Five us — Gary Hodges, David Sahn, Stuart Wolsh, Jim Millar and I — departed EHP a bit after 10:00 am Sunday. It was sunny with temps hovering in the high 40s. After some discussion, our objectives were simple: to breathe lots of cool fall air, admire pasturing geese and dappled horses cavorting in roadside fields, refuel at Hollenbeck’s and then return by some challenging different route.
As we crested the first rise on Ellis Hollow Creek Road, a cyclist named Chuck Green happened to pull out and decided to join us for part of our trip. He was the only rider in our group to ride with his lower calves exposed. I noted the chiseled muscle look and asked:
JD: Chuck, do you race?
CG: No, but I used to do time trials.
Going up Ringwood, I remembered I had completely forgotten Glenn’s 3S training session and that no doubt explained my pulse getting up to 177. I was over-heated by the top of the climb and I rode for much of the rest of the day with short-fingered gloves, bare arms, and no skull cap. After going north on Midline and crossing Rte 13, we reached that T-intersection with fields with 100s of geese on the east and 20+ pasturing horses to the north. Chuck went west and we headed east to Route 13 where we saw one of those bank temperature signs with a 46F reading. At Gary’s suggestion we took 13 to the TC3 entrance and rode out the back side of the campus, eventually ending up on 392 and Church St going into Virgil. We had been surprised to see what looked like dormitories at TC3.
At Hollenbecks, we got a bag of just-fried donuts, an apple pie and a gallon of cider after watching Bruce Hollenbeck load the massive made-in-Syracuse-in-1873 cider press with about five layers of chopped apples. Normally, the staff do not cut slices in their pies for customers, but David got to chatting with his buddy Bruce and soon we had paper plates, plastic forks, cups, and generous amount of cheddar cheese to go with the pie, all compliments of Bruce. As we sat down to feast outside, Gary called Misty McPhee and David sent her the attached picture by SMS. We were worried that Misty might not be getting enough apples to eat out in Wisconsin and just plain ole missed Misty. On speaking with Misty we learned that the first semester of a tenure-track teaching position can be a HUGE amount of work and that our favorite FLCC member emeritus misses ITH a lot!
The return to ITH was unremarkable other than the fact that I had trouble keeping up with my pie-crazed companions. The climb up the east side of the ridge on the Harford-Slaterville Road seemed steeper and longer than usual, to me at least.
Stuart explained at some point during the ride that he lubricates his chain before every long ride by first wiping the moving chain with a clean rag, and then wiping it again after lubricating each link. “You only want lubricant to remain at the chain pivot points,” he explained. Darn, I completely forgot to ask Stuart what books he’s been reading.
All are welcome to join another 10:00 am departure from EHP this coming Sunday. I’m voting for pumpkin pie next.
Ride safe, John Dennis
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