after supper, while Denise and I did a load of laundry. Sue and her mom
Thelma rolled in about 7:00 pm to touch base before heading to their motel. Sue and Will got back from their yearly month long service trip to Guatemala a few days ago and then flew out from Colorado today to join us on the trip. She joined up with her mom who lives in Rochester, NY. They signed up to serve us lunch and dinner for the next several days. Crystal and her dog Esoy rolled in at 8:00 pm who drove from Colorado and will join us on the trip for three days before joining Peace Corps friends in NH for a reunion. Crystal used the one-man tent Lynne brought and Trevor tried out the Bilback’s screened hammock so everyone would have a screened sleeping space without having to face the vicious mosquitoes.

7/6-Tue-Destination-Blue Mountain Lake, NY. (Biked 57 miles; total-1021). We packed up and drove to the beginning of the scenic drive on Rte. 28 in the Adirondacks. Packing up wasn’t as smooth as on some mornings, but we managed to pull out of the campground shortly after 8:00 am. The Bilsback had a 5 minute head start on us. I rode with Crystal as we had 7 passengers and 6 seats. We all convened in a parking lot and readied our bikes for the ride. It feels good to have hit the 1000 mile mark and I also realize I’m a confirmed “putzer.” I get where I want to go, but I’ll never win a race getting there. Since the Bilbacks and Todd have joined the ranks, I continue to be the last one to arrive at the rest stops.

We ate lunch in the town of Inlet, in a city park with a huge pavilion bordering a lake. We’ve been doted on this trip. Sue and her mom made meatball subs for us from the leftover meatballs from last night’s supper. We also had watermelon, and ice cold water to refresh us. Thelma made delicious chocolate chip cookies- the kind that are soft and chewy.

The number of churches we’ve passed by have dramatically diminished. We’re definitely no longer in the Bible belt. Many of the churches seem to be nondenominational, community churches. We had a much hillier ride today, mostly through pine forests and passed by pretty mountain lakes. I’ve fallen behind in the road-kill count. Over the past number of days, we’ve ridden by a fox, a snake, a raven, a fisher cat, a groundhog, and multiple deer road-kill.

Todd, Rich, Kelsey and I brought up the rear of the bike pack. We biked to incredible sites at Lake Durant State Park. We had two adjacent campsites which bordered the lake and were nestled in the woods. The lake had a naturally sandy bottom and was easily accessible which made it very inviting. We dismounted our bikes; quickly set up our tents and then plunged into the water…Aah. Thelma, Sue, Kelsey Mallory, and Trevor blew up our tubes and floated in the lake. Mallory and Esoy the dog soaked for hours.

Sue and Thelma made a delicious chicken dish and a salad. Sue told her that bikers eat a lot of food so she cut up and prepared 8 lbs of chicken. For dessert Thelma baked brownies and Crystal brought a huge bag of Bing cherries she bought at an orchard in PA which we munched on. Todd added to the cuisine with the mussels he cooked that he and Mallory harvested from the lake. They were a bit bland in taste, so Trevor whipped up a vinaigrette sauce for flavoring.

Two teams of 4 played a round of pinochle and then we headed to the lake edge to watch an incredible sunset. We headed to bed early since we were tired from a long day of riding. The loons serenaded us in bed. It took a while to fall asleep as it took a long while for the temperature to cool down.


































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