More Coming Soon

Here is a link to our first few cue sheets.

5 Lakes and Steak 50 miles: pdf  xls  Topographical Profile: pdf gif
Ride Description:

        This route is the half-century alternative to our annual Five Lakes and a Steak Century held usually the last but sometimes the second to last Sunday in September. You only get one lake on the half century, Seneca, but it's a biggy and if you look frequently enough, you might get five views of it. To actually get five lakes, you've got to do the full century.

        The ride starts with a long but not overly steep climb out of Watkins Glen. After that there's a nice long downhill, then a bit more climbing here and there and downhill into Dundee, which has a very nice diner. From Dundee a lovely, gently climbing ride up Chubb Hollow takes you north into Amish country nearly to the Keuka outlet; then a short eastward leg takes you to Hazard-Norris and south for the return. In keeping with the Big Horn Velo route design philosophy, this ride is mostly on smaller, less travelled roads, with short connections on major highways only as necessary

5 Lakes and Steak 100 miles: pdf xls Topographical Profile: pdf gif
Ride Description:

     The Five Lakes Century is a refinement of a route originally developed by Kingsbury's Cyclery way back in the twentieth century for its annual September Five Lakes and a Steak Century. The original route started in Watkins Glen, made its way over to Keuka Lake past Waneta and Lamoka Lakes, circled over the north end of Seneca Lake, just touched the western shore of Cayuga Lake, and then headed back toward Watkins Glen via Interlaken.

     Over the years Paul Kinsgsbury and Terrie Kinsgsbury continued to refine the route, dropping the Cayuga leg in favor of more a more scenic routing along the western edge of Lamoka Lake and Bradford Pond (drafted as a replacement for Cayuga), up Birdseye Hollow, and along the highlands on the western side of Keuka Lake. Further modifications by Blaine Chamberlain and Bill Lodico brought the route to its current form. We think it's a gem.

     The ride starts with the usual long climb out of Watkins Glen. Remember that there's a lot of riding left once you get to the top, so save some glycogen and take your time getting there. After that, the climbing is pretty gentle at least by Big Horn Velo standards, unless you opt for the hilly option out of Hammondsport, which provides some nice views of Keuka Lake. The flatter option along Keuka Lake is very nice also, but is not recommended on weekends during the height of the Lake Season (Memorial Day through Labor Day) because of heavy traffic.

     Diner stops in Weston, Hammondsport, and Branchport. And if you ride it the with the Big Horn Velo crowd during our annual Five Lakes and a Steak Century/Half-century in late September, there's a tailgate and then dinner (with steak if you wish) in Watkins Glen at the finish.

Submit your favorite routes

The xls file is provided for the Five Lakes and a Steak 50. Please feel free to use it as a template for putting together your own favorites. We would like to keep the cue sheets in a standard format.

        For turning instructions, etc, it helps immensely if you can note per the key whether there is a stopsign (SS), T intersection, traffic light (TL), etc, as well as give the names of the roads at the intersection.

        Note if your mileages are rough estimates. If they are estimates or even absent, that's no problem. We'll check them and insert correct mileages. It would be helpful if you could add a little comment describing the route and telling us why you like it

Please email your favorite routes so we can get cue sheets made. I am able to convert pretty much any format to the format above, so again if you have a favorite route send it on over. So email them to me please 

Thanks, Shawn