The Return Journey
New York to Canada Bike Tour, Winter 2020
Cycling was one the of biggest outlets for me during 2020. In a year that had so much loss and division, cycling was something no one and nothing could take away. Cycling was freedom, and hope for a better day. More importantly though, cycling was a way to still feel connected in a world that was getting very isolated and somewhat tribal all of a sudden.
Before Covid shutdown New York City in March of 2020, my twin brother Doug and I would go exploring on our road bikes to the far reaches of the city. From our apartment in RAMBO (Right Around Manhattan Bridge Overpass) Brooklyn, we would cycle to Little Italy in the Bronx for a slice of pizza, we would bike to Far Rockaway Queens to see the ocean, or venture through Brighton Beach’s Russian neighborhoods on our bikes and check out Coney Island.
Doug and I really could get anywhere with a bike, we thought. We could see and experience so much from a bike to leaving our RAMBO apartment bubble. There were sometimes we cycled through areas where people weren’t used to yielding to cyclists, but we tried yielding to them and be respectful of their neighborhoods. Cycling’s a gift, not everyone can do it. Therefore you have to be even more considerate of your surroundings from a safety and mental standpoint.
A January Rockaway Beach day with Doug.
When Covid shut down the city, the city government’s initial reaction was to shut down everything. The only time you could go outside was when you had mission critical work to do. The city even closed entrances to parks and took down basketball hoops. The city government didn’t want anyone taking chances congregating and spreading the disease. As I mentioned before in the Father Trail story, Doug and I headed up to New Hampshire soon after the shutdown started and I was furloughed. I brought my triathlon bike with me.
That summer in “shire” I cycled all over the state. Thinking there was a slight chance the Ironman race I had in September might still happen, I cycled about 10 hours a week all outside rain or shine. Each long distance ride I set off on, I tried to explore some new New Hampshire towns or see what neighboring states Maine and Massachusetts were like. There were significant differences of how each of these states within a 20 mile radius of my parents’ house dealt with Covid. Massachusetts, like New York, also closed all of their parks and people took wearing masks very seriously. New Hampshire in contrast was completely “Live Free or Die,” not as strict with mask wearing, and open for business. Maine’s Covid policies were a hybrid of NH and MA. It’s no wonder why many people from other Northeastern states, including Doug and I, came up to New Hampshire during that time.
Live free or die, by moose, in 2020 New Hampshire.
As fun as it was to be up in New Hampshire, I needed to come back to my life in New York. Anytime that summer I read headlines about New York, and really the rest of the world outside of New Hampshire, it felt like I was living in a bubble from all the important things going on. Outside of our “shire bubble,” there were many things challenging the old way of life. That also meant new opportunities were coming up. In September of 2020 I was offered a new job. Before heading back to New York City to start this new job, I had a “last hurrah” cycling around New Hampshire’s White Mountains through early fall foliage. It was a gorgeous ride.
Leaf peeping in the White Mountains before “leaf”-ing for the big city.
Though the Ironman never came to pass in 2020, this greater appreciation I had for cycling didn’t fizzle out after coming back to the city. Feeling as though I could truly ride anywhere, I signed up for the Bucks County Marathon, in which I took train to Trenton, New Jersey and biked four miles from the Trenton hotel to the starting line in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania.
Bucks County Marathon wasn’t what I wanted as my last adventure of 2020. I wanted a greater adventure before the end of the year. The idea popped in my mind to sign up for a 50KM ultramarathon in Leesport, Pennsylvania. I took a break from cycling the next four weeks and increased my running mileage some. I didn’t really have a great plan for this 50K. Thankfully the weather gods helped by canceling the race two weeks before because of muddy trail conditions. I still had four vacation days open. Maybe do a bike tour, I thought.
