Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Seneca Falls to Skaneateles, NY

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Rich's route rap
Today was the shortest and hardest day of the trip so far. The longest option was 43.3 miles. After the route meeting at 9:00 we headed into the town of Seneca Falls, the inspiration for the move “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Most of the group planned to eat breakfast at the local diner, Jeremy’s. We had eaten the almost edible plastic-wrapped muffins at the Microtel continental breakfast.

Instead, we visited the Women’s Rights Museum where a group of women activists held one of the first women’s rights meetings in the 1850’s in Seneca Falls at Wesleyan chapel.
Remnants of
Wesleyan chapel
It was surprising to read that Switzerland didn't grant women the right to vote until 1971. Afterwards we took a quick look at the Museum of Waterways.
Map at Waterways
Museum
The walls were covered with large-scale maps of the Cayuga-Seneca and Erie canal systems. The canals provided a passageway for raw materials and finished products to and from the East and West. Many of the industrial buildings that were built during the boom times are now gone. Seneca Falls seems to be struggling a bit to revive itself. Instead of breakfast, we had wandered long enough in Seneca Falls to eat lunch at Jeremy's.

By noon we had gone all of 2.6 miles, with 40 more hilly miles to go. There was a strong southerly wind, and when we turned north toward Montezuma Wildlife Refuge we had the wind at our backs and we made good time.
Montezuma Wildlife
Refuge
We turned right on busy Route 20 which fortunately had a wide shoulder. At mile 9.4 we stopped again, at the wildlife refuge. Bicycles are banned from the wildlife drive so we spent a little time at the visitor's center and learned about the resurgence of Bald Eagles and Osprey in the area.

Kerie at
Mud lock
We were able to get about another mile before stopping again at Mud Lock, a working lock at the north end of Seneca Lake, which connects the lake to the Erie Canal to the north.

By now we were getting hungry again. At mile 19 we stopped in Union Springs for a banana and Gatorade break, responding to yet another stranger about the comfort of riding a recumbent. Kerie said we should make up a sign for the side of the bike that reads: “Yes, this bike is very comfortable!”.

Union Springs is just south of the tip of Cayuga Lake, on the eastern shore. We were headed toward Owasco and Skaneatles Lakes, which meant crossing a couple of ridges between the lakes. Number One Road took us to the top of the first ridge, a relatively easy climb.
Downhill ride
to Lake Owasco
At Lake Owasco we stopped to rest before heading north toward Auburn. Just south of the town of Auburn we ran into a detour at the top of the lake. Unlike the others who walked their bikes a few hundred feet to bypass the construction, we obligingly followed the detour that took us 3 and a 1/2 miles out of our way. After a few anxious moments wondering why we were headed downhill in the wrong direction, we found the route again and headed across the next ridge to Lake Skaneateles.

We found a few nature break spots amidst the corn fields and started climbing. There were several ridges and valleys, the valleys not quite steep or long enough to get up to speed enough to climb the next ridge.
Bruce at
Sherwood Inn
It was hard work and we were glad to finally ride the last descent to the Skaneateles Lake shore. Heading north with the wind we raced into town, passing the many huge estates lining the lake. We dragged ourselves into the Sherwood Inn in the town of Skaneateles, where the adventure was only beginning.

Our room was on the second floor at the end of the hall, up a few steps to the room, which is OK, but hauling the bike up there wasn't fun. As we were part way up the stairs the hotel clerk mentioned that the hot water was out, but it would be back “any minute now” As I write this at 8:30 pm there is still no hot water.

You would think that an upscale place like Skaneatles would have a few good restaurants.
The Old Mill Restaurant
on the town run
There must be several, but those we found didn't look that great, so we ended up back at the Inn. It turned out that the Inn had a pretty good restaurant. My heavily breaded fish and chips (I have no problem with heavily breaded food) was good, but Kerie's salmon was not and appeared rather dry. An after dinner stroll topped off the evening. Now we're watching the kamikaze weathermen being pelted by rain and walking vertical in the winds of hurricane Ivan.

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