Well, actually it is not. But we feel that it could be.
We have been taking our bikes to different locations to ride. Recently, we have ridden in Nova Scotia, southern Vermont, and Ontario. Those are great places to ride. Still, when we get back from those trips and resume our riding in these parts, we always exclaim that Cooperstown could be a great cycling destination.
The rides that we take daily are amazing. The rolling landscape is incredibly beautiful. We ride past working farms. The villages are historically wonderful. There are lakes to ride past. You can put together rides that combine gravel and paved road surfaces. The seasonally maintained roads are great fun, and provide unique riding experiences. There are routes thru state forests, and many have equestrian trails that you can take a loop thru.
Another plus is the reduced traffic in these parts. Sure, sometimes, on back roads, you think, how can there be this many cars? But on the whole, and compared with the other destinations that we mentioned, we feel that the traffic quantity is less. And when you get on the back gravel roads, one car might pass you on a segment.
Anyplace that we ride typically has a brewery or two. So another amazing thing about this area is that, within say a 10 mile radius from Cooperstown, we have 6 breweries that we know of. At the top of our list is the Willow Creek Farm Brewery, on Bliss Gulf Road. There is also High Burl, Cooperstown Brewery, Council Rock, Red Shed, and Ommegang, which we designed!
So how do the rides around here work, and how could they be structured for visitors? The quick answer is, a million different ways. If you want to think about it in terms of valleys, there is, from east to west, the Elk Creek valley, Middlefield, Cooperstown, and the Hartwick valley. Then, there are the multitude of roads connecting the valleys, some of them paved, many of them gravel. We are still finding new roads, mainly gravel, to ride on. And we recently were taken on a great road ride using Edmeston as a backdrop.
Of course, there remains the iconic Cranks from Cooperstown by Dennis Savoie. That pioneering work is still referred to by riders. Now, over 30 years later, we have bikes that easily combine road surfaces: paved, gravel, trails, etc. This adds another dimension, all of which makes cycling around here even more compelling.
Other perks to cycling include the Baseball Hall of Fame and the Fenimore Art Museum. We rode our bikes this summer to a performance at the Glimmerglass Festival. The absolutely great Woodland Cycles, in Milford, helps visitors with any bike needs they may have. Most of the towns and hamlets have a store where you can get water, snacks, etc. We have the lake. If you want to camp, there is Glimmerglass State Park. This list of amenities is endless.
So, if you put all of that together, and offered this as a cycling destination, we would gladly drive say 4 hours, stay two nights in an air B&B, eat in local restaurants, shop on Main Street, etc., for the wonderful riding experiences that you get around here.
Now, if you’ve somehow gotten this far through this screed, you might ask, ok, so? It seems to us that there should be a website which summarizes this. When we go to ride in different locations, we are always looking for information on the web that shows routes, terrain, riding surfaces, and all of the amenities that go with a great cycling destination. So far, we have found a start to this on the web:
–This Is Cooperstown:
–Bikemap
–Otsego County
How this might be put together and expanded, or if this direction even makes any sense, is certainly beyond the scope of this very, very schematic meditation.
Still, it seems to us that Cooperstown is (or could be) a great cycling destination.
