This years trip had two destinations, the Berkshires and the Hudson Valley. After spending a couple of days in the Berkshires we headed to Kingston to do some riding around Rhinebeck. On Saturday we took a ride to Olana which was the home of Frederic Church one of the major figures in the Hudson River School of painting.
We started the ride from a recreations center in Red Hook and slowly worked our way through some back roads towards Olana. The terrain was a little gentler than in the Berkshires but was still mostly rolling hills. It was another perfect weather day and we have some nice clear views of the hills around the Hudson Valley. Except for Rt 9G the roads were mostly traffic free and in decent shape.
The only real climb of the day was up to Olana which is on a hill overlooking the Hudson. Cheryl had warned us about this hill since she had done this ride before. At first it didn't seem that bad but it got steeper the closer we got to the top. I actually switched down to the triple about 100 ft from the end.
The climb was worth it because we got some good views of the Hudson as well as the Moravian style house built by Frederic Church. After we took a look around we when back out on the road and made our way back through some more back country roads. We passed by a lot of farms mostly growing apples and peaches.
By the time we got back to the start we had done 44 miles and were back before 1pm. After a quick shower back at the hotel we decided to head to Hyde Park the home of FDR. The ride to Hyde Park should have taken a half hour but Rt 9G was backed up because of the Dutches County Fair. This was probably also the reason that it was hard to find a hotel room in one of the nicer hotels.
Even with the traffic we were able to get to Hyde Park before the last tour at 4pm. We had a slightly wacky tour guide who was both funny and informative. After the tour we spent another hour in the FDR library and museum which was really well done. We could of easily spent more time but we were getting hungry so we headed off to a dinner at a diner. Then is was another ride through the Dutches County Fair.traffic to get back to our hotel.
Sunday was the last day of the trip and we managed to squeeze in another ride. Before the trip I was concerned about riding 4 days in a row but it wasn't a problem. I wasn't sore from riding for the past three days and actually felt pretty strong.
Sundays ride started from the town of New Paltz which was on our way home. The main destination for this ride was the Walkway over the Hudson which is an old railroad bridge by Poughkeepsie that was turned into a walkway. Since it was yet another picture perfect day weather wise it would be a good day to go see the view.
This ride, by design, would be the easiest ride of the trip was only 36 miles and had only 1700 ft of climbing. It wasn't a flat ride by any means but rolling hills were gentle and reminded me a little of Lancaster. The ride started with nice flat ride along the Walljill river. It was in the low 60s at the start of the ride and I almost put on my arm warmers but after a few miles I decided I didn't need them.
After just over 5 miles we rode by a nice covered bridge before having our only real climb of the day up Dashville Rd. It wasn't real long but it was steep. From there we hit some really nice wooded roads and actually meet a local biker who was on her first ride after a bad fall. Its always nice sharing stories with other bikers. We road with her a few miles before she broke off and we headed for the walkway.
To get to the walkway we had a out and back loop from Rt 299 which conveniently had a Hess station with a good store in it. Halfway to the walkway were were able to jump on the Hudson Rail Trail which was a nice paved path. The actual Walkway over the Hudson was pretty impressive and really well done. It was a little crowded so we had to zig zag around people, kids and dogs but it was a really cool view.
We rode to the other side of the Hudson and back and meet some more bikers from New York who had took the train to Poughkeepsie. I took a few more pictures then we headed back towards New Paltz. We had some nice long downhills approaching the town through some more apple and peach farms before a ride along the Wallkill river. Before we knew it we were back in town and at the cars. We had planned to have a nice lunch in New Paltz but we weren't really that hungry and wanted to get home so we just got in the car and got out of there.
We hit a little traffic on the ride home but it wasn't that bad and we were home a little after 3pm. All in all the trip worked out as good or better as planned. All the rides we did were good, we had no mechanical problems, we saw a lot of cool things on and off the bike and we had great weather. If I did it again I would try to get a better hotel in Kingston and not go during the Dutches County Fair but otherwise it was a great trip.
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