Bike Tioga Century - August 2008

The route: "Crazy 8 Century" Every August the Tioga County Tourism Office sponsors a weekend of riding in Tioga County, in the southern tier of upstate New York. This event -- Bike Tioga -- was held last weekend. There are various ride options ranging from 25 miles up to a 106 mile century ride.

I got up early last Saturday and made the 30 mile drive to Owego. It was still pretty foggy much of the way there, but by the time I got to the Hickories park a couple of miles east of downtown Owego, it had cleared, and I saw it was going to be a beautiful day.

And it was. The weather was perfect. The roads were great too.

I rode with Denny, who was on his Giro recumbent as usual; Jim, who I'd ridden with before on the Keuka Lake ride; and Tony. Turns out this was the first century ride for Jim and Tony -- they did great. And these guys were great riding partners.


Coming up Dean Creek Rd.Anyway, the route was really nice. We started out at 7:30am, going north on Rt 96 out of Owego up to Candor and then over to Spencer, where we turned on Sabin Road to get to Dean Creek Rd. Dean Creek is a really nice ride, going south it's a gradual uphill, no big climbs, just a couple of small ones. It winds through very picturesque farm country, and there's very little traffic.

At the end of Dean Creek Rd we turned onto Rt 34 and headed down to Waverly, where we turned westward. We took River Rd, which I've described before, a nice little road/bike path that goes right along the Susquehanna, and then onto 17C. We turned north onto Lowman-Greatsinger Rd which eventually turns into Breesport-Chemung Rd. Again, this was a really nice ride, very little traffic, nice road going through farmland and forests. There were rolling hills but nothing major.


Riding along Wyncoop Creek RdAt Breesport we turned onto Rt 223, then onto Fairview, and Marsh, and eventually ended up on Wyncoop Creek Rd. I'd ridden this road going south to north, which is a gradual, rolling uphill climb. For this ride, we got to do Wyncoop going downhill. There were still some climbs, since it is rolling, but overall it was a nice long downhill. Again, little traffic, very nice scenery. We stopped at the Farmland Animal Park on Wyncoop, where I got a large soft ice cream cone -- and when they say large they mean it, it was one foot tall, no exaggeration!


Riding along River Rd, headed back to OwegoFrom there we continued on down to Rt 17C, back onto River Road headed east, and then back onto 17C, which we followed back into Owego and on to Hickories Park. At the end of the ride, the Bike Tioga folks provided cold drinks, bananas and apples, pizza, and massages by professional massage people.

This was a really nice ride, and I'll definitely be doing it again next year. I'm also planning on riding some of those roads again sometime sooner.

Route: Bike Tioga "Crazy 8" Century Ride: Owego-Spencer-Waverly-Breesport-Waverly-Owego
Total distance: 107.62 miles
Ride time: 06:47:17
Avg speed: 15.85 mph
Total climb: 3091 ft
Low point: 780, River Rd along the Susquehanna west of Waverly
High point: 1486 ft, on Marsh Rd, E of Breesport
Avg climb: 28.72 ft/mile
Consumed: During the ride: Lots of water, gatorades, 2 bananas, slice of pizza, two pop tarts, small bag of salted peanuts, large soft ice cream cone. After the ride: a few cold drinks, a few slices of pizza, a banana, some chips.