Day 6 - Matamoras PA to Bridgewater, NJ

Our longest day may have been the best day. But by day 6 of the ride, everyone is fully trained so an 85-mile day was just right. And once again this week, the weather really cooperated. What was supposed to be a day in the 90's stayed somewhere in the 80's with high cloud cover most of the day. 

Crossing the Delaware from Matamoras to Port Jervis in the morning

We biked through 3 states today, with most of the day in NJ. The biking in northern NJ was beautiful as we biked from Newton to Bridgewater,  Biking on Route 206 is never our favorite part, but it gets the job done.

 We climbed a lot today, 4200 feet in total, and had the single toughest climb of the week. It was a long grind up a quiet road. Some of the descents were pretty gnarly and steep, with pretty uneven and rough pavement. As a mountain biker, I l kinda loved it, but not everyone agreed.

Here's Gabe about to descend a pretty steep section with a nasty hairpin turn that dropped elevation during the turn. We burned up some brake pads today!

One thing that  made today pretty special was that our larger cycling group stayed together for most of the day. Here we are in Hackettstown after a great lunch. I'm going to miss biking with this great bunch of guys!

One interesting story line from the week were the bear sightings along the route. Three cubs and a Mama bear came right out on the rail trail just outside of Adams, MA. Ben was mistakenly identified as the person who saw the bears - it wasn't him but a the son of another rider. But as it turned out, Ben did wind up seeing a bear today as he was racing to catch up to the group this morning after leaving his glasses behind at the hotel.

Bears on the rail trail, er bear trail on Monday

That's Ben approaching the bear. He didn't know there was a bear
sighting and kept riding by

Ben without any bears nearby :)

Some other photos from the day:

DJ and Ken imbibing special nourishment after the ride

Day 5- Kingston NY to Matamoras PA- Play misty for me

On a day with a predicted 70% chance of thunderstorms and predicted temps in the 90's, we escaped with just a very humid day with temps in the low 80's. We were lucky today.

The morning air was very heavy, resulting in a fair amount of mist and wet sunglasses. We started out at 160 feet and over the day climbed to 1300 feet before dropping precipitously at the end. A 70 mile day, with 3200 feet of climbing. An average Anchor House ride day.

We left Kingston and biked through the outskirts of New Paltz.  Maybe it was the mist, but today was not as scenic as yesterday but the riding was great. The usual highlight, the Shawangunk mountains, were obscured by mist.

Horse farm with the Shawangunks in the misty background

Renoir like hay roll

A true highlight was a SAG stop at an ice cream stand. Nothing makes cyclists happier than ice cream! Well, maybe beer.

Happy boys!

Da boys

Adam in motion....

Ken's typical view looking down at his handlebars

 Some pretty scenes from today...

I'll leave with a few words from the banquet dinner and awards ceremony.  An award was given to an amazing young man who was homeless three years ago and is now in his second year at Montclair State University with a 3.8 GPA. His life was totally turned around by the support he received from Anchor House. He is why we ride. So far we have raised $482,000. We are on track for a record breaking year.  If you'd like to contribute, click HERE

Here are some photos from the banquet/ceremony:

A happy Ken with Adam and long time great friend DJ

Da boys- Ben and Gabe Hayon and Adam

My two buddies got awards tonight- Joan with a ten year award and Eric
 with a five year award

Day 4 - Lenox MA to Kingston NY - Bottle this one!

Today was my favorite day of cycling so far- definitely want to bottle this one! A lot of us felt pretty beat up after yesterday's ride - it was great to conquer the Berkshires but it took a lot out of us. Today was longer, 75 miles, but the riding and the conditions were perfect, and just the right amount of climbing. The day started with these great, a-peeling banana slogans for the day.

Banana notes

The cycling in far western Mass was really beautiful, as we cycled through Lenox and into Stockbridge and then Great Barrington.

