American Bald Eagle (Honest)

I didn't fully feel like riding today, but the weather forecast for the next three days is pretty dismal -- cold and wet -- so I thought I had better take advantage of today's relatively warm and sunny climate.

My concession was to do a fairly routine training ride -- over the George Washington bridge and then North on the so-called River Road, which has four pretty steep climbs, until you reach the Alpine Police Station about 15 miles in (excellent bathroom and water bottle refilling station!). Then I typically return along NJ's Route 9W (very nice and wide shoulder), which is flatter and much easier.

Here's the route and related stats:


The ride was a little unusual in two respects. First, the normal bike path across the George Washington Bridge (on its South side) was closed. The Port Authority does this from time to time for reasons unknown to me -- but, as far as I know, Gov. Christie has nothing to do with it. The problem is that the path on the North side is littered with stairwells that you have to lug your bike up and down -- so you actually arrive on the NJ side with slightly tired legs!

The saving grace is that the view North from the bridge, without the intervening roadway, is pretty darn nice!

The second unusual aspect is that I actually saw an American Bald Eagle! Now I don't want you to think I used my own, ahem, "eagle" eyes to spot it. There were two photographers set up on the River Road (the road that goes along the Hudson on the NJ side, up the Palisades), with cameras with huge telephoto lenses, pointed up at the trees, so of course I stopped to see what was up. And, actually, I shouldn't say "of course," since at least a half-dozen riders went by during my pause without evidencing even a whiff of curiosity (let's give them the benefit of the doubt, though, maybe they had already seen it?).

But sure enough, visible even with my naked eye (although the photographers were also kind enough to let me look through their viewfinders), was an American Bald Eagle, tending to a nest with three chicks in it (I only saw one, but accepted the photographers' assurances that there were a total of three).

My photographic evidence is below. A tad fuzzy and indistinct, I admit, but better than Apple's recent attempt to capture Nessie up at Loch Ness! (the eagle is in the upper left quadrant of the photo).

Even without a Bald Eagle, riding the River Road is a scenic fest. Here's another two photos:

The Little Red Lighthouse is visible at the base of the Bridge!

Taking a pause on the largely untraveled River Road....

And, for what it's worth, since I'm writing the post a full week later (I'm going to have to be more disciplined in California!), it was pretty much rainy and miserable for the next three days, so heading out today, even for a "mere" 30 miles, was a good call!

Some Croton Photos

So I thought my phone and new RidewithGPS program had "eaten" my photos from my training ride on April 26th from Croton Harmon, but I "discovered" them in an unexpected folder and thought I'd still share them -- if only to incent those of you in NYC who have never done this ride to give it a shot!

Croton Harmon cemetery

Dam across the Croton Reservoir (pedestrians and bikers only!)

Croton Reservoir overflow

Croton Gorge Park (picture shot looking downstream from the top of the Dam)

Westchester County bike path across the Reservoir

A Bike, a Bike, My Kingdom for a Bike

No ride today (cloudy, cold and windy), so I'll elaborate a bit on yesterday's ride -- or more specifically, the bike I chose to ride (from among the three I own). It's probably my favorite bike: a hybrid, made by Focus (a German company) with upright handlebars, fenders, reasonably wide tires (32mm), a rear rack and hydraulic disc brakes. It's mostly aluminum, but it's not a particularly light bike, so I use it more for city riding and commuting than for long distances -- but it's so much fun to ride that I can't always resist taking it out for my longer-distance training rides (and with rain yesterday a possibility that turned into a reality, fenders and disc brakes were a big benefit).

The Focus Hybrid

My alternative rides are, first, my Surly Disc Trucker, the all steel road bike I rode cross-country. It has the advantage of incredible comfort -- the steel is very forgiving on road bumps, as is the slightly longer wheelbase and wider tires (38mm). It also has drop handlebars (good for plowing through a headwind), front and rear racks (good for touring), and fenders and mechanical disc brakes (good for rain). But all this comes with a sizeable disadvantage -- it's really heavy! So I feel virtuous if I train with it, but doing so before I've built up some strength and stamina poses a larger challenge. I actually rode it a week ago, on a round trip to Nyack (taking the hilly route) and, I must admit, for the next two days my legs kinda regretted it. Here's a picture of that bike, as well as last Sunday's route.

