As I write, I am sitting on the front porch of the small white cabin that is one of the dozen or so cabins that comprise Myers Motel in Milford, PA. (Not to be confused with Milford in CT or NJ, the latter of which I will also be riding through.) Today was the first day in 3 that I did not get rained on, although this morning was gray, cool, and overcast. This afternoon was nice and sunny, maybe 80, so not too hot. Right now, at about 8PM, it is a very pleasant 78 degrees.
It has been an interesting two days. Last night I stayed in New Paltz, NY, at a hostel. It was very funky, with wacky hand-painted murals on the walls and a very countercultural feel, althoug it seemed that most of the guests were more my age than college age. No cable, but wireless. However the wireless was intermittent, so no blog yesterday.
I used to live near New Paltz and hung out there occasionally in my young twenties. Unfortunately, Chez Joey, the legendary sub shop, is no longer there. I was bummed.
Yesterday was a relatively easy 68 miles, taking an elapsed time of 7:45 with a moving average of 12.8 mph. Although I had to walk once in the morning on a particularly steep and long hill, it felt like the day was more down than up, especially the last 20 miles into New Paltz. That sort of made up for the flat tire 4 miles into the day, followed by a second day in a row of pouring rain, this time all morning.
Interestingly, the actual moving time yesterday was only 5:12, so I was not moving – navigating, taking a break, or eating a meal – over 2.5 hours out of the day. That seems to be the pattern – not only am I riding slow, but I stop a lot.
This morning I left the hostel around 7:30, looking for a breakfast place. The one recommended didn’t open until 8, so I asked some town workers getting in a truck, and they sent me 2 blocks to a great little bakery, where I had a bagel and lox to go with my coffee.
The riding through upstate New York – Duchess and Ulster counties – was occasionally stunningly beautiful, but the roads sucked, from a bicycling point of view. They were rural highways with a posted speed limit of 55 mph, double yellow center lines, white lane lines, and either a poor shoulder or no shoulder at all. One particularly scary section was a long steep uphill (it had a climbing lane for trucks) where I was forced to ride within the white line because there was nothing outside the white line except a drainage ditch. And it was raining, so riding on the white line was a bad idea, since the paint is slippery when wet. And the road curved to the right, so approaching vehicles couldn’t see me until the last moment. I stood and sprinted as best I could until I finally got to the top, where it was safe to catch my breath. But on long rides like this, I don’t like to expend so much energy on a climb, since it can lead to the dreaded bonk. Oh well, no harm no foul.
I do feel very protected by having flashing lights both front and rear.
So today was a great day with no rain. I only did about 60 miles, arriving in Milford at around 4:00, dawdling much of the afternoon. I felt really good and would have like to do more miles, but I am about to enter the Delaware Water Gap, and there is no place to stay for another 30 miles. Since I want to really enjoy the next 30 miles, I did not want them to be at the end of a really long day. Instead, I will do them first thing tomorrow.
Again, today felt like a lot more downhill than up. (And the next 30 miles is downstream long the Delaware River.) Yet at times I was really weary. Maybe riding 5 days in a row is catching up. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow. I will say this – knock on wood – so far I have had no pain or soreness, other than a very brief twinge of the Achilles tendon. No knee or hand problems, so that is really good.
Anyways, here is the track.
https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=204739069606731804005.0004c6156776a4fef59c9
Created by My Tracks on Android.
Name: 07/30/2012 7:41am – Day 5
Activity type: bicycle
Description: –
Total distance: 100.47 km (62.4 mi)
Total time: 10:08:06
Moving time: 5:20:04
Average speed: 9.91 km/h (6.2 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 18.83 km/h (11.7 mi/h)
Max speed: 59.43 km/h (36.9 mi/h)
Average pace: 6.05 min/km (9.7 min/mi)
Average moving pace: 3.19 min/km (5.1 min/mi)
Fastest pace: 1.01 min/km (1.6 min/mi)
Max elevation: 305 m (1002 ft)
Min elevation: 21 m (68 ft)
Elevation gain: 2225 m (7299 ft)
Max grade: 19 %
Min grade: -20 %
Recorded: 07/30/2012 7:41am
Biker Dan's Blog 