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Cambridge, NY - Farm Team Cycling and Cambridge Valley Cycling announce the 5th Annual Cambridge Valley Balloon Festival Classic Cycling Race on Saturday, June 7 in Cambridge, NY. Held in conjunction with the 8th Annual Cambridge Valley Balloon Festival, the race expects to draw racers from throughout the Northeast to compete on the scenic hills of the Battenkill & Cambridge Valleys of Southern Washington County. Races start & finish on Broad Street next to the
historic & newly-reopened Cambridge Hotel. Participants will race on laps over a 21 mile loop with Professional riders racing 4 laps & 84 miles. The course includes direct passes through Cambridge each lap, a difficult 3 mile climb to Center Cambridge, and the infamous O'Donnell Hill in the Town of Jackson. The race also includes a dirt road section of Stevenson Road in the Town of Cambridge which is reminiscent of April's Tour of the Battenkill which drew more than 1100 riders from throughout the USA.
Races for Juniors begin at 9 AM on Broad Street, Cambridge. Amateur & Professional races will follow. The Cambridge Kids Classic - short races for children under 10 - will be held at approximately 2 PM on Broad Street. Race & event information can be found at www.farmteamcycling.org. The race benefits Farm Team Cycling, a regional cycling team for ages 10-18.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BY THE TOUR OF THE BATTENKILL CYCLING RACE - April 19 - Salem, NY
www.tourofthebattenkill.com
February 4, 2008
Salem, NY - Organizers of the 2008 Tour of the Battenkill (tourofthebattenkill.com) are proud to announce that the total number of registrants for the 2008 race in Salem, NY has reached 1,000 with more than 10 weeks to go. Already the largest Pro/Am race on the East Coast in 2007, the race is now primed to approach 1500 racers by race day, April 19. Hosted by local Junior's cycling team Farm Team Cycling of Cambridge (farmteamcycling.org) in cooperation with the Towns & Villages of the Battenkill Valley (visitbattenkillvalley.com), the Tour of the Battenkill is in only it's 4th year, but drew from more than 25 States and Canada in 2007. Proceeds from the event will benefit Farm Team Cycling and the Public Libraries of Southern Washington County, NY.
The race organizers are also proud to announce sponsors for the 2008 event. Glens Falls National Bank has signed on as a major sponsor and will be providing commemorative wristbands for racers and spectators who will receive discounts from area businesses supporting the event.
"We're excited to take part in the race this year", said Glens Falls National Bank & Trust Company Regional Manager Rich Norman. "Cycling has become an important part of our community here and in the region, and with so many of our customers participating in the sport we felt it was a great opportunity to contribute to the success of the event."
Other major sponsors include Greenwich, NY real estate office, Reynolds Real Estate, Glens Falls Hospital (glensfallshospital.org), Trade Manage Capital (trademanagecapital.com), Cabot of Vermont (cabotcheese.com), Echappe Equipment (echappeonline.com), Hannaford Supermarkets (hannaford.com) and Whalen Chevrolet of Greenwich (whalenchevrolet.com). Many sponsorship spots are still available. Contact sponsors@battenkillroubaix.com for details.
The Salem Area Chamber of Commerce will be hosting a race expo at the finish line again this year and is currently accepting vendor applications. The event will be held at the White Presbyterian Church on West Broadway in Salem. Vendors will be outside (rain or shine), in the front church yard near the start/finish line. Vendor space is expected to be in high demand - please reserve your space soon. Several food vendors and cycling-related have already confirmed. Contact Jessica Corey of the Salem Chamber at 518-854-7971 or expo@battenkillroubaix.com for information.
The Tour of the Battenkill is a one-of-a-kind cycling event in the U.S.A. Originally fashioned after the early spring classic cycling races in Northern Europe such as the 100 year-old Paris-Roubaix, the race features rolling countryside, covered bridges, long stretches of unpaved roads, and direct passes through the villages and hamlets of Southern Washington County, NY including Salem, Cambridge, and Greenwich. Amateurs & professional women in 13 different classes & age groups will compete over a 55 mile route. Professional and elite amateur men will race over an extended 82 mile course. All races start and finish on West Broadway in Salem. Races begin at 9 AM on April 19.
