Today was a day for getting lost and confused. It started when I rolled down the hill from my hotel in Albany towards the big ol’ Hudson River and the tangle of highways that converge there. The bike route across was closed for construction and there was a detour. I followed that, got confused, circled back, got lost again. After 10 miles of going in circles I stopped and asked some construction worker guys who were leaning over their yellow tripod. They were super understanding and told me a lot of folks were missing the turn and set me on the right path. If they hadn’t been so cool I was thinking about giving up on the day as the Empire State Trail map I looked at showed most of today’s ride on the roads with cars. I wasn’t sure I was up for that but I really wanted to pedal.

I pedaled across the bridge and picked up the bike trail. It ran right past the train station and I once again stopped and wondered if this big ride mostly on the road was a good idea. As I get nearer to NYC things are getting busier around me and it sure felt like there would be a lot of cars to deal with. I ran over everything in my head and I still felt like pedaling. I got the cranks turning, which felt good, and the train station was left behind. I managed to miss another turn at some point but after a mile or two I found my way again. 

I was on bike trail for quite a while. It meandered through some busy areas so it would occasionally kick me out on to a street or into a neighborhood but nothing for any serious length of time. In fact as the day went on I started to wonder if the map was wrong. This was a perfectly delightful ride along paved trails, dirt trails, and an unused dirt road. It was getting hillier and I was having to do a fair bit of out of the saddle climbing but I was enjoying that. I did ride some on roads but mostly never even saw a car. Finally about 55 miles (88.5km) in I had an extended section of on road riding to deal with right after I passed Bard College’s big weird silver shed. No shoulder to speak of for a lot of this road but the speed limit was 30 mph and the cars seemed used to dealing with cyclists who had no other option but to take up part of the lane. Side note, the area around Bard looked really cool and I wanted to learn more about the place but I was starting to feel too worn down to think about anything except getting to my destination.

It was a warm day and I was drinking all the water I could. I stopped at a gas station to fill my bottles and they were making milkshakes there. I can’t remember the last time I had a milkshake but this chocolate one was extra fantastic! Run yourself into an overheated calorie deficit and ice cream tastes better than ever.

When I got near Kingston my route had me cross the Hudson River again via a massive arcing bridge. This part was kind of unpleasant. There’s a double white line protected bike lane but there’s sharp drainage grates across most of the bike lane in regular intervals. Riding through them is harsh enough that I feared a flat. Swerving around them meant being right on the white line and very close to cars. And there was a lot of traffic here blasting by at high speeds. Then it got worse. There was orange cones and construction signs blocking the bike lane. I’d time weaving around them against the traffic as best I could because of course there wasn’t any actual construction going on, just 20 signs saying there was. It was pretty hectic and the bridge was very tall and the traffic was racing by. Eventually there was a truck parked in the bike lane and thankfully a nice driver blocked traffic and urged me into the car lane. I had just reached the tallest point of the bridge and was able to pick up speed as things went downhill and zipped back into the bike lane once it was clear. I didn’t take any pictures here as it was a bit white knuckle but I reckon it was all managed fairly safely even though it was rather stressful. 

I got lost again trying to find my hotel in Kingston. First the Empire Trail which I had been following bumped into a “pop up trail”. There was a bunch of signs explaining what that meant but I was too hot and sweaty to want to stop and read about it. I guessed it was a new part of the trail that had just opened as it was all freshly paved. The problem was that it didn’t go where my map said the trail went. About 4 miles in I realized I was in the wrong spot and made a big climb away from the river towards my hotel. Or, at least I thought towards my hotel. Somehow when I pasted in the address I only pasted the city and not the street number. After an hour of riding through a rather busy downtown my hotel wasn’t there but google said I was in the center of Kingston. Once I figured out what I’d done I had another 4 miles to get to the proper spot. Passing 80 miles (129km) of riding and feeling very hot I was running out energy to process the corrections I needed to make. I followed a very busy road with no sidewalk or shoulder and rode through parking lots to avoid cars. Eventually I found my way to the hotel and was beyond grateful when they gave me a couple bottles of water at check in (gold status!). There was also a salt water pool in the hotel that I jumped in. It felt so good to just float around and let my limbs move in ways other than bike riding mode. 

Even better I found a grocery store next door. A lot of the places I’ve stayed this trip have been surprisingly difficult to find food. Yesterday in Albany everything downtown by the hotel was closed and I ended up ordering pizza. Pizza is perfectly grand after a big ride but I’m much happier picking out stuff in a grocery store. Dinner was an entire box of spring mix greens, some sliced carrots and celery, a package of seitan, a package of little tomatoes, some Newman’s oil and vinegar, an avocado sushi roll, 2 bottles of San Pelegrino and a banana.

Happy me.

My little brother is coming up from the city to meet me for part of the ride. He’s never done any long rides like this so it’ll be interesting to see how he does. I have to make it to Brooklyn by the 17th for the next phase of this trip so we have a bit of deadline but there’s not really that far to go (though it might feel far to him!). I figure if I carry most of this stuff he’ll be able to make the distance with me as long as he can keep his pedals turning.