Sunday 30 May 2010

Day 10 Owenga to Cayuga Lake




















Saturday 29th May
Daily mileage 43miles Average Speed 10.91mph Ride Time 3hr57min
Stayed in the tent until 8.30am then up and packed and cycled up the road to a McDonalds to grab a coffee and use their free wifi that in the end did not work. We set off on the 96 north toward the finger lakes which everybody have told us are just beautiful and worth the ride.
We stopped after 12miles in Candor at a gas station and while making up some rolls on the forecourt we managed to sneak onto some unsecured wifi to update the blog. We chatted to a guy about our trip and 5mins after he left he came back to say his sister lived 2 miles away and we could stay at hers if we liked. That was another very kind offer but it was way too early to call it a day. Back on the road we cycled a further 18miles into Ithaca at the base of Lake Cayuga. Lots of people had told us this route was meant to be hilly but to be honest we did not even notice any up hills only some lovely long down hills! There was one that went on for 4 miles and parts of it were at 9% which is actually scarily steep especially when I replaced my own brakes on my bike recently!
Ithaca was quite built up and we passed straight through it and got on route 89 north to head up the side of the lake. We reached Taughannok Falls National Park after a further 12 miles. We found a campsite and luckily some plots are reserved for cyclists so we grabbed one and put the tent up. A quick turn around and we were off on a hike up to see the Taughannock Falls which is a 215ft waterfall. We took the north rim hike of 1.5 miles to the falls which was a steep climb and our legs were burning.
We walked back down to the start then walked all the way back again this time on the gorge route which is basically walking along the river bed which was fantastically beautiful. Wading in the ankle deep fresh water all the way to the end was bliss. Right near the end and stood in water a man just in front of us said watch out for those two snakes! We took a look and a photo and quickly stepped up onto the south rim walk for the rest of the way. We showed the photo to one of the rangers on the way back who was shocked to see it. She thought it was a black diamond which are fairly lethal apparently.
We walked to the lake edge and had some dinner before heading back to the tent to relax and plan our route for tomorrow. There are really cute chipmunks running around!
Kris input for todays blog: My legs and bum really hurt!

2 comments:

  1. FANTASTIC photo's !!!

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  2. Really like the pictures... what a snake? do we have them like that around here? From, the Owego girl who met you at the Hickories Park!

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