Day 7 - Fair Delaware County, The Rocky Road to Bainbridge

Day 7 - August 2

Find pictures from today in Michael's album.

We essentially spent today traversing Delaware County from south to north.  We started the day in Roscoe in Sullivan County but crossed the Delaware County border minutes into the ride.  At the end of the day we crossed the Susquehanna river to the town of Bainbridge in Chenango County.  I like to think of the fact that it took us a day to cross the county as an indication of the size of Delaware County.  Others might think it says more about our ability to cover ground (see joke at end of today's entry).  But seriously, it's a big beautiful county and we got to see a lot of it.

Delaware County

We were joined today by Diane Sipple-Cushing who's riding in memory of her husband Arnie.  This is a good opportunity to thank the many friends of Arnie and Diane who have made donations to our project.  Diane has never done a substantial bicycle trip before. With help from her son Stewart, she got herself well outfitted with a new bicycle and other equipment.  Her training program was not exactly grueling, however, and I confess to having some doubts about Diane's ability to hang in there through the hills but she's been a trooper. 

Diane

We started the day on roads following the banks of the Beaver Kill, a world renowned trout stream.  There were many beautiful river views on the morning ride.

One of Michael's pics of the Beaver Kill

At East Branch, the Beaver Kill flows into the East Branch of the Delaware River.  We continued on the road that follows the valley of the East Branch to a point just west of Hancock.  At that point, Michael took off on his own to see if he could fit in a visit to his stepson at a summer camp about fifteen miles off route.  That ended up not working out for Michael but it did keep him separated from us for the rest of the day.

Michael entering East Branch

The roads along the rivers had plenty of ups and downs but no sustained climbs.    As we turned north we knew we had two substantial climbs ahead of us.  The first climb was on Apex Road.  We went steadily up for about 6 miles but the grade was always manageable.  Apex Road is lined with some very widely spaced homes. The climb was followed by a steep, straight downhill to the Cannonsville Reservoir.  Once you reach the area of the reservoir,there are no more homes - only woods.

We followed the reservoir shores for about 10 miles before tackling what looked to be a more difficult climb through the Steam Mill State Forest.  We turned away from the reservoir onto Mormon Hollow Road which climbed, not too precipitously, through a very pretty glen with a few very well kept homes along a small brook.  A couple of miles in the road changed from pavement to packed dirt.  We passed a lake as we entered the state forest land.  The road continued to climb in fits and starts.  The road surface proved to be more of a problem than the slope.  It got very rocky.  We ended up walking our bikes for stretches.  Even the downhills are difficult when the surface is rocky.  At several points, the woods opened up to offer spectacular views.

Diane on Mormon Hollow Road

We reached a point where the road began to be almost all downhill and switched to pavement ( I was never so glad to see pavement before! )  We cruised down to route 206 and on to a General Store in Masonville.

At the General Store, Diane and I each had a cold root beer.  Michael and Dan and I had already agreed that root beer is the official rest stop drink of the niagarabycycle ride.  Water or gatorade on the bike but when it's time for a break, root beer is the preferred drink on a hot day.  Diane is with us on this.
We had eight miles to go to reach Bainbridge and two more from downtown to our hotel.  Though we were generally heading downhill, there were plenty of ups mixed in with the downs on Route 206.  We were pretty exhausted by the time we rolled into the Algonkin Hotel parking lot at about 6:30.  The 64 miles we rode was way beyond anything Diane had ever ridden in a day. Way to go, Diane!

Michael contacted us by cellphone shortly after we arrived at the hotel and arrived in Bainbridge about an hour later.   We were able to dine together and share a bottle of wine before calling it a night.

Six days of riding complete - exactly 400 miles covered.

Ok, here's the joke:  A Texas cattleman brags to a New England farmer about the size of his ranch "Why, I can get on my horse in the morning at my ranch house and start riding west and by the time the sun goes down, I still won't be at the other end of my property."  To which the New England farmer replies "Yeah, I had a horse like that once!"