06-04 Seneca Falls

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We will get this over quickly.  As we reported, the previous 2 days had challenging climbs.  Except for the one hill that we chose to climb to see a waterfall, today’s hills were modest.  However, we did have a challenging head wind that reduced our 12 to 15 mph pace down to a painful 6 to 8 mph.

We left our hotel room early, anticipating that the only breakfast spot near our route was opening at 5 a.m.  We got there after 6 a.m., but the hours posted on the internet were wrong.  The sign on their door indicated that they did not open for another hour. Our next choice was a gas station that advertised “breakfast sandwiches made fresh daily.”  To say the least, the breakfast was not very good.

A trail quickly took us out of town and into a park and a marina.  There we saw many runners and birders.  Following the signs to the osprey nest we saw 2 ospreys nesting  high on a pole.  Nice, but more was to come.  Today’s highlight was to see the Taughannock waterfalls, even though it required a big climb.  The climb was worth the effort. The falls were spectacular.  After a screaming down hill we were back on route.  This is when we noticed the increasing headwinds that were reported at over 20 mph.  At mile 20 we dropped down from the Cayuga Scenic Byway to the lake shore drive.  It was beautiful but the wind off the lake was fierce!  Cayuga Lake had serious white caps that were braking on shore like they do at the ocean.

That section of the lake shore drive ended and we had to get back on the highway. We took several other opportunities to cycle the lake shore drive, but cursed the wind.  One of these led us to the Thirsty Owl Winery and Bistro where we stopped for lunch.  We were hungry but ended up having an expensive mediocre meal.  So far, today was not a good day for food.

In Seneca Falls we toured its historic down town and saw where they held the nation’s first convention for Women’s Rights. In addition, we saw several sculptures highlighting the woman leaders.


Pictures

Todays Map

Cumulative Map


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