A Pre-Quarantine Day in the Saddle: NYC-Katonah
As our second month in quarantine in NYC reaches its conclusion, we look back to colder and more social days in February when team rides were still possible and Russell and Mitch put in a particularly long day in the saddle. In Russell’s words:
When I plan my bike trips I tend to plan loosely, I’ll confess this isn’t totally on purpose. But it does leave room for possibilities versus probabilities. When I pack my pockets with calories and tools, I add a couple handfuls of grit. More than likely it’ll be needed.
Well this trip started with the knowledge that my girlfriend’s family was making maple syrup north of NYC, outside Katonah. Maple Syrup boils are somewhat of a tradition there and this year I wanted to participate. There’s a train that runs right to Katonah, but I’m a two-wheel guy and as our Saturday Morning team ride was up to Piermont, I thought I would just keep going North. Piermont to Katonah was about 70 miles, perfectly doable.
I started to plot out a route. I haven’t done much riding east of the Hudson. The George Washington Bridge provides an easy escape when exiting Manhattan, so we usually take that route. Luckily my teammate, Lucia, and a few others had done some riding there and offered some pointers, riding near the New Croton Reservoir being one. With that in mind I’d stop in Piermont with the team and then continue north, hop over the Bear Mountain Bridge and make my way to Katonah via the reservoir. Soon after I got a text from another teammate, Mitchell, “Hey you riding to Katonah tomorrow? I want in.” Hell yeah, a partner in crime.
We set off as a team on a brisk morning, and made our way up River Road to Piermont. We stopped there for some hot coffee, muffins, and little conversation. After that Mitchell and I set off, winding our way up alongside the Hudson. In the shadow of Harriman State Park, Mitch suggested, “hey lets do Bear since we’re right here”. Sure I thought, why not? It’s true you don’t get quite this far above the city too often so it’s a nice treat. Winter had left us restless anyway so why not one extra climb to satisfy the spirit? It was about 1:30 as we were finishing the decent. We were supposed to be in Katonah by 3ish, my odometer read 55 miles, “cool we should be close”. Well, stupidly I hadn’t counted the miles to Piermont in my total. I knew we added a little in the climb but it was still reasonable, and we had made good time so far.
The descent into Peekskill is always fun, traffic aside. Luckily there are enough tight turns to slow cars and I find it safer and better to simply use the full lane.
A second mistake, I had left in the morning without checking my tire pressure. I never do this, well never say never I guess? My rear tire was feeling a bit soft so I convinced Mitchell to stop and I inflated it a bit. We checked our mileage. I didn’t think it could be that much longer. Was my tire that flat when we left?
Neither Mitch nor I realized how many damn hills were still left in between Peeksill and Katonah. Well we realized it pretty quick as we rode over every damn one. We were both getting tired. Mitch and written his wife, several times as I remember, and had more or less given up the idea he was getting home before dinner. He’ll be lucky to get home in time for any dinner at all, I thought. He had resigned himself, I still held out hope. Maybe it was grit now that the idea of dinner had walked into my head? Regardless I stuck myself in the front to pull us along. I still wanted to see this homemade maple syrup!
After a bit we took a wrong turn and I checked to see how far we needed to go, another 15 miles. Damn… that is going to put us a bit over the 70 miles I thought, we were already over 70.
The roads near the New Croton Reservoir and Katonah are beautiful. There were little dirt roads, stone walls, wildlife, all on the way.
We were finally getting close when we went through a rough patch of gravel and I felt my rear tire deflate, completely this time. We were exhausted with the first long ride of the year, and I just made the call. They picked us up in the truck and laughed. “You guys almost made it, 2 more miles”. My odometer read 92 miles.
The maple syrup was well underway, we enjoyed sitting down and watching the process with a cold beer.