Thinking about how Dad and I hiked across the state of New Hampshire, I wondered if it was possible to bike the state of New York from the south to the north along the Empire State Trail in the winter time. I checked the weather. 30 degrees most days, no precipitation except on the second day and possibly the last day of a four day trip. That was probably the best weather I could ask for in December for New York state. I checked the mileage, 400 miles total. That was the total not going along the Empire State Trail for the whole time. If I was going along the trail, it would be much longer and much hillier. This is how I would split it up:
Day One: Brooklyn to Kingston (116 miles)
Day Two: Kingston to Glen Falls (111 miles)
Day Three: Glens Falls to Plattsburgh (115 miles)
Day Four: Plattsburgh to Rouses Point, and back to Plattsburgh (61 miles)
I started to list the following “upgrades”needed for my road bike to make this bike tour possible:
Bike Rack: Ibera Touring Carrier
Saddle Bags: Waterfly Bike Bag
GoPro
Bike Lights
Bike Computer Edge 520 Plus
First Aid Kit
Other purchases I made for the trip were rain gear, backpacking food, and a pickup truck rental and train ticket for the return journey. With Doug’s help of hotel points, I was able to book hotels in Kingston, Glen Falls, and Plattsburgh.
Bike Tour ready bike.
The most helpful of these purchases would be the bike computer. Without it I wouldn’t be able to navigate safely; weather was too cold to trust having a phone working all of the time, and cell reception wouldn’t always be reliable. A bike computer would be reliable for the whole journey.
This spur of the moment trip had lots of risks. My family supported me, but they were also concerned about me traveling alone on a bike 400 miles. I did my best to reassure them, and myself, I would be safe. Having done the Appalachian Trail New Hampshire section with Dad earlier in the year gave me a lot of confidence to venture “into the unknown,” to quote Frozen 2. Looking back, I can’t believe how much chutzpah I had before this bike tour. But maybe it was really I had such desperation to get out of another bubble and see more of the world.
Crossing the Manhattan Bridge in the dead of morning.
Day One: Brooklyn to Kingston
Embarking on a trip during the shortest daylight days of year, I felt it best to leave the city early in the morning in hopes I’d get to Kingston before it got dark again around 4:30PM. I planned each bike day to be 10 hours including pit stops for nutrition and rest. At six in the morning I started my new bike computer, and saw no GPS signal. I got scared, but then remembered GPS signal doesn’t really work indoors. Have to get outside! Outside it was working, and soon I started cycling north and out of Brooklyn.
It’s really interesting cycling in the city at early morning. New York City really does sleep, from 4-8AM I’d say. I had much of the bridges and streets to myself making it a very safe ride through the city. Just because riding in the dark is more safe, it doesn’t mean you can be less cautious. The scariest accidents often times happen at night so you still have to be on the lookout for potential hazards. Many people, who are also out in the dark, thinking they’re the only ones out. I’m sorry if this sounds like I’m stating the obvious, but I strongly believe in being a careful cyclist. Cyclists always need to come back home. It’s easy to think like that before heading off for a ride, but it’s also very easy for the mind to wander on the ride.
Cycling cross country is as fun as it looks!
By the time I reached Riverside Drive in Manhattan’s Upper West Side the sun was out, and it started to get warmer. That temperature for the next few days wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t terrible either wearing a jacket, cross country ski pants, gloves, and toe covers. As long as there was no crazy precipitation like heavy rain or snow and the roads weren’t frozen, I’d be alright I thought.
Not too much longer I was in the Bronx, and entered Van Cortlandt Park, where the South County Bike Trailway starts. It was a relief to be out of the city and on a real bike path. Westchester County’s bike paths were incredibly well built and maintained, even the old bridges and tunnels along the path were well done. An interesting thing to note about the bike paths of Westchester County is that some of them were the old aqueduct paths for which New York City got their water supply. For about forty miles I was able to bike peacefully on paved bike paths that didn’t have much incline, but then I needed to verge off the path in the hilly hamlet of Carmel.
The rail trails in Westchester County are quite well maintained.
I marked Carmel’s Miller Hill before embarking on the bike tour, knowing it’d be the most difficult incline on the trip. I wasn’t looking forward to Miller Hill, but going over this hill was the only way my four day bike tour could work. After passing by one of the reservoirs around the outskirts of Carmel, my bike computer notified me to turn onto Miller Hill Road and showed a preview of the incline ahead. It’s nice to have a bike computer that gives you “spoilers,” bike touring is no time to be surprised navigation-wise.