Volunteers are needed for the safe and successful operation of the event. Please contact Volunteer Coordinator Christine Hoffer at 518-677-5741 or volunteers@battenkillroubaix.com if you are interested in taking part.
When Everett Bidwell stopped hanging his winter deer on the tree in front of his house, she could tell something was up. Roseanne Delacroix had lived across the street from Everett since she was eleven years old, and it was hard to remember a winter when, if Everett had a deer, it wasn’t hung out there for all the world to see.
Over the years, Roseanne had mentioned to Everett that she didn’t care if he had a deer or not. She didn’t care to have him aging it or chilling it or really just displaying it right out across the street from her front window. Everett simply said that was the best tree he had, and that was the end of it. Until this year.
This year, for whatever reason, Everett was behaving somewhat differently. Roseanne sometimes felt if she squinted a little, he also seemed to have stacked the wood next to his outdoor furnace just a little neater than he had in recent years.
And it was not that she was imagining these things. Since her husband Ray had been laid to rest by Ned MacWhirter’s logging skid three years earlier, Everett had been paying special attention. Once he had left a copy of the Fort Edward Reformer-Dispatch in her mailbox because it featured a picture of him with a twelve and one-half pound large- mouth bass that he caught in McDougal Lake.
Then there was the time he had slowed down on Kilburn Road to show her the new tires he had bought for his truck. And while they were fine new tires, Roseanne had to believe it was not the first time he had driven past her with new rubber. Roseanne believed that a woman knows these things, and she was the first to credit herself with such fundamental knowledge.
Now, Valentine’s day on McDougal Lake is not such a special day that the ice fishermen stay home, and it is certainly too early for the crocuses that begin to peek out in early April. But on that particular day, something happened that no one could remember happening before, in February at least, and it happened right after the blackberry muffins wound up in Everett’s mailbox.
There was Everett in his Sunday suit on a Thursday, with his hair all slicked down, stepping up the walk to Roseanne’s front door, carrying a small brightly wrapped package. Roseanne, who did not notice the package at first, just Everett, thought someone must have died and Everett was there to bring the news. Instead, Everett presented her with a box of fine chocolates he’d gotten from Steiningers in downtown Salem, and asked would she like to join him for dinner.
Well, Roseanne, who already had a soft spot for chocolates and was now developing one for Everett, thought that sounded like fine idea, even if it was only three o’clock in the afternoon. So they jumped in Everett’s truck, the one with the good rubber, and went off to the center of Cossayuna to have dinner at Quack-Ups.
They were able to get the table next to the stuffed mountain lion on the piano, and so Wanda Ferne was their waitress. As anyone could see, everything was clearly working in their favor, and from all reports, it was an afternoon to remember.
Ephraim Watson caught the first fish of the New Year at McDougal Lake, and it was a beauty! The fish was a thirty-two inch Northern Pike that Ephraim said he caught after only sitting there from six until maybe eight-thirty that morning. "That morning" was, of course, the first morning of the New Year, and Ephraim who traditionally does not stay out late on New Year's Eve, was pleased to be up and catching the first fish.
"Northern Pike aren't your great eating fish," he confided, "even one this big. But what they do is they eat up all the game fish in the lake until there's no good eating fish to be found anywhere at all." Ephraim also confided he would probably wind up eating this one nonetheless, as long as he could get his wife, Molly, to clean it.
Ephraim normally drills between seven and twelve holes in the ice "depending on how tricky the fish are that particular day. Some days you'll put a hole ten feet away from where you're catching nothing, and that'll be where all the fish are hanging out." He feels patience is a true virtue of ice-fishing, almost as much as sheer skill. " Of course, patience can be a skill all by itself."
