This weekend Kamal and Dipika were kind enough to host me for the weekend so I could take a bike ride a little farther up the Hudson river valley than I would normally be able to reach from the west village. I ended up taking my aluminum steed up to Bear Mountain State Park, and rode to the top of the mountain. While the entire ride was gorgeous, skirting the Hudson the entire way, the mountain was by far the best part. The view from the top is spectacular! Getting up the top was pretty hard though. It's been a long time since I've ridden up a hill that takes longer than about 2 or 3 minutes to get up. Getting to the top of Bear Mountain took me about 20 minutes. It was brutal. I might have to get a new cassette/small chainring before I embark on my adventure this summer; I was consistently near the low limit of my gearing. Either that or I'll just have to go harder. Huffing, puffing, dripping with sweat (the first time this season that the weather has been warm enough to really get my sweat on!), I contemplated turning back and heading home a couple of times. I guess I'll have to wreck some hills this week to get in better hill climbing shape.
Riding through some of the villages along highway 9 gave me a sense of deja vù. It felt like I was riding along the St. Croix river valley, passing through towns like Stillwater. Each town had cute little shops and expensive brunch restaurants. I occasionally deviated from highway 9 to go check out the view on the river, but this entailed going up and down some steep hills. On my way back I was a little less willing to do this, as I had more than 50 miles under my belt... The Hudson is wide, but not lazy like Huck Finn's Mississippi. The western banks of the river have some very steep looking wooded hills. At more than a few points these hills turn into sheer cliffs. I can't wait for leaves to start coming out so I can see these scenes in their full glory.
Biking back today I discovered a cool dirt trail through Van Cortland Park in the Bronx. I've been looking for some fun gravel/dirt trails in the area, but I've yet to find anything that's not either a little too technical for me (Blue Mountain Reservation) or too far away/too annoying to get to (Cunningham in Queens). After a little research online, I discovered that all the trails in Van Cortland Park are also bike paths! I'll have to hit that up again later this week.
Pano of the view a little way down from the top of Bear Mountain
That's Manhattan in the distance! It must be about 50 miles away!
Another shot from the top of Bear Mountain
Riding through some of the villages along highway 9 gave me a sense of deja vù. It felt like I was riding along the St. Croix river valley, passing through towns like Stillwater. Each town had cute little shops and expensive brunch restaurants. I occasionally deviated from highway 9 to go check out the view on the river, but this entailed going up and down some steep hills. On my way back I was a little less willing to do this, as I had more than 50 miles under my belt... The Hudson is wide, but not lazy like Huck Finn's Mississippi. The western banks of the river have some very steep looking wooded hills. At more than a few points these hills turn into sheer cliffs. I can't wait for leaves to start coming out so I can see these scenes in their full glory.
A shot of the western shore of the Hudson
Biking back today I discovered a cool dirt trail through Van Cortland Park in the Bronx. I've been looking for some fun gravel/dirt trails in the area, but I've yet to find anything that's not either a little too technical for me (Blue Mountain Reservation) or too far away/too annoying to get to (Cunningham in Queens). After a little research online, I discovered that all the trails in Van Cortland Park are also bike paths! I'll have to hit that up again later this week.
No comments:
Post a Comment