After a relaxing time in the pool the night before at the Comfort Inn, day 10 was East Greenbush to Kingston. My phone was dead so I would be strictly following the directional signs for the Empire State Trail. Luckily, I had already ridden the Albany to Hudson leg of this trip so I was familiar with the area.
Heading south from East Greenbush most of the Empire State Trail is on the Albany Electric Trail and is beautiful. Although it's stone dust, it is very well maintained and like a finely crushed powder. The Albany Electric Trail was one of the largest missing pieces in the Empire State Trail, and the state negotiated with utility companies to use the corridor. All along the trail are wonderful interpretive signs showing the history of the nearby towns and villages.
East and south of the hotel I entered Nassau, NY. Although now a suburb of Albany, Nassau Lake used to be a weekend getaway for locals. It still has a nice vibe.
As I crossed I-90 I entered the Hudson Valley. South of I-90 seems just outside the commuting radius of Albany and has a bucolic landscape. I biked through Valatie (pronouced vah-lay-shuh) and I passed a cute bicycle shop called Velo Domestique right on the trail. This was a good example of trail-oriented development.
Past Valatie, I entered Kinderhook, home of our 8th President, Martin Van Buren.
Beyond Kinderhook, I passed through an especially beautiful area, Stuyvesant Falls. This town had an old textile mill and there is some signage explaining this history of the town. I came across a nice group of cyclists in this area who were on a day ride from Albany. They cheered me on which gave me a confidence boost. A number of the riders swore by using the Redshift Shockstop Suspension Stem. By this point my hands were quite tired and uncomfortable from so many days riding, and this stem seemed like a good way to save my hands.
As I kept winding southward I approached Hudson. On the outskirts of Hudson was the AT&T store where I had hoped to repair my phone screen. Once inside, the gentleman indicated that they "do not repair phones" and suggested I buy a new phone. Ugh. A tugboat captain milling outside the store was nice enough to let me use his phone to google cell phone repair shops. I found the closest one was in a Wal-Mart in Kingston, another 30 miles away! ARGH!
For lunch I stopped on Warren Street in downtown Hudson, at Nolita's Cafe. It's a cute sandwich shop run by a filipino family, and they have delicious paninis. I got a pesto chicken panini which hit the spot.
Hudson, among all towns in the Hudson Valley has gone through some of the most radical changes over the last 50 years. Formerly a whaling town in the 19th century, Hudson was famous for illegal gambling and brothels in the first half of the 20th century. Towards the 1970s and 1980s it declined dramatically, only to be "found" by people from NYC as a second home area. It now is gentrified, with expensive boutiques and antique shops lining Warren Street. Hudson is also known in the numismatic community for having an extremely rare 50 cent piece minted in its honor. Although the Empire State Trail does not bring you down Warren Street, I highly recommend going off the Empire State Trail north of downtown and coming in at Warren Street near 7th street and cruising the downtown!
South of Hudson, some hilly on-road terrain begins. As I pulled out of Hudson I was met with a very large hill until I arrived at the intersection of Route 9G and Route 23. An important pro tip for all cyclists: the Empire State Trail signage had me stay to the right down an enormous hill, to a roundabout and back up a huge hill to get back up on the trail. This is not necessary, just take a left on Route 23 here. It feels like the state just didn't want to do the hard work of accommodating cyclists at this intersection.
After being on route 23 for a little bit, I turned off onto Columbia County Route 103 and went through country roads for a while. I enjoyed this area thoroughly despite the hilly terrain. The route passes charming downtown Germantown. I bumped into some fellow cyclists stopping at Otto's Market, a cute local market. After eating a delicious homemade chocolate cookie, I was back on the road to get to Kingston before the cell phone shop closed at 6 pm.
South of Germantown the Empire State Trail winds it way into Dutchess County, passing through the hamlet of Tivoli. Past Tivoli, it goes partially through the Bard College campus and here is where the signage failed me. I couldn't tell exactly how to get to the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge and accidentally got onto State Route 9, a truck route. After a few miles on this treacherous stretch of road, I reached State Route 199 which took me over the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge.
About the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge: there is no easy way to cross it on bicycle. My solution was to disobey the "no cycling" signs in the very narrow pedestrian area and biked across the bridge this way. Luckily I did not encounter any pedestrians or other cyclists on the path, but if I had it would have been a tight squeeze. The other option was biking with traffic on a narrow two lane bridge, which did not look appealing either, as cars seemed to be speeding. Nothing about biking over this bridge is fun.
The bridge spit me out north of Kingston, in an area that was not very bike friendly. I had to ascend an enormous hill to reach the Wal-Mart on 9W outside Kingston. Luckily, the cell phone shop in the wax-mart had a replacement screen and I was back in business after a day and a half without a cell phone. Phew.
There are a few important things to be said about hotels in Kingston. North of Kingston, where I stayed has a bunch of moderately priced hotels. All of these are near Route 9W which is on top of a huge hill in a suburban shopping area. I stayed at the Courtyard Marriot Kingston, which did have a nice pool. This area is not friendly to cyclists in any way. Downtown Kingston has a few hotels but from what I saw they were all very expensive (over $300/night). It's unfortunate hotels are so expensive in the downtown area because that is where all the cool shops and restaurants are. The cheaper hotels are basically all near the Wal-Mart!
For dinner I ate at A Slice of Italy, a red sauce Italian joint just down the road from my Courtyard by Marriot in Kingston. My chicken parmesan was excellent and hit the spot after a very long day on the road.
Stay tuned for Day 11 - Kingston to Mahopac, where I hit some smog from wildfires, go over the Walkway over the Hudson, and do my longest day of the trip, over 80 miles!
Comments