Great Hudson Valley Pedal, Aug 15-20

Bicycle riders milling around our area at Sage College, Albany Campus. We camped here and rode away at eight in the morning. There were 150 riders on this tour.

I cast my (western) eye on the sky the evening before, and thought it safe. I didn't put up my tent, but slept on my large tarp. When it began to rain, I pulled it over me thinking the rain would be over shortly and I'd be fine. But after half an hour, water began to leak through. Moreover, I'd failed to cover my feet. Amazingly, I was wet but not cold!

In the morning I wrang out my cheap fleece sleeping bag, put it in a mesh bag that I'd brought, and put it in the truck along with my other bags. It was dry that afternoon! It's amazing that anything dried in that eastern humidity, but it must have been hot inside that truck. Had I brought my down sleeping bag, I'm sure it would have been wet for the duration of the trip.

Much of our cycling would be along roads and through towns like this one. There were a few times when we were bicycling on busy, scary roads with little or no shoulder--but that was not common. In general, the route selection and marking had been/was good.