Thomas is in town, so we are off Saturday morning for a ride! Great idea if only the weather would cooperate.
So we are out the door by 10:30 am, and 1000 yards north on Regent we start feeling rain drops. Ha! So much for planning. We continue into the 44F spring air. My fingers begin to freeze.
Old Niskayuna whips past at an ever-increasing speed approaching 14 mph, we cross Nott, spin down to the left on Hillside Ave, to spill out onto Maxon Extension to the Freeman's Bridge. We swing right onto the white line protected bike lane and take advantage of the westerly wind blowing down the Mohawk to propel ourselves to the left hand turn lane lining up for the turn onto Sunnyside. The traffic parts, the only cars are still near the last light, so we roll on through.
It's getting colder, if that's at all possible, without snow, and my fingers now hurt. The thumb is numb.
We spin out onto Washington, past Bill's place, onto the Cuthbert. We admire the smooth pavement, shovel-ready, and turn right onto Vley. As usual there is the 18 mph discussion on what to do next . . . Ridge Rd. notoriously steep, right past the former 'Tavern' historical sign OR 147 a little fast, shoulder is OK, or continue on the road to Route 5 and its windy fast traffic, and do the Glenville Hills climbs from the lowest possible altitude, like real men! We go for 147 north, the lesser of the several climbing evils.
The grind begins, and Greg Lemond is doing OK but panting some. It's the spring and he's been working on Long Island with its alpine sections measured in feet gain in elevation not 100s to 1000s like around here. . . or the Battenkill. Ha.
On the right, we pass the Beukendaal 1748 sign along with the one about the Old Sacandaga Rd. Cool historical markers. Makes the ride seem worth the wait.
So we top out near Snake Hill Rd. turn but opt for a little longer ride north, before ducking down Bolt Rd. Everywhere trees are beginning to leaf in, buds are everywhere and a few of the earlier flowers are out. I can hear a mower or a leaf blower going in the distance.
We go to the end and turn right onto Swaggertown. We are both a bit lost on which of the roads parallel what--Ridge, Rte 147, Swaggertown and Rte 50 is the correct order we remember. Tool on in the generally southerly direction declining options on taking Onderdonk (primarily for the name of the road), Droms (for the chance to go around the Indian Meadows Park piece thinking about the connection to Maple Ave and the Rexford Bridge way back) and settle on following Swaggertown all the way back to Horstman cut-through to the parking lot of the new Honda dealership, may the Chevy dealer rest in peace, to Hwy 50.
The first piece is a wreck but around the new Lowe's home and garden center, the pavement is smooth and well-marked, with fair room for bikes on the shoulder. In no time we're back on the bridge itself, and go up Seneca past the new industrial/warehouse all bricked in a lawn planted the weird green of the turf-builder spray stuff. Nice building. Wonder who's moving in?
We wiggle around through the back streets out onto Nott, onto Grand, past the high school holding a lacrosse game. 'Rough sport' says Greg Lemond, as we cruise past. We're up to 1 h 30 m for a little outing and now beginning to think about hot chocolate and wiping down our bikes and behinds.
Fingers still hurt.
Why did we go out so early?? The cloud cover is lifting, the sun is peeking out and it's actually looking rather nice.
Now we have to clean up the bikes.
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