Good grief, it's been a while since I wrote anything. You'd think I'd be able to pick up the laptop and bang out a few lines and publish, but for some reason, I haven't had the oomph to do it. The Internet is full of junk, who needs my flavor of it?
Well, this isn't going to be pretty. It won't be Grammarly'd and ChatGPT'd to perfection. I'm going to do just keep typing until something is out there. Puke on the page.
A made a 600k route
After having ridden the 400k around all of the Finger Lakes a number of times (not even going to link that to the relevant article...just keep typing...) I felt that maybe a good 600k that went around many of the lakes would also be a nice addition to our route library. Partly, Jim and I have been thinking about how we can get more local riders interested in rando rides around us and having more routes seemed like it might be a good idea.
I knew I wanted to visit Letchworth in the daytime, and zig zag a little between some of the little Finger Lakes to the west as well as make use of some the waterfalls and trails around Watkins Glen and Ithaca. The result was a figure eight course that started and ended in Penn Yan each day.
Penn Yan is expensive
First off, there are almost no hotels in Penn Yan, and those that are there are crazy expensive when we've run the brevet. Riders got creative with where they decided to stay to get a cheaper room, but this wasn't something I really thought about during the design. Rando's tend to like to do things cheap. We are not hanging in the hotel for long and when we are, we probably could sleep on a log. Paying top dollar for the privilige of sleep isn't high on my list of priorities for a route.
I'd love to find a hostel-ish accommodation with a nearby inexpensive motel, but I haven't found it. I'll leep searching. It may mean redesigning the entire route around the new location, which would be a shame because...
The route is great
After having ridden the entire thing, I think it's a wonderful route. The climbs on day 1 are front-loaded, which could be demoralizing, but forwarned with the knowledge, I was able to accept the slower first 200k knowing that I'd make up for lost time later. The climbs are pretty evenly spaced out on day 2. There are plenty of intimate encounters with nature as the routes come down to touch the water and send you back up over and over. I'd only beento Letchworth a handful of times, so I still find it worthy of my attention.
Attempt #1 in 2024
I decided to pre-ride the route in 2024, but the weather wasn't in my favor. It rained buckets and the wind stole from my time bank from the get go for about 200k. I rode my Fuji with fenders and 32mm (too wide for fenders on this frame) tires. The few gravel sections sent stones scraping between the rubber and thermoplastic and I worried I'd crumple the fender, as I had on the Auburn 200k. I received ominous news about the health of our elderly dog and lost my fight. I finished the first 400k loop in just under 24 hours, I didn't have it in me to finish that pre-ride and thre in the towel at the Penn Yan hotel I had spent so much on. Of the 3 other riders that started the brevet, only one superstar finished.
Attempt #2 in 2025
Despite some pretty lackluster training and an inconsistent brevet schedule, I retried the ride again this year with Peter Wills (our superstar from last year) and Chris Gross (DCR). I started with two other riders, but was dropped after mile 1 on the very first climb. The weather this year ended up very hot and humid, but the wind and rain weren't a factor. While hot weather certainly slows me down a lot, my general pokey pace may work a little to my advantage, as I don't tend to overheat. Chris abandoned in the heat after about 60 miles. It was his first DNF ever in randonneuring.
I took my time and managed my effort to finish with just 30 minites to spare. Peter, on the other hand did the whole route in one shot, finishing in 28.5 hours, stopping at convenience stores to douse his head with cold bottled water to cool his engine. On day 2, I did the same.
The high points of the route for me are (in order of how much I loved it):
- The Keeny Swamp and long descent out of it
- The views in Letchworth
- East Lake road along Keuka Lake in the dark
- Shongo Valley and Klein roads - a few miles of hilly dirt roads...and the realization that was the end of serious climbing for day 1
- The small of a field of young wheat in the humid evening air on Ridge Road near Penn Yan
- The absolutely straight shot of a descent on Route 14a near Watkins Glen
- The Burch Hill descent to Canadice Lake
- The forever downhill to Hector out of the Finger Lakes Forest
- Leaning into curves on Enfield Falls road descent
- The eyewatering fast descent on Harvey Hill Road to Enfield
- Shade on the 10 miles of Black Diamond Trail and view of Taughannock Falls
My least favorite parts of the ride were:
- The slow grind from Hector to Lodi on the treeless NY 414 in 95F heat.
- The Reading Road climb with nothing in the tank (the climb isn't bad, I was just near bonking early on day 2).
The stretch from Hornell to Painted Post was done after dinner. I found myself sort of "autopilot" here. My legs were just turning on their own and my brain turned off as I enjoyed the cooler night air along the Canisteo River. It's all very nice country, but I was alone, cranking out miles along the gentle downgrade. After the sun set and the deer were no longer visible, I was simply riding in my head.