Great Hudson Valley Pedal, August 2006

I signed up today for what I think will be a really neat bicycle tour!

It'll go from Albany, New York, down the Hudson River to Battery Park at the tip of Manhattan. Then there'll be a shuttle back to Albany for me and my bike. This will be in August of 2006.

I'll drive to Albany from Colorado because this will dovetail very nicely with my plan to photograph all along Highway 50. I'll do that both coming and going.

The bicycle tour by Parks & Trails New York is only 172 miles in six days, so it won't be a
challenging ride. But there's much to see and visit while bicycling through "the landscape that defined America." The days will be quite full.

Day one will go from Albany to Hudson and cross the Rip Van Winkle Bridge. Next day will be a ride to Hyde Park for a layover day (during which there will be an optional loop ride to New Paltz). Hyde Park was the home of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

The fourth day will be a ride to Highland Falls past several Revolutionary War sites. Also past Locust Grove, the home of Samuel Morse who invented the telegraph.

On the fifth day, we'll bicycle to Nyack. First stop: the military academy at West Point. Then we'll go through the Hudson River gorge, where it essentially cuts through the Appalachian Mountains. There's Bear Mountain State Park along the Hudson, and then the town of Nyack with shops and eating places.

Day six goes along the Palisades, which are part of an interstate park. We'll cross the George Washington Bridge (over which I've only driven a truck, never a bicycle) and go down the Hudson River Trail (no cars) to Battery Park at the very tip of Manhattan. That's it! The shuttle will go back to Albany that same day, and then I'll head south for more photography along Highway 50. Home to Colorado a few days later....