The hill was grueling, but I made it to the top okay on low gear. However I forgot Miller Hill had a small crest and there was a steep downhill right afterwards. My momentum on the bike with the saddle bags and all made it harder to brake than I was used to so anytime there was a driveway I could pull off to I took that opportunity. Still though, I cycled down fairly quick. I didn’t even notice the Appalachian Trail that crossed over at the base of the hill.
The rest of the bike tour on Day One after Miller Hill was relatively smooth sailing. Before dusk I crossed the Rhinecliff Kingston Bridge over the Hudson River and made it to the hotel in Kingston. It wasn’t so much longer I took a hot shower, ate some dinner, and passed out. I slept like a baby.
Day Two: Kingston to Glens Falls
There was drizzle in Kingston that morning, and the weather throughout the day in the Hudson Valley would be misty. I made a note to myself to be extra careful on the roads especially when cycle in the dark. Though it was cold, the drizzle fortunately didn’t turn to snow. Many of the small towns outside of Kingston were still lit up with Christmas lights in the pre dawn, which certainly helped make it easier to see.
Feeling the Christmas Spirit early in the morning of Day 2.
The drizzle stopped an hour after starting from Kingston as I passed through a town called Cementon. As the name implies there was a cement plant, huge in size but completely abandoned. It was in this town I left my guard down forgetting about the slick roads. As I biked over a diagonal railway line, I slipped on the tracks and took a stumble.
Adrenaline kicked in and quickly assessed the damage. The bike appeared fine… Oh good! My pants didn’t rip… Road rash must not be too bad! Let’s see if I get up… Yes I can! Let’s see if you can get back pedaling… Yes that feels alright! Not at any point of assessing the damage did I think to check the parts of my body that hit the road: the right knee and my right hands. For better or for worse, I didn’t want to see the injuries and as long as it didn’t feel worse I was going to press on. Ignorance was bliss.
Still making good time, I reached New York’s state capitol of Albany around 10AM. In and around Albany along the Hudson, one could observe the forgotten places of New York seeing how homes and factories were abandoned and “Trump For President” signs were still up after the contested election from a month ago. It was a different New York, far from New York I came from where things were getting busier and people were celebrating the election. I remember Doug was cycling around Prospect Park in Brooklyn when everyone was notified on their phones that Joe Biden won and people cheered loudly in the park.
Brooklyn celebrating Biden’s victory.
Between Albany and my final destination of Day 2, it was open land without much cover from the wind or elements. It was manageable though. Near the Battle of Saratoga Historic Site I could see eagles and hawks flying over head, and people fishing between the islands where the Hudson River was much narrower than further down south where tankers passed through. There was on and off again rain in the later afternoon, but I made it to the hotel in Glen Falls without feeling too soaked. I put hand towels in my bike shoes, hung up my jacket for drying, and set the heat in my room full blast.
I checked my road rash wounds from earlier… The hand was okay, but the knee was a little bloody. With the first aid kit I was able to clean and bandage it up. I was lucky my slip wasn’t worse, I thought. For the next leg of the bike tour, I had to be more careful especially being in the Adirondacks Mountains and further away from civilization.
It didn’t stink I biked to a nice warm and dry hotel each night.
The bike tour day through the Adirondacks was the part of the journey I looked forward to the most. I was excited to see mountains and lakes similar to the ones I grew up exploring in New Hampshire. I also was hopeful I’d have more pleasant Adirondacks experience this time around than a few winters back.
While I was in college at Rochester Institute of Technology, an “Intro to Mountaineering” enrichment course “peaked” my interest and I signed up for the chance to mountaineer in the Adirondacks. The class would be during the dead of winter. I didn’t think much about it until I was in it. Weather was very windy and snow flurries all day and temperatures were in the single digits. The cold weather during the mountaineering and ice climbing wasn’t too bad. However when we camped for the night, the sleeping bags provided by the school had a temperature rating of 20°F. They didn’t do diddly. I even resorted to sleeping with all of my winter gear including mountaineering boots. Well we all lived to tell the tale, and passed the class! I wish to never be that cold again.
