June 20, 2025 - Palenville, NY, to Cairo, NY, and return
Turnaround: Cairo, NY
End: Palenville, NY
Miles: 32.5
Feet climbing per mile: 56
Record of the day's ride: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/298440829
Through the night I had only minor leg cramps, so I think that drinking one water bottle (three quarters of a liter) with a half teaspoon of electrolyte every ten miles seems to be working.
I had originally planned to ride a loop of almost 48 miles, but as I started my ride I thought I might instead turn around before completing half the loop in order to shorten the day's ride. One of my concerns was that I had learned from Andy Scherer that a five-mile stretch near the end of the loop had no shoulder and plenty of traffic. Although the fast descent through that section would be a help, I wasn't sure that I wanted to deal with it.
Much of this day's ride was on roads similar to Paul Saxe Road shown below.
At mile 10.5 I stopped at a Dollar General to enjoy a Monster. I first discovered this drink last August when I was riding through Montana and Monster replaced Mountain Dew as my favorite beverage (other than water with electrolyte) while biking. Since completing my cross-country trip last October I've had several cans of Monster in Manhattan, but they've never been as satisfying as when I've been on bike trips. I wonder whether that's because Monster gives me something I need when riding that I don't need when not riding. The Monster I had this day was satisfying.
For later consumption I also bought a bar of Dollar General's dark chocolate which, as always, cost just $1.50! On my cross-country trip last summer I bought many of these bars from the Dollar General stores I encountered
I could not get the attention of the horse I saw at mile 16.3, despite my neighing, which you can hear in the video. This is where I decided to turn back rather than completing the loop.
At mile 20.7 I stopped at the Cozy Cup Deli to have a sandwich and refill my water bottles.
Late in the ride I realized this was the first time I had noticed any mountains.
How do you think those stairs happened to tilt like that?
When I saw mountains again I thought I ought to include a video of them, and wondered why I hadn't been seeing them often.
The picture below shows part of Story Farms which I passed near the end of my ride.
I stopped at the Story Farms stand just before arriving back at my hotel. There I bought a pint of ice cream and a pint of strawberries. I ate the strawberries upon returning to my room but saved the ice cream for dessert.
I was glad I rode just 33 miles rather than the 48 I had originally planned. Doing so I avoided a lot of climbing as well as 15 miles of distance. This day was cooler and less humid than the previous day, which I'm sure helped me to complete the ride without feeling wiped out. After a shower I enjoyed a lap in the pool.
For dinner I walked a mile to Candelight 2. Like the Rip Van Winkle Brewing Company the night before, Candelight 2 was noisy inside. The recorded music was loud, and the few people sitting around the bar, some of them probably drunk, were talking loudly. So again I ate outside. The irony is that a few days before starting this trip I had posted the following on Facebook:
Before going to sleep I modified my next day's route to Poughkeepsie in order to avoid the treacherous Sawkill Road that I had taken the first day of this trip.
Previous day:
June 19, 2025 - Poughkeepsie, NY, to Palenville, NY
Next day: June 21, 2025 - Palenville, NY, to Poughkeepsie, NY
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