New Paltz - Sept 12-14

Not letting a global pandemic curtail cycling, Mark & I set off for the Hudson Valley to meet up with Darmon and do some cycling, with the first homebase in the lower Hudson valley.  After a 6am departure, we arrived at Darmon and Lori Lynn's new home in New Paltz where Darmon was ready to go!  Did some nice riding through the western towns on quiet back roads (nice to have a local guide!  Thanks Darmon!) , many apple orchards and farms and a few Trumpian "estates", sporting pickup trucks, flags and other stereotypical lawn decor.  Stopped for cider donuts at Wilklow orchards and after 30 or so miles, met up with Lori Lynn for pizza and hard cider at Brooklyn Cider House/Orchard - quite the scene with big outdoor cooking setup, music, wood-fired grill.  Crowded but well spread out and felt safe.  And amazing apples - nothing like a real in-season apple.  Then headed along a bike trail to the walkway over the hudson bridge - a mile long pedestrian/cycling only bridge that was resurrected from an old rail bridge a decade ago.  Nice views up and down the river.  In the evening, got schooled by Darmon at croquet. 48 miles.

The next day, we set off by car to the east side of the river, starting in Pleasant Valley to explore Dutchess County.  Combined a bunch of loops to clinton corners and hyde park areas where we saw lots of horse and dairy farms.  The horse farms featured ornate entry gates, and huge properties with houses set way back (although they didn't seem overly large).  Seems like a more republican area, but they don't fly the big trump flags we saw the day before.  Mark overroad my gas-station chocolate milk lunch and we found a nice cafe where I decided I still had to have a bad muffin while they ate some fancy sandwiches.   Nice dinner back at Darmon's with fresh apple-peach crisp requiring 2 trips to the store, and one to the orchard.  42 miles.

  Day 3, we set off without Darmon, on our way north to do some touring/riding.  The first stop was at the FDR library in Hyde Park.  The library was closed, but we explored the trails, riding over a dirt trail to the Eleanor Roosevelt historic site where they used to hang out.  Tried to ride down to the river, but the trail was a little rough for our road bikes so we walked along it instead - no real river views and our plan to ride up the shoreline was dashed.  So we drove north to Mills Memorial State park, where we cycled through the park (highlight of Norrie Point), walked along the river and made our way up to the Mills Mansion - a European style mansion/estate (closed for Covid?) built by Ogden Mills in the 1890s.  Fancy.  Stop 3 for the day up in Rhinebeck, a cute upstate NY town where we had one of our best lunches at Aba's Falafel.  Then we set off northward, passing Bard College and through the town of Red Hook.  Mix of some beautiful back roads and a few busier ones.  One more diversion to Rhinecliff (overlooking river - disappointingly, there are almost no roads/trails along the hudson) and then drove north to our next stop in Saratoga Springs.  50 miles.