7/23 Into the Rain

We started off the day early and stopped for some caffeine at a convenience store before deciding to take the singed NY 17 bike route.  The bike route roughly parallels the busier throughway over the rolling hills of southern New York.  We rode silently in the rain.  It was hilly riding and hard to control body temperature, the uphills were long steady and warm while the downhills were chilling as large droplets of rain pelted the face.  I couldn't help but smile when I saw the signs on the side of the road for New York city some 170 miles away.  I knew we were within striking distance of our goal I started to get the crazy idea that we could ride all the way through the night and get to New York in one straight shot and avoid the terrible heat that was awaiting us tomorrow. We were relieved to stop 30 miles out in Deposit, where we ate mightily.  In our food induced haze we continued to follow the NY 17 bike route, not realizing that we were travelling north, away from the city. We rode past the Cannonsville Reservoirs, the water supply for New York City and ran into some German tourists doing a tour around the country for  PHD research on Eco Villages in America.  They were carrying over 100 pounds in gear and wearing no helmets.  We gave them directions to Binghamton and went on our way.  Will's bottom bracket began to go and his large chain ring was rubbing against his derailleur on the way into Walton, where I grabbed a sandwich as the rest of the guys stopped at the gas station across the street.  A patron told me that we had a big hill to climb south of town and when I met the guys across the street they looked at me a bit gloomily as they realized we had gone pretty far north and had a long ways to go to the city.  I told them about the climb and we started off towards Bear Spring Mountain, just south of Walton.  I climbed Bear Spring Mountain in the fog and rain, and I was inspired by the epic battle between Andy Schleck and Alberto Contodor on the Tourmalet, that had transpired a few days earlier.   Goody, Pete and Aidan soon made it to the top but Will did not arrive.  We feared the worst with his derailleur and soon a passing car informed us Will was well down the hill walking his bike.  Pete and Goody rode down to find him while Aidan and I stretched and talked at the to, determining to stay focused.  Pete and Goody rode back up and were shortly followed by Will in the back of a truck.  He was on his Iphone searching for a bike shop in the areas.  Although he gave the impression that there wasn't anything close I couldn't help but notice some optimism within his stoicism as we parted ways.  He would go on and try to find a bike shop and we would continue to the city and hope that everything would work out.  As he left Pete remarked that we were loosing our Gandalf and we walked back to our bikes a bit unsure but determined that our only recourse was to keep riding.  We rode down the south side of Bear Spring Mountain and climbed the hilly 206 through the Catskills.  While on a long climb we were stopped by a passing car that happened to be Goody's Aunt and Uncle, who had some bread.  This strange coincident helped finish off the last climb and our descent into Roscoe brightened our spirits and bit and we stopped at the Roscoe Diner.  At the diner we called Will and found out that he was seven miles down the road at Livingston Manor. He had searched the Google Maps directory and found the number of a bike store in the small town.   Although the shop had just closed the former owner agreed to do the repair in a parking lot in town.  Will hitched in three cars to get to Livingston Manor and would be ready to meet us at 7pm.  We were overjoyed with the news and ate mightily.  We talked to Carrie and Ashley who were also within striking distance of the city and would probably enter Manhattan tomorrow.  Everything was coming together.  We started talking about the crazy idea of riding non stop all night into the city.  We finished our meal and got back on the road.  We rode on old route 17 to meet Will in Livingston Manor.  The repair was just getting finished as we arrived and the gracious former shop owner told us to take Rock Ave/Dahila road to get to Liberty.  We were back as a force of five and we rode happy on  rural road as the sun went down and were treated with a huge open downhill before turning east on 52 and climbing up to Liberty.  After the long climb up to Liberty we stocked up on energy drinks and headed out of town.  None of us had that great of headlamps and the riding was a bit sketchy, as the shoulder suffered from frost heaves and damage.  It was a hilly route and you couldn't get going too fast on the downhills without a good deal of risk.  But despite our slow progress we still clung onto the crazy idea of riding all night.   But that idea soon vanished on a descent as Pete hit a pothole and tumbled into the guard rail and off of his bike. Pete got up unharmed and we decided to ride a few more miles into Ellenville in search of a campsite.  We went to a convenient store and tried to ask the locals for a good place to stay but we weren't getting any good answers.  One of us soon saw that there was a Stewarts shop around the corner and we happily made our way to the Upstate New York Chain of stores that Will, Goody and I are very familiar with.  We bought some food and found a local who let us know of a good spot to camp just out of town near a baseball field.  We found the spot, set up camp in the dug out and talked briefly about the impending heat waiting for us the next day.  But even riding 100 miles in 90 degree weather couldn't scare us that more and we soon went to bed.  I fell asleep in right field.

Cannonsville Resevoir