Posts tagged #Biking

An Adventure along Harlem Valley Rail Trail and the Culture hub Wassaic

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Wassaic

A couple of months ago we loaded the bikes onto our car and drove to Wassaic. Just like many other small villages and hamlets around Dutchess County, Wassaic has roots from the 1700’s. You can get to Wassaic by taking Metro North and Harlem line from 125th street in East Harlem. We’ve been here before, but that time we ventured into the old mill, Wassaic Project, and discovered cool art. Wassaic is not only known for Wassaic Project, but this is also the start of the Harlem Valley Rail Trail that can take you to Millerton, and soon even farther. It is almost 20 miles in total (to Millerton and then back to Wassaic again), so it is still below the 25 miles or so we did in the city that nearly killed me. And now, when I finally press publish we’ve returned to Wassaic many more times, and even done the bike ride yet a second time. The second time was right after it had finally been official that Biden had won the election. There were celebrations in Millerton with a small parade, and at Wassaic Lantern Inn they served Victory Milk Punch. Maybe it’s not that hard to figure out what political view many of the cool places around here have. There are plenty of supporters of the other party here too, so don’t be fooled.

You could think that Wassaic is yet another little small and boring village, or hamlet, but I think Wassaic is up and coming, slow and steady. Maybe we should even buy a house here, if we had the money. Not yet, but maybe a project for the future.

Harlem Valley Rail Trail

We were pretty stoked even before we started to pedal along the rail trail. Everything felt so great, the move, the countryside, the nature, the cool places we’ve found. We biked past horses and cows, that is the most common animals to see around here, because we live in the countryside now. Harlem Valley Rail Trail follows the old railroad and also all the old villages and hamlets.

We arrived to Millerton surprisingly fast, and what a cute place. Millerton is a lot bigger than Wassaic, which mean more people. We walked along Main Street and found out that there are more than one antique store here. That seem to be the rule, at least two antique stores and one diner.

After some ice-coffe and a small lunch we got back up on the bikes and started the ride back to Wassaic. It felt a lot faster to get back, and I think it is slightly uphill to get to Millerton, which gives you some good speed coming back to Wassaic.

Culture

I mentioned earlier that Wassaic feels like a small culture hub out here in the countryside. And besides Wassaic Project this little hamlet has Wassaic Commons, which probably reminds you of a small farmers market but you can also rent a bike here, or fix your own bike if it needs some light tuning. During the summer and late fall Wassaic also have a small pop up stand where they have sold everything from bread to LP records. Wassaic Lantern Inn is an old hotel and speakeasy bar that just turned 130 years. Wassaic Lantern Inn was actually bought by the owners of Wassaic Project and they are old real estate developers from the big city. It is worth mentioning that the chef at the lantern inn has worked at a Michelin star restaurant in the big city, and the food is really really good. Recently we discovered that there used to be a brewery here too. Unfortunately they got so popular that they outgrew the space in Wassaic and moved to Brooklyn. It would have been the last deciding reason to move to Wassaic otherwise, hehe. Apparently it also used to be a dream for the owners of Lantern Inn and Wassaic Project to establish a brewery in town, not sure why they never went for it. We have been to Wassaic Lantern Inn many times now and it is one of the only places we have been to that serve food and drinks since the pandemic started in March. They only serve food and drinks outside and face masks while you order and walk in and out of the beer garden is a must. Last weekend was the final days for outside dining though so if anyone wants to enjoy their food they have to order take out from now on. I hope we will be able to enjoy their food outside in their beer garden in the spring, as long as this pandemic is under control.

Posted on December 5, 2020 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Countrylife and tagged 2020 Wassaic Wassaic Lantern Inn New York Life New York State Biking Rail Trail Harlem Valley Rail Trail Life in USA Dutchess County Country Life biking Hamlet Culture.

When we Biked to Battery Park and Across the Brooklyn Bridge - Life in NYC

June 28, 2020

You couldn’t stay indoors all the time of course, at least not now in June when the number of virus cases had dropped so much. So we went on another bike ride. This time we headed towards Battery Park and the most southern tip of Manhattan. We started off by biking across Manhattan towards Riverside Park (from the east side to the west side). There we had a breakfast bagel, from one of the famous bagel shops I don’t remember the name of before we headed south. The bagels were no sensation, but they tasted good. The whitefish topping was definitely the go to at this place, quite suprisingly since I always love the lox option. It was the end of June, and just like any other day it was hot. Very hot.

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Up north on Manhattan we didn’t really have any bike traffic, but as with everything it started to pick up as we made our way south. Or that could maybe also be explained by the fact that the bike trail narrows here and there down there.

