( my pics are huge so bear with it)
The first real ride of the season and it was just about as perfect as you can get. The weather was great. Sunny, 75, light cool north wind, and virtually no traffic. I have to give a big thanks to Pat. He led the whole ride from memory and did an outstanding job. We pretty much went everywhere we could think of and I don't think we stopped once to turn around because we missed a turn or went the wrong way. The whole ride was smooth as can be.
Here's an idea f where we went. The green dot is start off of the pallisades and red is end in Brooklyn, the Heavy blue line is the route we took. For details you're going to have to come out with us one day.
I met up with Patricks2r, Zack, Tall Dan from Suspects unlimited and a DMF'r sgollapalle in the morning around 9. We headed off first stop was the usual 106 at Bear. It was in pretty good shape. From there I'm not sure where we went Pat is going to have to fill in the blanks, I usually just ride and don't pay too much attention. I know we rode for a while and hit Port Jervis around 12:30.
We were going to go to Hawk's Nest but decided to take a detour to PA, we stopped for lunch at some place in Kittatiny that Pat has always wondered about. It was a cool looking log cabin deal on the mighty Esopus river. We sat outside on the back deck and had some lunch.
Ram Rod
sgollapalle from DMF
Emo Pat
After Lunch sgollapalle had to bail and get home but we continued riding. It was great meeting him. We made our way back to Hawk's Nest. We even did a little dirt riding on an all gravel road. It wouldn't be a ride without at least one.
The Italian thinks its better than us.
( Photo courtesy of Dan)
By that time I believe it was about 5:00. We were deciding what to do. Should we call it a day, go grab some beer, or keep riding? There was some talk of heading up to the Adirondacks and making it a super Epic ride.
Heading off again on some more roads, there were virtually no cars on the back roads and the four of us were able to really let loose and have a blast. This was by far the best ride I have ever done. There were no issues, cops, breakdowns, crashes or anything, The weather was perfect and the roads were in great shape.
We stopped at about 8:30 at the Guilded Otter Brewery in New Paltz where we were going to stop for lunch 8 hours before. After a much deserved beer we decided to call it a day and slabbed it home. The usual ride home shenanigans occurred but it wasn't too bad. Dan led us on a " faster way home" which took us into Manhatten on probably the busiest night of the year yet.
WE all got home safe and in one piece. The palm of my wrist is still numb. I ended up riding a total of 540 miles. Not a bad way to start off the season. Lets get some more of these days in this year. We've been slacking. I thoroughly enjoyed ripping through the twisty s with some great guys.
Hopefully some more of you guys will come out on future rides.
some of Patricks2r's pics
Dan's Pics