Day Three: Glens Falls to Plattsburgh
The morning would prove to be the most difficult part of the day with a long incline around the tourist destination town of Lake George. It wasn’t steep as Miller Hill but it was very long, four miles of uphill. After that, the course I set was relatively flat with only a few rolling hills. And after biking through early morning fog, the sun and warmer weather was out! It was the best weather I had on the tour, the Adirondacks wasn’t the winter wasteland I remembered. Take that “Intro to Mountaineering!”
It’s almost like I got the Adirondacks all to myself out here.
There had been points in the tour before that the road ahead got monotonous, but here in the Adirondacks every bend had nice views. Because Interstate 87 ran parallel to my course, there weren’t many people I had to share the road with. If anything happened to me out here, I was on my own. Well maybe not completely on my own, there were a few Stewart’s convenience stores I could swing by if was in a jam. I was very much at peace with myself out in these highlands.
Peaceful places such as the Adirondacks can make you wonder. I was thinking about how easy this bike life is, and then my thoughts started to trail into questions:
“Why not make this bike life, your life?”
“Why live in a busy big city, why not in a place like the Adirondacks?”
“Where do you want to be?”
“What do you want to be?”
This whole year I questioned complacency in all parts of my life. I didn’t like waiting. I didn’t want to be held back anymore. To feel completely free on the bike, it was exhilarating. I remember seeing a quote from the great Robin Williams, who said, “Riding a bike is the closest you can get to flying.” It really is true, but like the tale of Icarus you can fly too high and never make it home. You need to know your limits, and come back to earth. Good complacency is the home I want. I got out of the thought spiral, and returned to the journey. Still more miles to go on this bike tour.
By 1PM that day, I passed by the majestic falls of Ausable Chasm and could soon see… Vermont! That meant I was less than a hundred miles from Canada. I cycled along the western shores of Lake Champlain for the remaining part of the tour that day to Plattsburgh. Not sure if it had rained up at the lake before I was there, but I could see rainbows coming from the Vermont side of the lake. I liked the timing of these Vermont rainbows on this bike tour.
Rainbow coming from Vermont.
Day Four: Plattsburgh to Rouses Point to Plattsburgh to Poughkeepsie to Brooklyn
It would be a shorter bike tour day, but most likely still a very long day. I planned to cycle to the Canadian border, return to Plattsburgh, drive a truck rental down to Poughkeepsie, and hop on the Amtrak train to the big city. I woke up a little earlier that day to get a head start. I stepped outside and noticed it a bit chillier than yesterday. Guess I’ll just stop at the Stewart’s convenience stores along the way, I thought. Problem solved!
Not only was it colder, but there was no tree cover north of Plattsburgh. I felt all the breezes and all the winds. At least the elevation was very flat. This area was farm country, reminiscent of the upstate New York I was more familiar with in Rochester. Farmers were up early that morning too, making this stretch one of the busiest times traffic wise on the trip. And when I thought I had the road for myself for a little bit, I saw a little fox crossing the road.
I see Canada over there to my left!
After 30 miles of cycling through farm country and passing by some bilingual English French signs, I reached the border. I made it! I could even walk into Canada if I wanted to, there isn’t even a picket fence dividing the border. With only closed border crossing buildings and stone markers along the border, there wasn’t really any enforcement up there. I was surprised.
I bike toured a more scenic and lightly less direct route on the way back to Plattsburgh through the town of Rouses Point and along the northwest shore of Lake Champlain. There was some more wind cover along here. I still needed to stop at Stewart’s to get my hands and feet warm though. As I reached the car rental, it started to snow. Thank goodness my bike tour was done. I couldn’t wait to get home. That excitement of wanting to come home made the truck drive and Amtrak train travel all the quicker. It no longer felt like a long journey.
Cycling for me was and always has been a return to feeling free and one with the world. Please take it from me, cycling is one of the best gifts you can give yourself. And you don’t need to get the full experience of cycling by going on long bike tours. The only requirement of cycling: come home.
Three and a half days of bike touring the Empire State.