My cross-country Surly Disc Trucker

Last, but not least, is my Cannondale R800 -- an all-aluminum road bike that, at this point, is over 10 years old. It's fast, it's light (with narrow 23mm tires and aero rims with only 16 spokes), but it's very stiff and doesn't do a great job of absorbing road shock, an increasing consideration as I get older and my back gets a bit stiffer itself. So I don't ride it all that much these days. However, I did take it for a quick spin nine days ago (30 miles up to Alpine Station in NJ and back) and was reminded how nice it is to ride such a lightweight bike. Can you handle one more picture and route?

The oldie but goodie -- Cannondale R800

So what does this all have to do with Climate Ride California, other than depicting my indecisiveness about training? Well, I also had to decide which bike to ride in California -- one of these three (and, if so, which one)?  Or, like I did last year, should I rent a bike in advance from a local shop in San Francisco that will be ready and waiting for me when I get there?

Not actually that tough a decision. The bike I rented last year was just fine, after I took some pains to fit it to me properly. This involved bringing out my own saddle and pedals and, once there, buying a stem post extender, to raise the handlebars, and a rear rack that clips to the seat post, to handle my daily cargo. But the key determinant was not having to deal with shipping a bike in either direction and/or bringing it with me on a plane. Good bike carriers are expensive and, even then, they remain a pain to lug through airports and you still risk having a baggage handler sling it around like a hammer throw and snapping off a derailleur bracket or something equally fragile. Plus you have to disassemble and reassemble your bike in each direction (to varying degrees depending on your carrier). 

I did it once, about twenty-five years ago on a tour to British Columbia, and I remember being up half the night trying to disassemble my bike and fitting it into the bike carrier, then struggling to wheel the unwieldy package through the airport, and then attempting to put the whole thing back together somewhere on a street in Banff. Ugh. The carriers are much better these days, so maybe I'll take the plunge again one day, but not quite yet.....

Training's Starting (Late as usual....)

Time to get this show on the road! So to speak. I leave for California in 19 days and my training to date has been....well....pretty non-existent. Am I taking this 4-day, 250 mile trip too lightly after cruising cross-country in 2012 for 4,000 miles over 85 days? Possibly, but I prefer to blame the crappy NYC Winter and late-coming Spring. It's been cold, blustery, rainy and snowy for a long time -- and just not very conducive overall to fun riding.

So I've done my best to stay in a modicum of shape with regular morning spin classes at the Flywheel studio on the Upper West Side. They last for 45 minutes each and give you a heck of a cardio workout -- but, in truth, I don't think they do much to prepare you for outdoor biking. What spin class really does, I think, is prepare you for....more spinning. Not a lot of translation in my experience, so far, to outdoor actual riding (although I do find spin helps with not getting winded walking up subway stairs!). Although, maybe, spinning has marginally improved my outdoor riding position -- spin instructors regularly remind you to put less weight on the handlebars and use your core muscles to stabilize and provide strength to your legs -- concepts that apply well outdoors too.

But I definitely need a bunch of outdoor actual riding time, and today's forecast looked like the best I was going do this weekend, reaching into the mid-60s and partly sunny, but marred by a steady 10 to 20 mph NW wind. Hmmm. I kind of felt like doing one of my standard rides: North on the Westchester County bike trail to Croton Harmon (about 48 miles), which is fun because I then return on the Harlem-Hudson train (yes, bikes now allowed) and avoid going over the same ground on my return. But with the wind blowing as it was, I decided to give myself a break and reverse my usual pattern -- I took the train first -- up to Croton-Harmon -- and then rode back to NYC with a generous tailwind! Not bad thinking....although not necessarily as good training as the other way around. But I'm just getting started (I hope).

If you've never done the ride, it's quite gorgeous (ask my sister-in-law, Karen, pictured below on the ride, to whom I introduced it last year). You spend the first 10 miles or so cruising alongside the vast Croton reservoir, including crossing the Croton Dam, which separates the reservoir (a good thing!) from the park immediately below it. Then you hit the Westchester Country trailway and are on a protected, relatively empty bike path (especially compared to NYC's Greenway). All the way back to Van Cortland Park in the Bronx.

So that's what I did, stopping occasionally to take a photo (all somehow subsequently lost on the new phone GPS mapping app I was testing!) or wolf down a PowerBar or, at one point, a six-inch Subway sandwich. Not exactly high cuisine, but otherwise all well and good. And even a bit of a rain shower once I hit the Bronx didn't spoil the energy and good feel of the ride.

In case you're wondering whether I forgot how to do it, here is today's route:

Karen on a bridge spanning the Croton reservoir

And if you're reading this far and haven't yet donated in support of my upcoming Climate Ride, please consider doing so by clicking here. Many thanks in advance!