"I want to encourage you to bring your bike to NY. When you see those rolling hills and back roads you will be sad not to have it." So said my wife in an IM a week before our trip to upstate New York for her college reunion. She included a link to the Dutchess County tourism bike page: https://dutchesstourism.com/listings/biking
I took a quick peek at that page, the forecast, and agreed; the bike was coming with us.
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| The bucolic roads of Dutchess County |
We were staying at a lovely inn in Pine Plains and I wanted to check out the Harlem Valley Rail Trail. Now, when you're in one place, and the place you're riding to is named "valley" you generally have to go over some hills (maybe mountains) to get down into the valley. And, as it turns out, this was very true in this case.
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| Uh, am I going the right way (as it turned out, no, I had to double back and take that right turn)? |
The roads were beautiful and quiet. I was only passed by a handful of cars. Shout out to the upstate NY drivers. Almost as rule they give you at least half a lane to safely pass. Throughout the day a closer pass was almost always done by a car with non-NY plates. I also saw a number of other (maybe more serious looking) road cyclists. From time to time I had to stop to consult my phone and make sure I was on the correct route. When I got to McGhee Hill Road a local cyclist saw me make the turn up it & said "that's a serious climb".
Yeah, truth in advertising. McGhee Hill Road was a long very steep climb. I've been dropping my extra pandemic pounds this year, but I'm not back to my BeforeTimes weight just yet. And damn, I felt it. The pitch of the climb increased until finally I'd had it. I dismounted and started walking. I haven't had to walk up a climb in I don't know how many years. More than 20. Sheesh. Yeah, I haven't done my winter leg training in the gym since the pandemic started too. Well, what can you do?
I was sweating buckets just walking up the hill.
Finally, I got to a spot where I thought it went from outrageously steep to normal steep and got back up on the bike. It was a good call because, holy crap, the hill just kept on going up. I passed a guy doing yard work and said "that's a heck of a hill you live on" and he assured me the worst was behind me. Whew!
I got to the top of the climb and started the very long descent. Like I mentioned, I was thoroughly sweat soaked. It was a long descent. Despite it being 87F (30C) and sunny, I started getting chilled as the sweat rapidly evaporated. If I'd had my cycling vest with me, I would have put it on and zipped it up. It was all worth it. The scenery had just been spectacular so far. Another cyclist zipped past me on the decent. Not knowing what was ahead on the somewhat twisty roads, I had to feather my brakes a bit.
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| Am I going the right way? |
Finally, I got to the rail trail. It had only been about 11 miles, but wow, I felt those hills in my legs. I had just about finished one bottle of water and started thinking about stopping for more water and maybe some coffee. I rode south on the bike path to the end in Wassaic, but didn't see any stores adjacent to the path. Other cyclists didn't know of anything close by. So, I doubled back and rode north.
All along much of the bike path caterpillars were dropping from the trees on their silk. It was pretty damn gross. In a more interesting animal encounter I was almost hit by two deer crossing the bike path. One went in front of me, the other made a quick turn and went behind me.
I talked to another cyclist who said my best bet for a coffee would be in Millerton, a few miles up the path. Sure enough I got there and it was a town of some size. I rode up the hill and found "Irving Farm Coffee". The kitchen was closed, so I couldn't get the egg sandwich, but I had good scone and an excellent cold brew coffee. They also had a water dispenser, so I was able to fill my water bottles. While I sat outside eating my scone & coffee I had a nice conversation with another cyclist I had leapfrogged a couple times. Her daughter was getting married in Boston in June. Then it turned out the guy on the bench next to me had lived just a few blocks from my home until recently.
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| Coffee break in Millerton |
Fully caffeinated I continued north on the path. The path up until this point had been very nice. There was a cool section where the original railroad had carved a path through some very rocky terrain, so you were biking through some high narrow rocks. North of Millerton though it became incredible. It went through some wetlands and the valley opened up so you could see the mountains on either side. It was spectacular. It made me want to bike forever.
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| Doesn't convey how neat this section was. |
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| There were purple phlox in bloom all over the place |
Unfortunately, it was getting kind of late in the day and I still had to ride back to Pine Plains. I stopped to check what the route would be, but my phone didn't have any signal. A group of four local cyclists stopped to help me, but in the end I just decided to ride back to where I initially joined the path and ride back from there. I knew my phone had connectivity most of the time from there, plus I had some rough written notes about that route -- even if it meant going back up that leg breaking climb.
As it turned out, Google routed my via route 199, which was a heck of a lot easier than McGhee Hill Road (I did have an atypical unpleasant interaction with a group of motorcyclists). So, I was able to get back to the inn, not negatively impact my family's dinner plans, and not be totally wasted from the day. It was a fantastic ride and I'm just sorry I didn't have more time to explore the roads around there.
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