Day 5- Kingston NY to Matamoras PA

We're in Pennsylvania! Hard to believe that we're almost home. As my friend Jerry explained to me while we were cycling a few days ago, being on this ride is like totally immersing yourself in summer for a week, with all of its attendant colors, rhthyms, wildflowers, sun, and of course heat ("drowning here in summer's cauldron" as XTC once sang about). Today we had a nice summer immersion day. It was as hot as yesterday, hitting 93 F, but luckily there was a steady light breeze blowing all day, mostly a headwind which was actually helpful. You really felt the full brunt of the heat when you stopped pedaling.

We cycled through the lovely town of Rosendale. We were making fast time so I missed a lot of great early morning photos (we left at 6:30 am again). We headed steadily south, and soon the breathtaking Shawangunk mountains came into plain view. For those of you who know Mohunk mountain, it's one of the "Gunks". The cycling was along rolling terrain and we made fast time, with plenty of lovely views.

 

The temperature was 87 F at 9 am! Thank goodness for the sag stops where the creative volunteers make us treats like peanut butter on top of everything, and fruit smoothies, and we eat food that we would normally never touch during ride week (e.g. Doritos and cheetos) since we crave salt and figure we're riding so fast that they won't be able to clog our arteries. And of course there are always ice cream stops!!

 

Shout out to Brooklyn! Whose colors are worn here proudly by our buddy Daryl. 70 miles logged for the day and we arrived in Port Jervis after a long steady climb and a hair-raising descent of 900 feet before crossing into Matamoras PA to our hotels. Tonight was banquet night, where we celebrated all the fantastic volunteers, riders, and ataff of Anchor House and learned that we had raised $485,000 to date. Keep those contributions coming as we try to surpass $500,000. Tomorrow we travel through three states on our way to Bethlehem PA, with temps predicted to be in the high 90's. tomorrow we are hitting the road at 6 am. Yikes!

 

 

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Day 4 Latham to Kingston NY

Hot, hot hot! We got 'er done today, and there was much beauty, but the heat is definitely becoming a factor. Temps in the low 90's with much more humidity today. Being in the shade was awesome, but biking out in the direct sun, especially after 10am, was very toasty. We started out at 6:30 am but it got hot quick. Thank goodness when you bike you generate your own little breeze. There were a few cases of heat exhaustion, including a friend in our group who, at the last sag, was in no condition to bike any further and caught a ride in a support van back.

Once we got out of suburban Albany, the scenery got beautiful. My second favorite day of the ride so far for scenery. We had our biggest climb of the week today, a long multi-mile climb hitting grades of 15%, and then of course a screaming downhill where I hit 42 mph.

We biked along with the Catskills to our west. The area is gorgeous, as we biked through the villages of Catskill and Saugerties. Very impressed by the Hudson Valley for sure.

We grabbed lunch in Cairo NY, where I took this photo of my good friend Jack Hayon who was born in Cairo. Egypt that is! Funny enough he is a huge baseball fan, and this photo was taken at the town ballfield.

Tomorrow we bike to Matamoras PA, in what will be even hotter conditions. Another 6:30 start for sure.

 

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Day 3: Glens Falls to Latham NY

Day 3, generally called hump day on the Anchor House ride cause once you're passed day three, the pedaling gets easier as your body settles into cycling for a living. Odd that there was no camel sighting today! Actually today was an easy day three- much less hilly than yesterday. And the legs feel great! The main issue was the heat. The picture below was taken at 11 am! Luckily it wasn't very humid and we had shade for a good part of the day. The worst time was being stuck at a railroad crossing with no shade at all when a very long freight train rolled by. We laughed, we cried, we fried...

Today was supposed to be 66 miles, but yours truly misread the cue sheet at one point causing our group to bike an extra 6 miles. Ah, but better to do this on a 66 mile rather than an 80 mile day! The scenery was fine today, but nothing could hold a candle to yesterday's majesty.

Today was a today spent with the "Plumb-cycles". Our dear friend Joan Plumb and her awesome kids Jaye and Gregg, who are biking in their first Anchor House along with Gregg's equally awesome girlfriend Inna. There are many parent-children combo's on the ride, as the Anchor House torch is passed on to the younger generation. My son Adam is itchin' to do the ride. Gotta get him a bike and some miles on those legs!

Joanie and Jaye! And below Gregg and Inna.

Wore my Red Sox jersey today to of course mixed reviews. I just told people that the memo was to wear the jersey of the team with the best record in the AL. Note the Yankee fan who didn't get the memo!

A much needed break from the heat came close to the end of the ride just after we crossed the Mohawk river and jumped on the Mohawk Hudson Bike trail, a lovely mostly shady bike trail that we took almost all the way to Latham, with gorgeous views of the Mohawk River and adjacent canal.

 

 

Joan got a flat five miles from the end of the ride, that Gregg expertly fixed, and soon after we finished up in Latham.

Here's my very enjoyable traveling companions today. Great day today with some pretty awesome people. Heat, what heat? Tomorrow it's on to Kingston. Again mid 90's, but who's counting?

 

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Day 2: Rutland Vt to Glens Falls NY

If I could bottle today, I would drink from it everyday. What an awesome day of cycling. I could repeat today all week and be totally content. 62 hilly miles, with 4400 feet of climbing in total, with some long multi-mile hills and lots of short steep out if the saddle climbs. My kind of terrain! We left Rutland around 7:30 AM, with temps in the low 80''s, on the way to the 90's. The countryside just outside of town was stunning.

We passed many dairy farms of course- Ben and Jerry's must have quite a supply chain. The sign in front of this dairy farm seemed a bit obvious and totally un-necessary!

At every turn and after every climb, we were rewarded with Vermont at its most pictaresque.

I even had a semi- religious experience. We passed this amazing tree that had long since died, and I had a sneaking suspicion that it's where the long missing dead tree scrolls were hidden.... Apologies to my pious friends :)

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I have too many photos to post from today, but I have dine my best to pick the best of the litter. On the non-scenic aspect of the ride, one of the incredible things about this week is spending lots if time with some pretty amazing people, from close friends, to new people you meet along the way, to generous locals, and if course the fantastic volunteers who staff the sag stops and roam the roads helping out cyclists in need. The mantra, of both cyclists and volunteers is "that it's for the kids", which in the end is why we are here, to raise money and awareness for the kids of Anchor House.

 

We crossed into NY State near Granville, and stumbled upon a great local establishment called Scotties- a local eatery that time has forgotten (open since 1932). These are the kind of places we strive to find that give us a real feel of the local culture. And the food was fabulous, including the first cold blueberry soup we had ever tasted. Yum.

 

New York state of course has its own scenic charms for sure. Beautiful views of the Adirondacks, sweeping fields of corn, and of course, numerous cows! Moo on.org would have a field day up here....

Our last sag stop was at a local NY family's house- Another example of generosity that we always encounter on this trip. They had a pool that we (that's me in the pool of course) made instant use of.

We arrived in Glen Falls around 3 pm, with the temperature a toasty 93. We were lucky again today, as we had a nice breeze most of the day and the humidity wasn't brutal. It will definitely get hotter and more humid as we head south. Tomorrow it's 66 miles to Latham NY, near Troy.

 

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