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The Ride for Roswell took place on June 28th 2008 and was a tremendous success. The ride raised $1.8 million in funds for cancer research, a record for this event. I managed to ride 30 miles, good considering how little I’ve ridden lately.

Thank you to my aunts who gave generous pledges to support my ride.

362 Days till the next ride. I think I need to keep ridding so I can do the 44 mile ride next year.

Here’s the music that was played on my iPod while I rode:

Iron Maiden – Heaven Can Wait
John Mellencamp – R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A.
Guns N’ Roses – Mr. Brownstone
Tears for Fears – Cold
Nine Inch Nails – Sin
Honeymoon Suite – Wave Babies
Iron Maiden – Wasted Years
John Mellencamp – Jack & Diane
Jimmy Eat World – Polaris
Def Leppard – Rock of Ages
Bad Religion – I Love My Computer
The Cult – Fire Woman
Rush – You Bet Your Life
Joe Satriani – Surfing With the Alien
John Mellencamp – Paper in Fire
Jimmy Eat World – Work
Ozzy Osbourne – Crazy Train
Def Leppard – Gods of War
Honeymoon Suite – Other Side of Midnight
Android Lust – The Want
Disturbed – Prayer
Halloween, Alaska – Drowned
Foo Fighters – Breakout
Tears for Fears – Dog’s a Best Friend’s Dog
Spineshank – Slavery
Sloan – The Other Man
Foo Fighters – Times Like These
Honeymoon Suite – New Girl Now
Honeymoon Suite – One by One
Def Leppard – Don’t Shoot Shotgun
Revolting Cocks – Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?
Bif Naked – Moment of Weakness
Joe Satriani – Back to Shalla-bal
Brother Love – Summertime
Lush – Single Girl
Rik Emmett – Big Lie
Billy Idol – Mony Mony
Joydrop – Swan Song

Today’s bike journey is through the 6.7 miles of the Genesee Valley Greenway that starts in Letchworth state park (Portageville entrance, east side of the gorge). The trail starts out pretty flat, but later has a few more twists and turns. At 2.2 miles I had to take a detour on Williams Road that returns to the trail at Short Tract Road. This detour has been in place for a couple of years due to beaver dams that flooded the trail. The trail ends at Pentagass Road just after passing through Triple Creek Golf Course; the trail through the course is also used by the golf carts.

At this point I turned around to begin the return trip. I guess I should have looked over my shoulder on the outbound trip, because I got one hell of a surprise when I did turn around: a rather large thunderstorm heading my way. And now the adventure really began.

I put the pressure on and ramped up my speed to get back to the car as fast as possible. That managed to get me half way back before the deluge started. Next thing I knew I was biking through mud with lightening coming down on either side of me. I just kept biking, figuring I’d get just as wet, but closer to the car if I kept going. I could barely see through the steam accumulating on my glasses.

When I get back the first thing I’m going to do is buy some rain gear for the next bike trip.

On one final note, if you are looking for info on some of these trails pick up the Official Rails-to-Trails Conservancy Guidebook - New York. I think I’m going to have to pick up a new copy myself since the one I own got a little wet on this latest expedition.

Woke early this morning, somewhere around 6:30 am. Man that hurts when you’re on vacation. We had to get up this early because I needed to drive Karlyn to Batavia to meet her parents; they were going to the state fair. I opted out because I had been planning to bike as much as possible on this vacation.

After a small nap to recoup some of that lost sleep I headed out to find a starting point on the Genesee Valley Greenway. The Greenway is a multi-use trail (horses, bikes, hiking, etc…) that uses the old rail line/canal. The canal was opened in 1840, but went out of business by 1878. The land was then purchased by the Genesee Valley Canal Railroad Company. The Price: $100/mile. With the decline of the railroads this line was eventually put out of commision

After driving around a bit and scouting out different sections of the trail I chose a pull off where the trail and route 20 intersect. This turned out to be an ideal location to start from. I biked north along the trail bot sure what the landscape was going to be. The trail in this section is mostly flat, with only a few hills when the trail needed to rise to the road for a crossing. About 5 to 6 miles into the trail I can upon the intersection with the Lehigh Valley Trail. This trail is not usable at the moment, but they were in the process of building a new pedestrian bridge across the Genesee river using the old train trestle. Looks like it will be a good connecting trail once its completed. At about 8.3 miles I entered Canawaugus Park, and decided to start the return portion of my ride. There was still another 4.8 miles of trail north of the park, but I will check that out at a later date. I pushed my limits on the way back trying to keep a steady speed around 14 mph. I suceeded for about 85% of the ride. The total distance covered when I was done was 16.7 miles.

I enjoyed this ride tremendously and plan to do it again before the season ends. This trail is perfect for beginning mountain bikers and a relaxing ride for experienced bikers. I applaud NYS for it’s continued work on this trail, we need more of them.