November 8, 2020 - New York, NY, to New Paltz, NY

Start: New York, NY
End: New Paltz, NY
Miles: 83.7
Feet climbing per mile: 68
Record of the day's ride: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/58818609

This was the first day of a three-day trip. With a forecast of unusually warm weather for this time of year, I knew that this might be my last such opportunity until the spring. I would either take a train to Garrison from which I would ride south to cross Bear Mountain Bridge and then north to New Paltz (a 46-mile ride), or take a subway to 125th Street from which I would ride across the GW Bridge and then north to New Paltz (an 80-mile ride). I also considered riding from home to the GW Bridge, but decided 90 miles would be too long, especially because of the early sunset.

I was up at 7:00 and out the door at 7:40, wearing shorts and a t-shirt because the temperature was in the low 50s and expected to rise into the 70s. I decided that 46 miles was not enough distance for the day, so I rode a mile to catch the subway at 34th Street rather than to Grand Central to catch a train to Garrison. A long wait for the A train delayed my arrival at 125th Street until 8:45. After crossing the GW Bridge I headed north on Henry Hudson Drive, much of which was covered in leaves which, while beautiful, meant I had to take it easy with my speed.

Henry Hudson Drive

Riding from the GW Bridge to Bear Mountain Bridge brought back many memories of this route. The earliest was of my 55-mile ride in 2016 to West Point. That ride was my first multi-day trip in more than 40 years and took me eleven hours to complete. Another memory was of my participation in the 2018 Gran Fondo New York race involving 5000 cyclists. I've also ridden some portions of the route to Bear Mountain Bridge many times, sometimes turning around in Alpine at the end of Henry Hudson Drive, other times stopping in Nyack at the Runcible Spoon for a brownie before returning home. Of course on this trip I stopped to have a brownie.

My brownie at the Runcible Spoon

In order to avoid five miles of nasty traffic, at mile 28.6 I left 9W and rode through Haverstraw and Grassy Point. As I saw a beach on the river, I had the thought that I would not swim on this trip even if my motel had a pool. During the summer, but not the fall, I find swimming is a great treat at the end of a long ride, so I had not packed the lycra underwear I use for swimming when on bike trips. That's how I realized I hadn't brought any underwear. For my next trip I will prepare a checklist.

Four hours into my ride I stopped at the circle west of Bear Mountain Bridge to take a picture of the bridge and have a short rest, but I took a more spectacular picture (the one below) looking south from just north of the bridge. I wonder whether it's possible to ride over the Popolopen Suspension Bridge, seen in the foreground of the picture.

Popolopen Suspension Bridge in the foreground
Bear Mountain Bridge and Anthony's Nose in the distance

I soon came to Storm King Highway, a beautiful road winding close to the Hudson River with both climbs and descents. Unfortunately the beauty was disturbed but the noisy engines of many motorcyclists traveling substantially over the speed limit. I had ridden Storm King Highway only once before because I thought that its climbs were much steeper than they actually are.

Looking north up Storm King Highway (taken September 14, 2020)

Looking east from Storm King Highway

As I rode through New Windsor almost six hours into my journey, I saw a Stewart's convenience store. On a previous trip I had stopped at a Stewart's and enjoyed a Mountain Dew, so I was optimistic that that this Stewart's would also be able to satisfy my desire. For this trip I brought chocolate-covered almonds on which to snack throughout the day. You might be able to see the residue of some of the chocolate in the picture below.

With my favorite biking beverage

Shortly after leaving Stewart's I experienced painful cramps in both of my legs. They seemed different from cramps I had in the past, in that sometimes they would involve just a thin portion of my quadriceps. Fortunately the cramps passed fairly soon.

Sunset would occur at 4:45, and by 4:00, due to the trees covering the sun, it was already starting to get dark. Fortunately the traffic was light and the roads were excellent (I have bright lights, both front and rear). By the time I reached New Paltz it was completely dark. I was glad to be able to ride a sidewalk for much of the two miles to the Econo Lodge outside of town. I arrived at 5:20.

After a shower, shave, and change of clothes I walked a half mile to Órale Mexico where I ate black bean soup, enchiladas, and fried plantains. During dinner I experienced cramps in my right hand, and decided to buy some magnesium in the morning.

A few days before starting this trip I changed my cassette from 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 23, 28 to 12, 15, 17, 19, 21, 24, 28. The smaller percentage differences among the larger cogs provided much smother shifting, and the larger difference between the 12 and 15 cogs than between the 12 and 14 cogs was no problem at all.

I had also discovered that the shell of my saddle was cracked on one side, and when I removed the saddle to repair it I discovered that the base of the seat post clamp had developed a crack. (To see pictures documenting the repair of the saddle go to this post on my Facebook page.) I bought and installed another clamp which raised the saddle by about 3/16 of an inch. My seat post is stuck so I could not lower it to compensate for the extra height from the clamp. I was concerned that the extra height might be a problem, and I moved the saddle slightly forward to compensate for the backward shift caused by the extra height. I was pleased that the repair of the crack in the saddle worked ok and the extra height did not seem to be a problem.

After dinner I watched the continuing election news on both CNN and Fox News and fell asleep about 11:00 (or was it 12:00?), looking forward to tomorrow's ride to and from the Ashokan Reservoir.

Read about the second day of this trip here.