Please Don’t Judge Me

For the first time on this trip, my ride began with rain. Actually, it’s the first rain I’ve had so far at any point in the day. Fortunately, the rain was somewhat short lived and not particularly heavy. Although, certainly more than a drizzle. Either way, the rain held off long enough for a couple of pictures before I left and essentially the rain started as I was pulling onto the road. But before I set out in the rain, I filled up on breakfast and Larry made a packed lunch to take with me. Seriously, so generous!!

The plan for the day was to bike to Cooperstown, NY. Yes, the same Cooperstown which the Baseball Hall of Fame calls home. That was not the reason for going to Cooperstown though. Actually, I have no plans to go the Hall of Fame – I’ve been a few times and I’m not particularly impressed with what Major League Baseball has become lately (end of mini rant). Anyway, in addition to being home of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown also has a hang gliding flight park – only a few kilometres from town. Unlike the gliding down at Quest, the gliding at Susquehanna Flight Park is done by foot launching – i.e. running off hills and mountains. Given that I’ve never done that before (well, not in a hang glider) I thought this would be a good chance to do that.

As a bit of an aside, over my past few cycling tours there have been certain “rules” that I have put upon myself to which I hold myself accountable. One of those rules is the “No walking the bike up hills.” rule. This rule came about after one particularly challenging day in Quebec. I frequently look back to that day and wonder if I succumbed to the hills to quickly. As a result, I haven’t let a hill beat me since – well, gravel side roads and sand traps notwithstanding. The other rule is that I bike everywhere. No motorized vehicular support. Today I broke the latter rule. But I did so after significant deliberation – this may come as a surprise, but sometimes I can over think things a bit!

So the situation presenting me today was this: I could bike the very hilly 100 km to Cooperstown which would likely take about six hours. Or, I could bike 55 km to Mohawk, NY and meet up with flight instructor Dan and get a drive the remaining 45 km to Cooperstown. The benefit to option A is that I would be biking the entire route. The downside is that I would likely be too exhausted to do any hill training upon my arrival. The benefit to Option B is that it would allow more time for hill training. The downside is that it would break my “No motorized vehicular support” rule. Side note: No, I don’t really have a series a rules … just those two. And clearly at least one of them has now become a guideline!

Anyway, clearly I went with Option B – don’t judge me! Given that there’s a bit of a time crunch to get to Philadelphia, that plan made the most sense. I can cycle anytime. The same can’t be said for running off hills in a hang glider.

Fast forward a few hours and my instructor, Dan, and I arrived at the Susquehanna Flight Park (with my bike in Dan’s truck). It was before 2:00. And by 3:00 my hill training had officially begun.

For the first time since 2003, I found myself learning to fly using a “Condor” hang glider. It’s a trainer glider, that flies very slowly and helps with learning. Susquehanna Flight Park has a variety of hill launching options for training. If all went well, I’d find myself using the 40 foot hill, The Bump, The Corner, and the Flat Slope areas before I continued onto Philadelphia.

The first day of training went really well. I ended up doing seven flights on the Condor. Just for perspective, each flight was very short. Maybe 10-15 seconds. It’s all about learning the launch technique.

With the flight portion of the day finished, it was time to move on to supper. For the first time on this trip I decided to use my beloved alcohol stove. The result was another edible yet bland pasta dinner. Seriously, I don’t know how I do it. Maybe I’m the bland pasta whisperer. No, I don’t talk to the bland pasta.

Although, speaking of talking, while I waited for my bland pasta to cook it was fun listening to Dan tell some pretty incredible stories about the early days of hang gliding. Remarkable and very entertaining. Seriously, it’s incredible that anyone survived long enough to see hang gliding evolve into what it is today. I say thank you to them all!

My home for the night (and tomorrow night) will be the on-site bunkhouse. And by 8:00 I had said bunkhouse (and the rest of the Flight Park) to myself. I won’t lie, being left alone at the field was pretty nice. Unfortunately, it started to rain so I couldn’t sit outside to enjoy the night sky. On the upside, I did get to enjoy the fireflies that were flying around the field. I tried to get pictures of said fireflies but, well … my camera seem uninteresting in cooperating with such an endeavour. So, I just watched them for a while before retreating to the bunkhouse for the night.

Today’s totals:
Distance pedalled: 53.46 km
Ride time: 2:21:02
Average speed: 22.74 km/h
Maximum speed: 37.49
Training flights: 7