In Stockbridge

We left Massachusetts around mile 28. Everyone enjoyed the scenery in Mass and the excellent rail trails, but we were all happy to leave behind the less than ideal road conditions (but I'll miss Massachusetts!). The roads were instantly better in NY State. Upstate NY is really under-rated - it's beautiful and the cycling is really excellent. Our first SAG was at an old church which is now the Guthrie Center and contains the Arlo Guthrie Museum. The church was the site of the Thanksgiving Day meal that the song "Alice's Restaurant" was based on. We didn't get to eat at Alice's Restaurant though...

Tom Florek singing "Alice's Restaurant"

This was a day when we broke up into different riding groups. The "Youts" all rode together, DJ rode with our buddies Ken N, Jim, and Newell, and I rode with my friend Stephanie and then later with my long time Anchor House friend Joan Plumb. It was great cycling with my other buddies today. 

The "Youts" looking fresh at SAG 3

Ken and Stephanie somewhere in NY

Gorgeous farm in Columbia County

At SAG 3, Joan and I enjoyed some amazing food prepared by Papa of Papa's Smokehouse, a food truck seemingly in the middle of nowhere. We sat down at a picnic table with an incredible view of a pond and a hay field, with a tractor bailing hay in the distance.

Papa's Smokehouse

View of the table and food truck

Pond and hay field

From the SAG, all of our various cycling groups joined back up and we rode the final 15 miles to the hotel together. By that time, it was starting to get steamy (around 90) but the ride back in was great. We crossed the Hudson about ten miles out with spectacular views of the river. We finished up in Kingston around 3:30 PM - we felt great physically, with still a lot of gas left in the tank for tomorrow. We're about 300 miles in (and an extra 60 for me) with 200 miles to go. The week is starting to go by too fast!

Crossing the Hudson

Day 3 - Northampton to Lenox, MA - Up and Over the Berkshires

We climbed a ton today. And then we climbed some more. Today was only a 65-mile day, but most of the 4700 feet of climbing was front loaded into the first 40 miles as we headed up into the Berkshires.

We left Northampton as a morning fog lifted. The riding and scenery leaving town were sweet, and temp was nice and cool.

By 6 miles we were doing a serious climb - at times a 20% grade - as we headed up into the Berkshires near Goshen. The climbing was challenging as we continued our grind up. We were greeted by our friend Tom Florek, who graced us with his fine accordion skills.

These road signs are never a good sign!

DJ near the top, in fine form

Tom Florek in action

Catching a collective breath at the top of the first climb

We rode through the Berkshires through small towns (Cummington, Ashfield, Plainfield), climbing and descending (but mostly climbing it seemed) for quite a while. The scenery was lovely - with lakes, farms, and lots of deep forest.

We eventually made our final climb up Savoy Mountain before making a steep but vigilant descent out of the Berkshires into Adams. I have to say, the local roads in Massachusetts are not in great shape, and we had to be extremely careful to avoid small potholes and cracks in the road - it was particularly scary on these downhill descents. (The poor road conditions in the state are frequently blamed on Prop 2 1/2, a referendum that capped property taxes and forced towns to choose between funding roads or schools - most towns chose schools, clearly).

Da boys resting up

Pop and son at a lovely lakeside beach

We grabbed lunch at an appropriately named diner (after our day of climbing), The Daily Grind. We were ready, as always, to consume mass quantities.

Adam, Gabe and Ben post lunch

We had a sweet recovery ride along the Ashuwillticook Bike Trail that took us out of Adams and into Chester. The young 'uns formed a paceline and burned up the trail while the old guys took our time and stopped to take photos along the way. The tree canopy kept us out of the heat, since it was really starting to heat up. We were really lucky all day with the heat, being mostly up in the mountains and with a tree canopy most of the day.

Riding on the rail trail

Biking along the Cheshire Reservoir

I have to be honest, I was really ready to get off the bike by the time the day was done. Very happy to be in Lenox, where we enjoyed a nice dinner and some homemade ice cream. A great but challenging day, and the first time in Anchor House history that the ride went over the Berkshires. But when it's all said and done, no matter how our day went or how sore this or that body part may be, the reason we're doing this ride is for the kids of Anchor House.