Scott Scale 29 Team

I recently got a new Mountain Bike… a Scott Scale 29 Team. It’s a pretty nice ride for the type of riding I do and the salesman from the place where I purchased the bike was telling me about places in the area to go riding. When he mentioned this place called “split rock quarry” in Camillus, I was psyched because I live in Camillus and it sounded like a great place to check out. The salesman said that there were “miles” of trails, not only in the quarry proper but in the surrounding woods too.

Today I ventured up Kasson Road and located the trailhead to the quarry. I did not see any “No Trespassing” signs so it appeared I was good to go. Just in case you’re curious as to where exactly the quarry is, here is a map showing the location.

View Larger Map

It’s quite mind-boggling how large an area this quarry covers. I mean it’s surrounded by residential area, but when you’re in the quarry, it’s like you’re on another planet. It’s huge and wooded and, well, a little crazy. It wasn’t until I got home and talked to a neighbor of mine that I learned about the history of Split Rock Quarry.

In the early 1900′s it was your basic quarry. But during World War I they started producing TNT there. Ultimately there was a huge explosion where 50 men were killed, and many more injured. Some of the corpses were never identified and were buried in a common grave (which is not on the quarry site.) Ever since, there have been reports of ghosts and paranormal activity there. Creepy if you believe in that sort of thing.

I do plan on returning to Split Rock Quarry in the near future only this time I’ll be hiking in with my camera and hope to get some great shots of the stone crusher and tunnels. Check back to this blog to see those.

Here are a few links that discuss Split Rock Quarry in more detail

• NY Ski Blog
• Paranormal & Ghost Society: discusses the paranormal aspect of the quarry.
• Wikipedia article on Split Rock Quarry
• The Rock Crusher MySpace page: some great photos and the “Blurbs” section has an excellent historical summary of the quarry and the events that transpired that fateful night.
• YouTube video with some great photos of the Rock Crusher and tunnels

I was excited to be in my first bike race this morning. Officially called the Race4Hope, it was the second annual race to benefit cancer research and is a held in memoriam for Dick Shaffer.

It was a beautiful day for the race; mostly clear skies and just a slight breeze, temperature probably in the mid-50′s. I’m not sure how many participants there were just yet as I have not received the official race results, but I estimate there were in excess of 125 riders. I’ll update my blog with the exact numbers once the results are released.

I was pretty happy with my ride… my time was 1:19:57 for the 23.42mi distance. That translates to an Average Speed of 17.6mph, and a 3:24/mi pace. I even had a small cheering section at the finish line…Linda was there to document the finish and here are the photos she took.

The air that is. My bike ride today was a long one. I rode from my house to Skaneateles, around the Lake and back home. From Skaneateles to almost Borodino, the air was just sweet as could be because of all the Lilacs and other assorted blossoms and flowers (lots of tulips). Another perfect day of weather: the sky was blue and cloudless and the temp was just right. There was a persistent breeze that I had to head into for about a quarter of the ride, but all was good. This is one of my favorite “long” rides. For me, any ride over 30 miles is a long ride so by that standard, maybe this is better catagorized as a really long ride clocking in at just a hair over 60 miles.

I could have sworn (whoops, pastor wouldn’t like that) that I heard the weather guy say it was going to rain today. It actually turned out to be beautiful with a mild breeze but some nice breaks of sun on an otherwise semi-cloudyish day. The temperature was just right for biking so after I got my work out of the way (funny how easy it is to get work out of the way when a bike ride is called for) I hopped on the bike and headed for what is turning out to be one of my favorite routes. I like this route because for the most part the roads are in good shape and with light vehicular traffic. And this route has some challenging, shorter climbs. Give the route a whirl one of these days…see if you like it.