biketrips

The group woke up early and made the short ride to the lakeshore to catch a morning ferry. We enjoyed a scenic ferry ride up Lake George, playing games and enjoying the scenery. When we arrived in Ticonderoga, we enjoyed a spontaneous swim before starting the day’s riding. Our first stop was a Walmart where we stocked up on food and sports equipment. We put on a lot of sunscreen in preparation for the long, hot ride to our campsite. During the ride we crossed into a new state! (Vermont). Our Vermont campsite was gorgeous, and some of the group enjoyed a beautiful sunset swim in nearby Lake Champlain. Looking forward to Burlington tomorrow!

Our longest and most adventurous day yet! The group traversed more than 40 miles of beautiful New York terrain. Partway through we stopped for a break in the city of Hudson to explore and then continued on to our dinner stop, a secluded pizza shop. The owner took a photo of the group to put up on the shop wall (attached). We rolled into camp before it got dark and enjoyed a sunset swim, the highlight of the day. Everyone is excited to reach Albany tomorrow!

The group woke up early in preparation for a busy day with lots of riding and activities. We enjoyed a hotel buffet breakfast, and at the insistence of the group we picked up speakers from a nearby store so the group could enjoy music throughout the trip. We went on the pedestrian bridge over the Hudson (photo attached) and then made our way to the FDR National Historic Site for an educational tour. We reached our campsite at Mills Norrie State Park and had a great time making dinner together while listening to music. Onward!

The group found its groove on the second day. Despite doing more than double the first day’s mileage (plus a lot of hills), we navigated our way to Fishkill. On the way, we stopped in the village of Cold Spring to enjoy lunch and explore. When we arrived at the hotel, the group enjoyed pizza. Everyone was excited to sleep in a bed. We need to get well-rested for a big day tomorrow which includes a tour of FDR’s house. Stay tuned!

FIRST DAY!!! After collecting all the Trekkers in the morning we enjoyed some food and introductions in a park near Tarrytown Station. The first day of riding to Croton Point Park was a huge success, despite some brutal hills. With the way that the Trekkers navigated the way and helped each other, you would never guess it was their first day riding together. When we arrived at the park a Trekker’s family generously provided an ice cream cake decorated with a map of our trip! The group cooked a delicious and nutritious dinner (after dessert, of course) and enjoyed spending time together. Headed to Fishkill tomorrow!

Le Bulk today. Le Cut tomorrow. Understand. The duality of man. Today, le bulk of le biking was knocked out by 10:30am. Le bulk of le group gear was le cut when we shipped it out at UPS before catching the Bainbridge Ferry. Direct to the Center for Bicycle Repair, a clinical name for a great guy, Cory, who took 11 bikes to ship on short notice, and proferred city lore and the best spots to continue Le Bulk. Le Bulk resumed at Humble Pie, one pie apiece. We le cut straight to the hostel, ducking riff raff with le bus, read, showered, chessed and pursued trivia before heading to Ivar’s Acres of Clams, where Le Bulk was sent into overdrive. Understand, we ate an exorbitant amount of high quality surf and turf. Let me tell you, we then went a block for triple scoops of ice cream. Le Bulk was le’d to rest.  Boardwalk magician patter pushed us to the Ferris wheel for a romantic view of the city, then sleepy chatter shifted us into dream gear. We read for 18 days. Books. Roads. Faces of strangers. Biking cadence of new friends. Hacky sack vectors. Plant varietals. Traffic patterns. Cloud omens. Maps. Stars. Perhaps they provided a glimpse into the future. Certainly, they will one day be a bright spot in picture books of the past. Pride, relief, confidence. Freshly elasticized boundaries of comfort. Newly myelinated axons. Candy paint on the neurons. Out of black and white, into the world where nothing is certain, yet everything is possible. The joy of adventure. The peace of home. Le Bulk of novelty. Le Cut of security. The duality of life. But life, unlike tires, derailleurs, shifters, brakes, pedals, is non-dual. We stepped into the river, emerging same, but different.

As we, the NYC to Montreal teen trekkers, conclude our adventure, we put our last day in Montreal to good use. Before heading to the big apple, we started our day making a family style brunch feast in the hostel, complete with eggs, sausages, and piles of pancakes. We took our bikes for one more spin in Canada on a trip to the underground city and made sure to find some classic Canadian Poutine. We dodged some stormy weather with a movie and ended the day with mediterranean food for dinner before boarding the overnight bus to the city.  Now, as we reflect on our new friendships and memories made over the past 2 weeks, we wanted to share a rapid fire list of trip highlights. Group highlights are listed below (in no particular order):

Today felt perfect. Polished to a zamboni driver’s exacting standards. Gleaming like a drill sergeant’s rifle. Smoother than a ball of butter in a wind tunnel.  Five miles straight downhill to Safeway. Hacky sack and shopping. Sixteen percent of the day complete. Coastal bike path, all day. Hardly hilly. Parks straight off the trail. Lunch, a breeze. Bathroom stops with dedicated maintenance. Bridges over streams, boardwalks above the canopy. Spirits in the clouds. Cruising as a unit, with double digit miles per hour, a rare feat for our crew.  Halfway done by lunch meant eyes moving towards sweet conical dairy. Four miles later, in Sequim, pronounced with a silent “e”, we descended upon the espresso and ice cream shop. The young clerk’s eyes bulged. This is more scooping than his poor arm can handle. Twenty six scoops. $13 an hour. Godspeed, kid. The cobbled patio held us. The cones disappeared. We basked. We rode another seven and the day was done. Now Bayside, we swim in Sequim.  Isaiah, Robyn and Zach’s chili dinner silenced the doubters. Meat, veggies, and fistfuls of shredded cheddar to congeal it properly.  We rode as one unit, a peloton. French for platoon, or “small detachment”. Further back, it can be traced to Middle French pelote — “little ball”. That’s fun. Our little ball rolls on, ala Katamari Damacy, a 2004 videogame closer to art. The phrase, “Katamari Damacy” translates from Japanese to “clump spirit”, and denotes the highly adhesive ball which The King of All Cosmos tasks his son, The Prince, with rolling around in order to create new stars, which the king has accidentally destroyed. Pobody’s Nerfect. In time, the ball grows in scale. Lawn flamingos become cities become stars become constellations. But the mechanics are the same. We live as a katamari ball, and every new destination connects little burning stars of youth, constellating experiences into wisdom. These experiences eventually gather around the nucleus of self and we become adults. The bikes become car seats become booster seats become box seats. The scale of life changes, but the core mechanics remain intact. We can always trace the way back from the oak to the acorn, pull the thread and begin again.