Day 4 - Hudson Valley

Saturday - July 30
There are three of us riding now - me, Michael, and Dan Dunmire doing his second day with us.

By the way, you can check out the blog of my friend and riding partner Michael here.  Note in particular his collection of pictures from day 3 and day 4.

We tanked up at the breakfast bar in the lobby of the Inn on the Hudson before setting out for the day's ride.  I think my body has recognized the amount of calories that I'm burning because I felt like pigging out (and I did).  We had to start the day by climbing out of Peekskill away from the river - more significant climbing than we had done on previous days of the ride.  We're now in territory that I haven't explored before so I had doubts about the rideability of some sections.  The road immediately north of Peekskill(Albany Post Rd) did not feel like a great road  bicycles but we were not on it for too long.  We split off toward the river on Cat Rock Road - a very pretty, shaded road which began with a climb but rewarded us with a long downhill to 9D. 

Morning view of Hudson from hotel

We followed 9D for the next 15 miles or so.  It's a very scenic road and I believe it's popular with local cyclists.  At this point we're following the route of a day ride that I found posted at the Bike Hudson Valley site.  9D hugs the river for stretches and bends inland (or the river bends away) at times.  It gave us a great view of West Point from the Indian Brook bridge and spectacular views from the town of Cold Spring.  It took us through a short tunnel at Breakneck Ridge, where we passed hikers who were about to start a climb. 

West Point across the river

The view from Michael's camera

We stopped for a coffee break in the city of Beacon.  Main Street in Beacon has a mix of businesses that seems common in many small northeastern cities.  In addition to the basic markets and hardware stores that may have been there forever, you'll find a few trendy coffee shops and gift shops and numerous restaurants and stores that exist for and are run by the local hispanic immigrant community. (I sometimes wonder what these downtowns would look like without a large immigrant community - I'm guessings lots of empty storefronts ) We went for a trendy coffee shop.

A little bit north of Beacon, we left 9D at Castle Point for roads that went close to the river edge.  We passed through a mix of neighborhoods - established, moderately old houses, new developments, and then some very old houses as we started swinging back to 9D.  We had a short but very steep climb as we left the river's edge.

Back on 9D, we took a break at a park in Wappinger's Falls.  As we neared the end of 9D on our approach to Poughkeepsie, we avoided riding along the very busy Route 9 by taking a curious route (recommended by both Google Maps and the local cycling route maps) on the perimeter road of a shopping mall.  That brought us into a suburban neighborhood just south of the IBM facilities in Poughkeepsie.  The 1960/1970 vintage houses made me think that this must have been a neighborhood built for and inhabited by IBM workers once upon a time.  We passed Vassar College(my daughter Juliana's alma mater) as we entered Poughkeepsie and stopped near the campus for lunch at a Middle Eastern restaurant.

After lunch, we crossed the Walkway Over the Hudson.  We stopped midspan and hung out for a while.  I've been on the Walkway once before.  I really love the level of use that it gets.  This was a Saturday afternoon and there was a tremendous mix of people out on the Walkway - some cycling, mostly walking.  The bridge is wide enough to comfortably accommodate the mix.  There was a steady brisk wind blowing downriver.  It felt good in the middle of a hot day.

Michael snoozing on the Walkway

The last time I crossed the Walkway, one had to leave the bicycle path on the west side of the river, descend to street level, cross 9W and climb back to another section of the path a mile or so from the river.  The bicycle path is now complete to the Walkway so were able to continue straight for several miles to the end of the path in a park in the town of Lloyd.  From there we only had a few miles to ride into New Paltz. 

After a stop for cold drinks and ice cream(good idea, Michael!), we rode past the historic stone houses on Huguenot Street and picked up the Walkill Rail Trail.  When I laid out our route along this trail, I didn''t realize that it changes from pavement to dirt just north of New Paltz.  This was not ideal (particularly for Dan's skinny road tires) but we stuck with it for the 8 miles to Rosendale and the condition was pretty good the whole way.  It was scenic and shady(a very important factor) the whole way. 

At Rosendale, we needed to get on a main road(NY 213) for a bit before getting onto side roads.  The remaining 7 miles were all on quiet, scenic, and shady roads.  Berme Road got the highest marks (9.5 out of 10 according to Dan) for minimal hills, beautiful views, and almost complete absence of cars.  Our destination was the home of my friends Bob and Aileen in Accord.  The last stretch was on Towpath Road.  With images of a canal towpath in mind, we anticipated 3 or 4 miles of easy flat riding at the end of the day but Towpath caught us by surprise.  It started with a significant climb that took us past a very tempting swimming hole before ending with a long descent to Accord. 

We rolled up to Bob and Aileen's house at around 6.  Bob was out in the yard barbecuing chicken.  There was some corn to be shucked, some salad out on the table, and all the ice cold spring water we could drink.  We feasted like kings.  We were all kept entertained by Bob and Aileen's incredibly personable 5 year old son Jose.  Visiting friends and family along the way adds such a wonderful dimension to this trip.

Bob, Aileen, and Jose  

Hangin' with the Wurtzel boys in Accord 

Day 4 definitely was the most challenging riding day so far but it was also hugely satisfying.

I clocked 70 miles for the day. 

We're 279 miles into our trip.