Finger-Lakes

This month our vaunted Triple-A magazine, “Going Places,” has a feature on New York’s Finger-Lakes area.
The Finger-Lakes is our area, although we live on the northwest edge. The nearest Finger Lake is Honeoye, or maybe tiny Canadice, at about 12 miles. Canandaigua Lake is 15 miles away.
The Finger-Lakes area is a tourist destination, although “Going Places” writes it up as wine-country.
It is; the whole area is awash in wineries, many recent. Hillsides are covered with vineyards.
But the area is also scenic, although not like the Rockies. The Finger-Lakes, or rather the sharp defiles they are in, were carved by the most recent ice-age glacier as it receded north.
Although we all know it was Satan that did that; another scurrilous plot to make us question the biblical creation account. Them drumlins are a Satanic plot too.
There are eleven Finger-Lakes: Otisco, Skaneateles, Owasco, Cayuga, Seneca, Keuka, Canandaigua, Honeoye, Canadice, Hemlock and Conesus. All run north-to-south, as if a giant hand left its imprint on the topography.
Seneca and Cayuga are quite large, Skaneateles, Owasco and Canandaigua fairly large, and the others small. Keuka is a wye.
Supposedly the Finger-Lakes temper the surrounding microclimates so that vineyards can flourish.
What I always liked was the scenery.
Naples, at the south end of Canandaigua Lake, is down in the defile, which means you descend the pretty hillsides into it.
It’s nice country for a bicycle or motorbike ride.
I can still remember riding my Norton in the Finger-Lakes.