It was not cold enough to warrant taking a shelter out on the Lake New Year's Day, and Ephriam was able to fit most everything he needed on a small sled. The ice wasn't quite thick enough, he said, to risk driving his truck out onto the lake, especially with his new Christmas plow. Several inches of new snow were predicted later in the day, and Ephraim did not want to miss out on that.
He packed up his sled and left the lake at noon, declaring it "a good day". After a quick stop at the general store in Cossayuna for a quart of beer, he went home to get his Northern Pike cleaned. It was time for an early supper.
There are only three houses on McDougal Lake, and only two of them are lit up for the Holiday Season.
There is a house roughly in between these two, but it is primarily a summer house, and its people have their Christmas in Boston. And then there are houses on the way to the lake, houses on McDougal Lake Road that are lit, but only in the most traditional sort of of way.
There are no blinking lights or styrofoam snowmen to be seen anywhere in the vicinity of the lake, and not that many multi-colored lights either. There are mostly white lights and blue, Christmas wreaths and red ribbons, and the occasional split-rail fence wrapped in pine branches woven around the posts.
Imagine, then our surprise as we drove home one cold night from a Christmas Eve service and saw, across the lake, our house, apparently flanked by an unknown dwelling blinking out Christmas joy from all of its windows. The light fairly bounced off the frozen lake.
"Good Lord," said my wife. "Can that be Rick up here in weather like this?"
"If it is," said I, "he's freezing his tookus, because that's a cold house in October."
Minutes later, we pulled off our long driveway, which branches over to Rick's house. Smoke was indeed billowing from the chimney. The house was dark, except for the white lights blinking in the picture windows, but I walked to the door nonetheless.
I knocked. "Rick?" I asked, not sure of the answer.
Immediately, the door was opened by a man dressed like a lumberjack. It was Rick.
"Merry Christmas!" he called out. "Come on in!"
I signaled to my wife in the car, and we walked into a house that was only marginally warmer than the outdoors. "Rick," my wife asked, "what in the world are you doing up here? Is Daphne here with you?"
"No," he said cheerfully, "it's just me. It looks like this is our last Christmas on the lake, so I thought I'd come up and see what it looks like to begin with. Never spent Christmas here before, and we're selling the house in the spring."
My wife and I tried to absorb both of these concepts at once, but could only look at him and wonder if he would survive the experience. "Don't worry about me," he said, reading our faces, "I'm dressed for it."
We stayed and talked and reminisced and told how much we's miss each other. We drank brandies by the fire until my wife and I were certain we were about to freeze solid.
We offered him one of our guest rooms, but he was determined to stay in his house by the lake for his Christmas. It was magic, he said, and the magic would keep him warm.
The magic did. We saw him briefly late Christmas day before he headed back to Boston, still dressed like a lumberjack. He took his lights home, but with him took none of the magic of that particular lake, that particular Christmas.
It was somehow magical all the more, simply to realize what it meant to someone who wouldn't ever have it again.
And so, at this time, we send greetings and deep wishes from all of us at this special place. We send them in hopes of fine Holidays for all of you and just possibly, the most magical of New Years.
It was mid November 2006 when a young man named James Talmadge chose putting on a Community Christmas Dinner as an Eagle Scout project. And, as the saying goes, the rest is history. The dinner was a tremendous success and talks started to make this an annual event.
This year's dinner will be sponsored by the Greenwich Boy Scout Troop 27 and the Middle Falls Fire Department on Sunday December 16th from 1:00 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Firehouse located on Rt. 29 in Middle Falls.
As with last year's dinner, there will be NO charge for anyone who would like to cone, eat and enjoy a wonderful turkey dinner with us. Reservations are not needed but are suggested. For a reservation or information please call Helen or Jobbie at 692-9311 or Jim at 692-2085.
We understand that some of you may be home bound and cannot come to the dinner. If you cannot come but would like to have a turkey dinner delivered to you, please call Jobie or Helen at 692-9311 by no later than Wednesday December 12th and we will deliver it to your house on Sunday. Local delivery only.
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