For the first day in June, it was a chilly start. Riders were outfitted in their cold weather gear this morning as it was overcast and chilly. If you look at the Epic Ride Weather image below, you can see that the temperature were in the low 50's but it felt more like the low 40's. Must have been because of the overcast clouds and damp air. With everyone bundled up, we headed off.
The trails today, like yesterday, were asphalt and the trails were mostly rail to trails. Meaning that the trails were built on the right of ways of abandoned rail lines. Being abandoned rail lines, the trails were mostly straight and if there were curves, they were gentle. While on the rail to trails, the climbs never exceeded 2 or 3% grades.
The ride today was fairly short, only 48 miles so we left pretty late at 10 AM and took our time. We even took a coffee stop at 14 miles at a nifty place that we had found on Google. The shop as right off the path in a town called Mahopac. This was a great example to not judge a book by it's cover, the shop on the exterior was nondescript, but once you stepped into it, you almost felt that you should be taking off you shoes. The menu was heavily tilted toward teas plus they had cold brewed coffee. We were generally shocked how much we enjoyed our unexpected drinks. The name of the shop is Rowseelee. Click on the link to find out a bit more about the shop.
The lunch followed at the 24 mile mark and the beautiful trails continued. Again, today as in the previous days, the amount of time and attention paid to making these beautiful cycling and walking paths were very enjoyable and as we were inching closer the Manhattan, they became more heavily used. There were tunnels, bridges, old rail road stations and memorials. I had even spotted a COVID-19 Memorial.
The sun eventually broke out, the day warmed up and became very delightful. I might even like to do the Buffalo to NYC trip again sometime, perhaps a mid-June trip.
Tomorrow will be the cherry on top. We're heading into Manhattan from Yonkers to the battery and back again. About 52 miles round trip. None of us have ridden in Manhattan previously and we don't know what to expect. We hoping that we won't have any significant issues, Manhattan has upgraded the city to make it more bike friendly and we'll have a complete report after the ride is completed. We plan on leaving Yonkers at 8 AM, hitting Manhattan shortly after rush hour traffic, circle the island and be out of the city before evening rush hour traffic. We'll know if the plan worked in 24 hours. Wish us the best.
No comments:
Post a Comment