The objective of this trip was to tour the Finger Lakes region of New York and enjoy some motorcycle riding. To prepare for this journey I had to purchase a few things.
Without these three items the trip would have probably been miserable. The rain suit was invaluable considering it rained 75% of the time. The helmet headphones allowed me to rock out or listen to the gps that was located in the new tank bag while riding. I was very happy with the setup.
Our journey began on the morning August 5, 2007. It was one of those mornings where I normally would not have gotten on the motorcycle. I loaded up my bags at headed over to my Dad’s house. From there Dad, Sue, and I decided to rough it. It started raining as soon as we were getting ready to go, so on with the Frogg Toggs.
Heading out, we took I-80 all the way to Pennsylvania and got off at PA-66. This was beautiful riding through the
Allegheny National Forest. We then took
US-6 through
Coudersport and rested for the night in
Wellsboro, PA.
In the morning we got up and were on the road and back in the rain by 9:30am. Our first stop was the
Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. However, since it was foggy and raining, we were unable to see hardly anything. After a few minutes on walking around, it was back to US-6. Once we hit PA-14 our direction headed north towards
Elmira, NY. From there we headed to
Ithaca and stopped there for lunch.
We then proceeded up the recommended route of NY-89 (scenic byway) along the
Cayuga Lake. Frankly, to be honest, I did not find this route to be all that scenic. It was pretty much straight riding with a few hills. Trees blocked your view of the lake the majority of the way and there was no where to stop off and admire the view. We did try to stop at the state park there, but refused to pay to park and continued on.
Since our butts were starting to hurt, we took a little break in
Seneca Falls to get something to drink. While we were there we also visited the local visitor’s center and met a few other motorcyclist from Ohio. Since we were a bit disappointed with the riding around this area, we decided to head back south back towards PA on NY-414. To my surprise I though that this route was much nicer than NY-89.
Corning, NY was the place where we decided to sleep for the night. It was an interesting town that looked like it was built around the glass industry. I would’ve like to have had enough time to visit the museum.
The next morning we were going to visit my sister, Sadie, in
Pittsburgh and headed out on NY-417 towards
Wellsville. This would’ve have been a nice ride except that we got stuck behind a semi-truck that was doing ~25mph for a half-hour or better. Talk about testing the nerves. After we got around the truck, it was smooth sailing. In Wellsville we got on NY-19 south and headed towards PA. NY-19 turns into PA-449. We headed through Genesee, PA to PA-49 and had lunch at The Maple Tree in Coudersport.
Shortly out of Coudersport we took the best route for riding I’ve ever been on. It was absolutely beautiful with windy roads, scenic views, and no slow semi’s! This route included PA-44 to PA-872. However, this was also the point that we hit the heaviest rain. It rained on us the entire time, but I didn’t mind much. We then zig-zagged over to PA-119 south and went through
Punxsutawney and eventually stopped in
Indiana, PA to wait out the storm that was going on in Pittsburgh. After the storm we headed to Sadie’s dorm room to pick her up and headed to hotel for the evening.
The final day we just zipped back home on the interstate and thankfully we did. It was incredibly hot. I made it back home around 1:00pm, took a shower, and crashed.
Overall the trip was a great experience. As it turns out, rain can be better than the heat and humidity. I’d really like to head back to PA this fall and ride some of the route again. I only wish that I had had the opportunity to take some pictures, the rain pretty much nixed that.
Random thoughts, rants, and computers.