Hello from hot and humid Albany on the 4th of July! We’re sorry we’ve kept all 5 of you avid readers waiting, but we’ve just been too wiped out to write and compile photos at the ends of our long days of riding. So here comes some highlight and photo dumps from the first leg of our journey! We have now completed the 200.5-mile Hudson Valley Greenway Trail, and are taking America’s Birthday off in the Capital of NY to rest our butts and quads. Tonight we plan to enjoy the fireworks and a free concert by Sheila E. in Empire State Plaza.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Without further ado, here is Day 1 of riding!
Locating the official trailhead (because Becca insists on a proper photo op) took a minute or twenty. But right away we appreciate how well-maintained and well-marked the trail is. Our arms and torsos are sprinkled with the corpses of a hundred tiny flies that permeate the hazy summer air around the Hudson River. The luxury of riding in a dedicated bike lane runs out as we leave Manhattan and enter the Bronx. And while more signage would be appreciated, lack of signage is a very easy way to tell that we’re wrong :) Over the next few days, the blue and mustard “Empire State Trail” logo becomes our best friend, our North Star, the thing we use to cling to sanity in the face of athletic torture the likes of which we haven’t experienced in 2 years. But enough dramatics.
After a stop in Van Cortlandt Park at the northern tip of the Bronx, we meet the Westchester South County Trail, a lovely off-road experience that we will travel on for the rest of the day. In Yonkers, NY, the trail happens to run through the back parking lot of Sound Associates, Inc. one of the “Big Three” audio rental shops that supplies gear for Broadway shows (if you really want to go down a rabbit hole, you can learn more about sound shops here: https://soundgirls.org/shop-prep-101/). Becca has spent many a work day up here looking out at the trail with longing, so to finally be riding up to here feels momentous. We stop to say hello, and while there aren’t any show crews building, Joe and Kevin from the shop staff welcome us in and offer us bathrooms, water, and leftover bagels.
Feeling refueled, we press on to Captain Lawrence Brewing Company in Elmsford, NY, which Becca had identified as a perfect spot for a late lunch on a previous training ride with some friends. Ever paranoid after the debacle last time around, we sit outside so we can watch the bikes. Marty’s eyes perk up and he runs inside after a familiar face passes by. Turns out it’s Joe from his freshman dorm floor at NEC! We decide that this is a good time to solidify our lodging for tonight and it’s a good thing; when we call our first choice hotel and ask if we can bring bikes it‘s a resounding “…no.” So we opt to bike a little shorter distance than planned, and somehow surmount the challenge of some BIG on-road hills to arrive at a lovely hotel in Mt. Kisco, NY. The pool may be closed, but the bar is open, and after a shower and some well-earned local brews, we collapse into bed.
