Hankering for hills

My Cayuta Lake loop: Cayuta Lake is the little lake in the lower left hand side of the photo. Connecticut Hill is the heavily forested area just east of Cayuta LakeI like flat, smooth roads just as much as the next cyclist. I love to get going real fast, boosting my average speed and distance, and just cruising.

But sometimes I like to climb hills. I do the 530 feet climb on my commute to work in the morning, but this past week I wanted to do some good hill climbing, especially with the beautiful fall leaves.

So on Saturday I headed out and climbed up to Schaffer Rd in the Newfield back hills, stopped to pick apples with my wife (who drove up) at Little Tree Orchard, and continued on to Van Etten. The climb was great, as was the inevitable downhill. In the 6½ miles from where you turn onto Newfield Depot Rd from Rt 34, to the summit in North Van Etten, at 1845 feet, just north of the North Van Etten church, it's 1840 feet of climbing, for an average of 283 feet/mile.  The total climb for that ride was about 2400 feet, for an overall average of 55.6 ft/mile.

Panoramic view looking up Millard Hill Rd

Yesterday afternoon I again headed for the hills. I wanted to do my Cayuta Lake loop, but decided to take a hilly way to the lake, via Connecticut Hill -- the highest point in Tompkins County, at 2099 ft. Unfortunately the roads that go the highest are all dirt roads, and I don't like to ride dirt roads on my road bike, especially on downhills, so I skirted the hill, taking the paved roads around the hill. The highpoint on these paved roads is 1814 ft.


On Connecticut Hill RdThe climb up from where Millard Hill Rd branches off from Rt 13 before Newfield is a beautiful one. Very little traffic, a relatively gradual climb up to the summit of 1814 ft, altogether over 6½ miles, 1840 feet of climbing -- an average of 283 feet/mile -- coincidentally exactly the same as Saturday's ride. The sun was out, it was windy, and as I got higher more and more trees had totally changed or else had already lost their leaves -- downtown there are still plenty of green leaves mixed with the reds and yellows and oranges.


Trumbulls Corners, from Millard Hill RdAfter all that climbing the rest of the ride, on Co.Rt 6 and 10, and then state routes 228 and 227 into Trumansburg, and 89 back into Ithaca, were all relatively flat and pretty easy (except for that one big climb on 89...).  The total climb on this ride was 2636 feet, and the average climb was 51.4 ft/mile.

All in all these were great rides, and if you like beautiful vistas and some moderate climbing, these are great roads to ride.