Well, actually not so much AT West Point since we rode to it on the first day and rode back last day. And the middle day we rode to somewhere in Orange county anyway. So it's only eating and sleeping at West Point...
Still, it was a great weekend.
Friday:
Forecast was for a fair chance of rain and it was falling (sparingly) while we wait for the start. But once we got moving, we forgot the little occasional droplets and didn't even notice when it completely stopped. Humidity was unfortunately at an unbelievable 90+%. We soldiered on...
I went with a group that's a bit slowly than my usual since I hadn't riden for about two weeks and had just returned from a pretty grueling 4 day packpacking trip.
We rode through some quiet neighborhood in northen Jersey. Stopped and had a sit down lunch at Lulu's (somewhere outside of Nyack).
Fortunately, the sun was kept in check by the hazy humid cloud so the heat never got too bad. A curse turned blessing in disguise. We climbed at our own pace up the last stretch of 9W before Bear Mountain Bridge and pulled into West Point's front gate about 2:30pm. Grabbed out bags and showered, it's time to socialize at the hotel's bar! :D
Dinner was a catered BBQ on the lawn by the Hudson River. The temperature cooled just enough to be amazingly comfortable. We ate our cyclist heart out! Some people started talking about walking somewhere to watch the firework but very little response came forward. Then like a light being turned off, everybody disappeared into their own room and I slept pretty much through the night...
Saturday:
I join another group which should be more or less my "usual" speed, since I had a "easy" day on Friday. We climbed for a mile or two out of West Point. Then a flat and straight rail trail took us to Goshen, a lovely nice little town I had never heard of before! There's a fair going on so the whole town must have been there. It was pretty exciting.
After lunch, we started heading back. We were doing so well our leader decide we should take the more challenging route back, with lots of rollers!
I wish we did the roller BEFORE lunch, not after. With all that food in the stomach, it was a bit hard to "enjoy" the rollers, particular the part that rolls UP! 
It was after half an hour or so we finally picked up the speed and cruise our heart out!
The finale of the ride was the climb over the Storm King Highway. The highway basically hugs the side of the mountain and snake its way up to the shoulder...with views of the Hudson right off the side of the road. Once we got to the highest point of the highway, we took a group photo to celebrate! Then it's the fun downhill run that goes on and on for 2-3 miles!!!
At the north gate of West Point, we were presented with the choice of climbing up some more to a swimming hole, or head down hill to town for some ice cream! That was an easy decision for most of us. We all went for the ice cream!!!
After shower and a quick rest, we went on a dinner cruise on the Hudson, watching the cliff side slide by in the fading light while we eat and drink... Then we waited patiently for the firework to start. Boom! Boom! Boom!!!
I can't imagine a more perfect day!
Sunday:
For whatever the physiological reason, I always feel really slow on the 3rd day of a multi-day cycling trip. So I decided to use the last day to visit Storm King Art Center to recharge my mind and rest my body... Except to get to Storm King Art Center, I had no choice but to climb over Storm King mountain AGAIN! (an interesting point: WP being a fortification is surrounded by mountains, easy to defend I'm sure but hard for us cyclist base out of WP. Everywhere we go, we had to CLIMB over the mountain!). Oh well...
Others in the group had more senses and went round Bear Mountain bridge to visit Dia Beacon, a morden art musuem instead. While the majority of the larger contengent (70-80 cyclists total) just head home straight (about 55 miles).
The first couple miles were pretty hard and I had my doubts about the "big climb". But once I warmed up, the miles kind of rolled by and I found myself at the top without too much trouble. I even made it to the art center BEFORE they open! Had to do an additional loop to kill the time... So my "short day" ended up still nearly 35 miles. :(
At the train station, I met the "musuem contingent" and we rode the train back to the city.
Still, it was a great weekend.
Friday:
Forecast was for a fair chance of rain and it was falling (sparingly) while we wait for the start. But once we got moving, we forgot the little occasional droplets and didn't even notice when it completely stopped. Humidity was unfortunately at an unbelievable 90+%. We soldiered on...
I went with a group that's a bit slowly than my usual since I hadn't riden for about two weeks and had just returned from a pretty grueling 4 day packpacking trip.
We rode through some quiet neighborhood in northen Jersey. Stopped and had a sit down lunch at Lulu's (somewhere outside of Nyack).
Fortunately, the sun was kept in check by the hazy humid cloud so the heat never got too bad. A curse turned blessing in disguise. We climbed at our own pace up the last stretch of 9W before Bear Mountain Bridge and pulled into West Point's front gate about 2:30pm. Grabbed out bags and showered, it's time to socialize at the hotel's bar! :D
Dinner was a catered BBQ on the lawn by the Hudson River. The temperature cooled just enough to be amazingly comfortable. We ate our cyclist heart out! Some people started talking about walking somewhere to watch the firework but very little response came forward. Then like a light being turned off, everybody disappeared into their own room and I slept pretty much through the night...
Saturday:
I join another group which should be more or less my "usual" speed, since I had a "easy" day on Friday. We climbed for a mile or two out of West Point. Then a flat and straight rail trail took us to Goshen, a lovely nice little town I had never heard of before! There's a fair going on so the whole town must have been there. It was pretty exciting.
After lunch, we started heading back. We were doing so well our leader decide we should take the more challenging route back, with lots of rollers!
I wish we did the roller BEFORE lunch, not after. With all that food in the stomach, it was a bit hard to "enjoy" the rollers, particular the part that rolls UP! It was after half an hour or so we finally picked up the speed and cruise our heart out!The finale of the ride was the climb over the Storm King Highway. The highway basically hugs the side of the mountain and snake its way up to the shoulder...with views of the Hudson right off the side of the road. Once we got to the highest point of the highway, we took a group photo to celebrate! Then it's the fun downhill run that goes on and on for 2-3 miles!!!
At the north gate of West Point, we were presented with the choice of climbing up some more to a swimming hole, or head down hill to town for some ice cream! That was an easy decision for most of us. We all went for the ice cream!!!
After shower and a quick rest, we went on a dinner cruise on the Hudson, watching the cliff side slide by in the fading light while we eat and drink... Then we waited patiently for the firework to start. Boom! Boom! Boom!!!
I can't imagine a more perfect day!
Sunday:
For whatever the physiological reason, I always feel really slow on the 3rd day of a multi-day cycling trip. So I decided to use the last day to visit Storm King Art Center to recharge my mind and rest my body... Except to get to Storm King Art Center, I had no choice but to climb over Storm King mountain AGAIN! (an interesting point: WP being a fortification is surrounded by mountains, easy to defend I'm sure but hard for us cyclist base out of WP. Everywhere we go, we had to CLIMB over the mountain!). Oh well...
Others in the group had more senses and went round Bear Mountain bridge to visit Dia Beacon, a morden art musuem instead. While the majority of the larger contengent (70-80 cyclists total) just head home straight (about 55 miles).
The first couple miles were pretty hard and I had my doubts about the "big climb". But once I warmed up, the miles kind of rolled by and I found myself at the top without too much trouble.
I even made it to the art center BEFORE they open! Had to do an additional loop to kill the time... So my "short day" ended up still nearly 35 miles. :(At the train station, I met the "musuem contingent" and we rode the train back to the city.
