November 10, 2020 - New Paltz, NY, to New York, NY

Start: New Paltz, NY
End: New York, NY
Miles: 80.0
Feet climbing per mile: 60
Record of the day's ride: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/58912084

On the final day of this three-day trip I was up at 7:00 and not sure whether for my return home I would cross Bear Mountain Bridge and ride north to Garrison where I would catch a train to Manhattan, or continue south and cross the GW Bridge to catch a subway to my neighborhood. It would depend on how I felt riding with the saddle sore I had developed the previous day and how tired I was when I reached Bear Mountain Bridge. A further consideration was to be finished riding before sunset. The saddle sore felt no worse than it had before going to sleep, but I put a layer of cloth tape over the band-aid for extra protection. I was on my way at 8:00, slightly warmer than the day before at 49 degrees. I wore shorts along with a t-shirt, long-sleeve wool shirt, and windbreaker Again it was sunny and would stay that way all day.

The night before I had created a modified route from my motel to Leptondale which avoided going into New Paltz and shortened the distance to Leptondale by 2.5 miles. Previously I've created routes with RideWithGPS on my computer that I would then use on my phone, but this was the first time I've used the new route-creation feature on my phone. I was pleased that it was easy to use.

My new route was on beautiful roads with only light traffic and often a usable shoulder. Thirty minutes into my ride the temperature had risen to 52 so I removed my windbreaker. My saddle sore didn't bother me at all and fortunately would stay that way throughout the day. About an hour into my ride I saw some horses grazing. What majestic animals they are!

By 9:40 the temperature was up to 59 so I removed my long-sleeve shirt. About 10:00, roughly 24 miles into my ride, I stopped again at the Stewart's in New Windsor.

In contrast to most of my experience on 9W south of Bear Mountain Bridge, north of the bridge the drivers seem aggressive and as if they don't know how to share the road with cyclists, so I did not enjoy the mile I spent on 9W shortly after leaving Stewart's. Avoiding that section would have added a mile to my journey. Perhaps it would have been better to have ridden the extra mile.

Storm King Highway was as beautiful as it had been two days earlier, but this time there was no crowd of motorcyclists making noise and speeding. Shortly after Storm King Highway I stopped at West Point's Washington Gate. I had hoped to avoid three quarters of a mile on 9W by riding through the West Point campus, but the guard told me that during the COVID pandemic I needed a military ID to go through. He said that when things got back to normal I would be able to get a visitor's pass. I had ridden through the campus in 2016 and found the buildings beautiful as they all seemed to be made from stone taken from the mountain on which they stood.

After riding through Highland Falls I was again on 9W, this one-mile section being unavoidable by any means. For most of its length I rode the sidewalk. I considered taking Firefighters Memorial Drive which would let me avoid a half mile of 9W and add only a little to my distance, but changed my mind and decided to continue on 9W's sidewalk. Unfortunately I fell into the wall on my right as I was negotiating a dip in the walk. I scraped my right hand, arm, and shoulder, but not seriously. Looking ahead I could see that the sidewalk did not continue, so I rode back to Firefighters Memorial Drive.

The site of my crash into the wall (image from Google Street View)

After riding a half-mile section of 9W that included the challenging circle west of Bear Mountain Bridge, I stopped for my second rest of the day at Hessian Lake where I could see Bear Mounain. 

Hessian Lake and Bear Mountain

This place is significant to me for two reasons. The first was that I had ridden the challenging 4.5-mile climb up Bear Mountain several times, the most notable being when I participated in the 2016 Gran Fondo New York race with 5000 cyclists. The second was that I had stopped here on a ride in 2018 and decided that my 4,500-mile ride in 2019 would be a solo journey. Here's what I wrote about that in the blog post about the final day of that trip:

My first stop was at Hessian Lake, where I removed my shoes and socks and put my feet in the water. When I did that on a trip last summer, I wondered whether I would have suggested doing so if I had been riding with a partner, and wondered whether my partner would have agreed if I had made the suggestion. That’s when I knew that the journey I completed today would be a solo trip.

It was 12:30 as I was ready to leave Hessian Lake. There would be a little more than four hours of daylight to ride the 40 miles to Washington Heights. I felt fresh enough to complete a journey of 80 miles, so I decided to continue south rather than crossing Bear Mountain Bridge to catch a train in Garrison a few miles north.

A mile and a half after leaving Hessian Lake I came to Jones Point where there is a fairly challenging climb of a mile. Across the road I noticed the entrance to Jones Point Path which appeared to be paved, in contrast to how it had been in the past. At the entrance to the path someone hiking told me the entire path was indeed paved, so I opted to enjoy the flatter trail and its beautiful view of the Hudson.

Jones Point Path

As I rode the trail I sang and recorded a few lines of the song Jamais Vu by Étienne Alambics.

Back on 9W, there were a few more challenging climbs before my next and last rest stop. I'm always glad to see a sign that says to use a low gear, but I always do the opposite once I pass it.

For my final rest stop I had a brownie at the Runcible Spoon. How could I not?

It was almost 3:30 by the time I left the Runcible Spoon, and I still had 20 miles to ride. It started getting dark about 4:00 but the very wide shoulder on most of 9W kept me safe until there was no shoulder and I was able to take the sidewalk for a mile and a half. I've ridden this section many times during the day and have always taken the lane, but I was tired, the sun was setting, there was a lot of traffic, and the drivers seemed to be in a hurry to get home.

As I rode through Englewood Cliffs I saw many huge piles of leaves in blocking the shoulder, obviously intentionally put there by the residents. Is that legal? There were several piles much larger than the one shown below. By the way, due to the adjustment made by my camera, the photo makes it look as if it were still light out. I took the photo 15 minutes after sunset so in fact it was much darker.

The view from the GW Bridge is always spectacular, but this is the first time I've crossed it after dark.

I caught the subway at 125th Street at 5:15 and arrived home at 6:00 after a half-mile ride from the 34th Street station, having enjoyed an 80-mile ride through mostly beautiful roads in comfort despite my saddle sore. What an amazing three days it had been, riding through beautiful country a total of 227 miles and climbing 14,912 feet (66 feet per mile)!

Read about the second day of this trip here.