August 23, Friday
55.8 miles: Hyde Park to New City, NY
Up at 5:30 again. The
rain has stopped and it is fairly nice out but everything is very wet. I leave a bit after 7 with George and Albert
who are very fast riders and I hop in their train to get to the Walkway Over
the Hudson at 7:30 to meet Cathy and Karen.
In crossing the bridge between 7:30 and 8:30 we see two NB CSX on the Riverline.
I ride with Stan Baker after the bridge as we stay on 9W all the way to Congers / New City. We stop at a Dunkin Donuts in Newburg (27 miles, 10 AM) and I have the usual. Then begins the huge climb over Storm King Mountain.
This is a grinding 3 mile climb and we meet up with Peter and Elly. After the equally long descent (40 mph) we go by West Point and stop at a bagel/deli in Fort Montgomery (mile 37 and noon) and I get a hot pastrami and Swiss cheese on a fresh onion bagel which easily trumped the PB&J I was carrying on the bike. We go past the Bear Mt Bridge
and we climb up
Bear Mt which is quite another climb although not as long or high as Storm
King but still offers a nice view of the Hudson Valley
We make it into camp by a lake in Congers at 2:10 after nearly 56 miles. It is another city park that doesn't have camping facilities but it does have pool and cold showers (3) and will let us stay the night. The bath house and its bathrooms are open during the day when the pool is open but closed at night and won’t reopen until 9 tomorrow. So there is one bathroom that is open overnight and for 140 of us in the morning. We’ll see how well that works out. I get the tent set up and dried, the kitchen truck serves little pizzas on English muffins and some left over egg rolls. I shower and get a good wifi connection to upload some pictures to the blog, but after an hour I get kicked off for some reason, loose a bunch of my work and cannot reconnect. It has been very frustrating and time consuming these weeks having such infrequent, limited, and problematic access to wifi on this trip when I am trying to keep a blog.
In crossing the bridge between 7:30 and 8:30 we see two NB CSX on the Riverline.
I ride with Stan Baker after the bridge as we stay on 9W all the way to Congers / New City. We stop at a Dunkin Donuts in Newburg (27 miles, 10 AM) and I have the usual. Then begins the huge climb over Storm King Mountain.
This is a grinding 3 mile climb and we meet up with Peter and Elly. After the equally long descent (40 mph) we go by West Point and stop at a bagel/deli in Fort Montgomery (mile 37 and noon) and I get a hot pastrami and Swiss cheese on a fresh onion bagel which easily trumped the PB&J I was carrying on the bike. We go past the Bear Mt Bridge
We make it into camp by a lake in Congers at 2:10 after nearly 56 miles. It is another city park that doesn't have camping facilities but it does have pool and cold showers (3) and will let us stay the night. The bath house and its bathrooms are open during the day when the pool is open but closed at night and won’t reopen until 9 tomorrow. So there is one bathroom that is open overnight and for 140 of us in the morning. We’ll see how well that works out. I get the tent set up and dried, the kitchen truck serves little pizzas on English muffins and some left over egg rolls. I shower and get a good wifi connection to upload some pictures to the blog, but after an hour I get kicked off for some reason, loose a bunch of my work and cannot reconnect. It has been very frustrating and time consuming these weeks having such infrequent, limited, and problematic access to wifi on this trip when I am trying to keep a blog.
The park is across the lake from the CSX Riverline and there
are a nice number of CSX freights that please the campers greatly.
Grilled chicken for dinner. Rod and Karen and Cathy arrive at 7 and they stay for the last peloton before leaving at 8:45 to go get something to eat and drive back home. Asleep by 9;30.
Grilled chicken for dinner. Rod and Karen and Cathy arrive at 7 and they stay for the last peloton before leaving at 8:45 to go get something to eat and drive back home. Asleep by 9;30.
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