that which rolls

I command it.

I was going to write a post about my trip to the Finger Lakes National Forest. It would sound something like this.

It rained a bit but then it was sunny then it rained then it was sunny. We rode our bikes and had a nice time. Sadly there was no water supply at Blueberry Patch campground, but Brian is a miracle worker with dinner and he made some great food without us having to actually seek out a store and buy more water than what we had.

Really what I want to say is that this place is a great place to have a long relaxing day or weekend on a bike. You can camp at Blueberry Patch Campground if you’re a few people or at Potomac Group Campground if you’re a heap of people. FLNF and the surrounding area is mostly dirt roads and a few badly paved roads but if you’re just cruising around it doesn’t really matter much. There is almost no car traffic at all because it’s in the middle of nowhere. There are some hills but there’s a lot of gentle terrain too. If you get tired of the bucolic landscape you can head down toward the lake for a wine tour… though getting back to your campsite might be a bit rough after a lot of wine tasting. The campgrounds are very primitive… if you can’t get by without a daily shower, you might camp near Ithaca (about 1/2 hour away by car) at Buttermilk Falls or Treman Park–these both have showers & great swimming holes too.

There are some multi-use trails that you’re allowed to ride your bike on but when we were there, it had rained so much that there were long stretches of pure mud which pushed my li’l hybrid bike to the very edge of it’s ability. I ended up walking it a lot because it’s hard to stay upright when you’re bike comes to an unplanned dead stop. They’re cool trails, but be warned, they’re not like the Erie Canal Path. The roads are just like the Erie Canal Path but 5 times as wide with hills and a few cars.

It’s worth a trip out there.

More photos of the area.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 31st, 2008 at 8:36 pm and is filed under outdoors, Trip Report, biking, Adirondack 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.