Archive for Miscellaneaous
On Paying to ride
There are and were some “supported” rides coming up that I am and was considering. Last weekend was the Mansion Ride for Autism. The weather report on Saturday was the deciding factor on not doing that one. But…….that ride is basically a repeat of the rides we do on our normal repertoire. I generally don’t want to pay to ride where I always ride for the benefit of some PBJ sandwiches and granola bars. However, it’s being for charity makes it worthy to me.
Next Sunday is the LI Harbors Ride. Again, mostly places I already go to. I don’t see where any of the money goes to any charity whatsoever. If I was doing the century….well it’s kind of nice to know there is sag support and snacks and refills on your beverages…but for 50ish not so much. Same for the Gold Coast coming up in a few weeks.
I was sorry to miss the Boat Bike Boat (again weather forecast deterred us) That is not someplace I am familiar with. The last two years I did the Covered Bridges ride in Lancaster PA. Another new to me place. There are a lot of rides not that far away that I would pay to do, but if you want my money to ride to the same places I always go, donate some of it to a worthy cause!
Thoughts?
BarbK
Spring!
Wow, still not quite spring on the calendar but this week has sure been spectacular. I have seen a lot of people out on bikes on the service road and early evening Tuesday night on Sweet Hollow Rd. I have yet to get out myself, much as I’d have liked to have played hooky from work. Best I could manage was ditching my shoes and socks and wearing sandals to work.
I have a 15 mile hike planned for Saturday at Minnewaska. Until Wednesday the park was only opened to skiing and snowshoeing.
Have good rides this weekend! And I sure hope this lovely weather continues, we deserve it after all the cold and snow the past few months. I am wondering how the potholes are from the nasty winter we had and also how the north shore roads are after last weekends wicked winds.
Feel free to post comments here regarding road conditions for those of us with other commitments this weekend.
Barb K
Is this thing on?
Testing the new blog, thanks Glenn!
It’s been a pretty brutal winter for cycling unless you are a die hard. Or like taking to the trails. I am a little opposed to getting all muddy and falling down so have not tried MTB riding yet.
Some of us choose to do other things to keep busy and fit. I hike quite a bit in pursuit of a game I play called Geocaching . You would be surprised at how many neat parks you pass on your bike or in the car that you didn’t even know were there. Heading up Chicken Valley Rd before the arboretum for instance, right as you crest the hill there is a little park off to your right called Iselin Preserve. There is a code to unlock to the gate or you can just park right there and walk in around it. The code is part of one of the caches in there however I will just share . It’s the year of the Great Depression.
How many times have you ridden by Shu Swamp after turning off of Cleft Rd? Another fun place to take a walk, can be…swampy though so wear the right shoes. If you pull into the office park right past Round Swamp Rd off the service road and pull all the way to the eastern end you have found Pine Ridge Park, another nice, hilly place to walk that most folks do not know about. Plenty of hiking on Long Island, people are quite surprised when you tell them you were hiking here.
And New Jersey! It is NOT just a place to drive through to go south. North, West and Central, I have done some fantastic hiking and caching in the Garden State.
This year I even broke down and bought cross country skis which I used twice this past weekend at Bethpage Golf course. Even ran into some cycling pals on skis while I was there. Now that is a great workout! Not that often do we get and keep enough snow here to do it though.
That’s it for now.
Barb K