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October 1, 2018

First ADK Cycle Outing Held in Laurentian Chapter Region

John Barron and Tom Ortmeyer

With our cycling guide Cycling Routes of the St. Lawrence River Valley and Northern Adirondacks as a resource, it occurred to Tom that there were enough varied routes available to consider running an all-Club cycle outing along the lines of the annual ADK Paddle Outing. Paddle Outing has two five day options on consecutive weeks, and is billed as being led by the participants themselves. Tom set up accommodation reservations at Clarkson University for one five day event, obtained the support of the ADK Outings Committee, and launched publicity about nine months ahead. Thirty four participants signed up, almost exactly our maximum capacity.

Breakfasts were at diners in the region, self-prepared on campus, or take-out. Lunches were on the road. Suppers were at local restaurants. On the first full day of the Outing, Blair and Marg Madore hosted a barbeque picnic that was very popular.

Although we hoped some participants would lead trips, we did enlist a handful of Laurentian Chapter cyclists as leaders in addition to ourselves. This proved prophetic, as none of the participants, all from far away, were willing to be designated leader without being familiar with the route in advance. We generally had two or three official trips out simultaneously, at easy to medium levels.

Some of the routes offered included the Red Tavern Road, the Seaway dikes near Massena, Higley Flow, Madrid region, Waddington region, Ogdensburg to Eel Weir State Park, Cornwall to the Long Sault Parkway in Ontario, Hannawa Falls, and a Red Sandstone tour of Potsdam. The weather was mostly good to excellent. We had one rainy day, where some stayed on campus, some drove cars to Tooley Pond Road and did short hikes to see the waterfalls, and some went to Ottawa to view a showing of Impressionist paintings at the National Gallery of Canada.

The participants had huge variation in speed and enduranceendurance. A de facto fast group emerged, and they found ways to extend the standard routes as well as to run independent trips of their own. Small special-interest groups created their own routes based on our guidebook and encountered excellent wildlife sightings, tourist points of interest, and other features. All participants proved resourceful and adaptable, accomplishing great feats of navigation and bike repair.

There were many positive comments about the Outing, and plans are in place to run two five day options of it in 2019. We hope our own chapter cyclists will again be willing to lead one or two trips, and we hope some of this year’s participants will return and now be willing to lead a tour. We tried to run this year’s trips on the pattern of a standard chapter outing, but the participants had been expecting extremely detailed route description hand-outs (known as “cue sheets” in bicycle club terminology) so that participants of differing speeds could cover the route at their own pace while remaining, loosely, a part of the group. That is how we’ll try to run next year.

Thanks very much to Jeanna Matthews, Greg Smith, Joan Trivilino, and Blair and Marg Madore, whose contribution really enabled the Outing to succeed.

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