We wake up in Mt. Kisco and enjoy a decent egg sandwich from the hotel bar. As we pack up to set out, we hit our first mechanical problem of the trip: Marty wants to top off the air in his tires, but our sad little portable pump seems to be doing more harm than good. We detour to a gas station and feed at least 8 of our precious quarters to a machine that claims to send the money to “Feed Starving Children Charity.” Neither of us knows if we believe that to be a real cause or not…but we get our air and get riding.
In order to prevent a future #deflategate, we drop by a bike shop in Yorktown, NY. The salesperson inside helps Marty select a newer, more robust pump with a built-in gauge, plus some tiny CO2 cartridges that can fully inflate an empty tire tube in case of a flat. Becca buys us a smoothie to stay cool, and then we return to riding. Hobbit meals are totally the way to go on adventures like this, so don’t be surprised if in future posts you see references to “second breakfast,” “elevensies,” or “afternoon tea.”
The riding gets a little harder today, but we have one big breakthrough. After much effort, Marty is finally able to mansplain Becca about why she should be riding in lower gears and maintaining a higher RPM. To keep them on pace, Becca finds a workout playlist of dance remixes of songs bumped up to 160 bpm that was designed for peloton classes or something. To say it does the trick would be the understatement of the trip. We maintain an excellent pace for the rest of the day, Becca often sailing far ahead, propelled by the energy of singing along to Taylor Swift, Blink-182, and Coolio. She quiets down while passing a stranger on a serene bridge, but he yells out, “don’t stop! Keep singing!” Video forthcoming.
Lunch is at the Southeast Grille in Brewster, NY. We know there is some on-road biking ahead, but it’s confusing to know if the trail we see is construction that has been completed since the maps were published, or a different trail that will take us the wrong way. Eventually we get re-oriented and continue on, Becca finding new BPM-matched workout playlists to pass the afternoon. Marty is amazed that after the few months in NYC that he spent working on a startup with just this idea (use BPM-matching to spice up workouts for runners) he has finally got a perfect client.
Follow the Butt!
Over lunch, we decide to book a hotel on the outskirts of Poughkeepsie for the night. This means that we will have to ride another 32 miles before calling it a night, but with food in our bellies and 160 BPM in our ears, anything is possible! We leave Westchester County behind, and enter Putnam County. We pass through Hopewell Junction, NY, where alongside the trail is a small museum that commemorates the many rail lines that used to run through the town. The museum is closed, but they offer a public restroom and vending machines with some much needed Powerade! The candy machine eats our quarters and gives us no Reese’s, so we eat the first of our “emergency” packets of trail mix. The boost is enough to get us to our destination, which again requires quite a bit of on-road riding. We remain hopeful that in the next few years more trail tourism will lead folks to open hotels that are convenient, or at least start offering a shuttle service to and from the trail like our amazing host Rick did in Connellsville, PA.
Once we’ve cleaned up, we discover that the hotel does not have a restaurant/bar, as Google suggested. No matter; Marty picks a local brewery with an awesome food menu and we summon a lyft. Our driver on the way back points out the buildings of Vassar College, and tells us about his past life as a history teacher before semi-retiring back to his hometown and picking up rideshare driving. We crawl into bed with apprehension, as there is quite a bit of rain in the forecast for tomorrow…
Sampling the beers at Mill House Brewing Company in Poughkeepsie, NY, plus a delicious spinach risotto and a spicy cauliflower bowl, both made with local ingredients!