The Blayleys: Quadzilla

After two hard days with over 10,000 feet of climbing each day, we were looking forward to this easy day with a mere 6,000 feet. There was even a little temptation to make it easier, by riding directly to Auburn, without taking the dogleg up to Lake Ontario. Fortunately Mark had emphasized that the ride up to Fair Haven State Park was beautiful and the views of Lake Ontario would be well worthwhile.

Still we were pretty tired. We rolled out of town with MaryBeth and Vida, and enjoyed getting to know them better as we rode along, chatting away. Shortly before reaching Waterloo, I heard comments about stopping for coffee, so I kept my eyes peeled as we passed through town, and we found a lovely coffee shop just at the edge of town. As we sat down to enjoy our find, Robert pulled up with the same idea. He had sprinted off the front, but had missed a turn, resulting in some bonus miles. Great minds think alike though and he was also ready for a break in Waterloo.

After the refreshing stop, we'd aimed for Seneca Falls where Marcia had set up a secret control. At this point, we made the turn north to head to Lake Ontario. The terrain continued to be gentle and conversation friendly. At some point, we caught up to most of the rest of the group, and we all rolled along together chatting away.

Marcia was waiting for us at Fair Haven, and again made us wonderful sandwiches and supplied us with all sorts of fruit and pocket snacks. Mark had gotten a late start due to a tire issue, but arrived shortly after the group, and then took us on a ride out to the headland for nice views of the cliffs across the way and some group photos.

Next it was onto Rudy's at the Lakefront, which seemed to be a local institution with seriously long lines of folks waiting to order seafood. Fortunately the lines for ice cream weren't so bad. It was starting to get hot, and ice cream was definitely appreciated. We enjoyed the great view of a local sailboat race, while polishing off our ice cream cones. But feeling the previous long days in our legs, we pressed on toward Auburn, while most other folks chilled out a bit longer.

I hadn't checked the cue sheet carefully for services and had neglected to top off my bottles, so while the lovely quiet roads were very enjoyable, I started to hope for some sort of village or store, as I drained my bottles dry in the afternoon heat. We reached a closed bridge, marked on the cue sheet as passable by bike, and got to climb over a barrier and then navigate a narrow trail lined with poison ivy! Shortly afterward, we reached the oasis of Port Byron, where we stopped for cold drinks before the final push to Auburn.

Mark had made dinner reservations for the group, so we quickly cleaned up bike and bodies and headed out for the nice group dinner.

One more day...