Eventually we arrived to an empty Battery Park. It wasn’t until then we actually felt how hot it was. We both felt very exhausted and went to some of the park benches in the shadow to relax a bit. To my surprise it seemed as if the boats that take you to Ellis Island had started to take customers again.

We started to move towards the east side of the southern tip, and started the long way home.

As we approached Brooklyn Bridge I don’t know what flew into me, but I yelled to W, - Don’t you think we should bike across the Brooklyn Bridge now when there are so few people in the city? I had been so tired, and I was still pretty tired, but the thought of finally biking across the Brooklyn Bridge energized me. Of course this was also in the midst of all the protest going on, and rightfully so. The case of defunding the police is very complicated but somethings got to change, seriously. If you haven’t already check the play by play of Breanna Taylors murder. It’s actually kind of disturbing and makes me so angry, but that is a totally different story, and what is even more disturbing is that there are countless of other stories like this one.

I guess that after the trip over to Brooklyn we really started the long way home. Not only did we do Brooklyn Bridge, but we also decided to take on Williamsburg Bridge while we were at it. I know, don’t ask me what we were thinking. It was a bit complicated to follow the bike route to the famous pink Williamsburg bridge but we finally arrived and got back to Manhattan.

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At this point we were all out of water and the heat, talk about the heat. I was not in a good mood and needed some energy. Luckily we found a vending machine that carried Gatorade and the day was saved.

About 25 miles later, and several hours from the start in Riverside park we finally got to our street in East Harlem. I could hardly carry my bike up the stairs. But as I was laying on the floor in our cold apartment I silently promised myself to never ever do that again.

Posted on September 25, 2020 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Life in New York and tagged Big City Life 2020 Manhattan New York City Brooklyn Brooklyn Bridge biking Black Lives Matter Bike adventure Life in NYC Biking Biking in New York City.

We Took The Bike North - a New York City Bike Excursion

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Biking in the BIG City

We went biking the other day, north this time. There are bike lanes, unprotected and some a bit more protected, that will guide you through the traffic all the way over to the West Harlem Piers. Here there are no cars to fight with, and instead there is a bike path that sometimes is shared with pedestrians. I once got hit by a car while biking in Madison, so I really appreciate the bike path. It is so green here, and relaxing even though you have the cars to the right of you, behind a bunch of trees. If you go south on this bike path you can continue all the way down to Battery Park, maybe not completely on a separated greenway but still.

The Little Red Lighthouse

I had one goal for this bike trip, to see the little red lighthouse. As we came closer to George Washington, or GW bridge which many people refer it to, we saw these stacks of stones that someone made along the shoreline. And before we knew it we were already by Fort Washington Park and standing under the GW Bridge. The same bridge that we traveled over endless number of times to get to Palisades and our jobs. Now it has been more than 2!! months since we crossed that bridge on a bus. And there, right under the bridge is where you will find the little red lighthouse. The first time I saw the GW bridge from the Manhattan side I was so mesmerized, it looks as if its going straight into a deep forest in New Jersey. And if you drive towards Manhattan you can see how much green space Manhattan and NY overall has along the water.

Fort Tryon Park

We continued north, and this time the bike trail took us right next to the highway, which was less pleasant. But at least the traffic isn’t as bad as it used to be. We ended up by the path that would take you towards Inwood Hill Park, but we had other plans. W had found an awesome Venezuelan restaurant that he wanted to check out, for take out of course. But, before that we spent some time trying to figure out the best way to get into Fort Tryon Park, and to get a brief look at the Cloisters. We finally got to the entrance that took us up, up, up and up. Who would have thought that the cloisters were on a mountain. Or so it felt. So we continued. At the top we sat down and watched some boats floating by on the mighty Hudson.

We didn’t really stay long in Fort Tryon Park, and almost got lost trying to find the way out. But there are a ton of trails there too, and stairs. I know because we carried our bikes down numerous steps. But there are several gardens there, and a stone arch…somewhere. We missed all of this because we got hungry and continued towards Cachapas Y Mas. We continued our bike ride, crossed Manhattan again, and slowly continued along the Harlem river. We past yet another park before we finally sat down on some benches overlooking the river, and had our delicious arepas. They were so good that we didn’t even get a chance to take a picture of them. From there it didn’t take long until we were in our old stomping grounds, and home. The bike ride was about 12 miles in total, so not too long. It was definitely refreshing to see something new after being inside for two months. When we have been venturing out it has been to Central Park or Riverside Park. We had never been that far north, but it has always been on our to do list, like so many other things that the pandemic has taken away from us.

Posted on May 29, 2020 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Life in New York, Nature and tagged 2020 NYC Manhatta Manhattan Life in NYC Bike Adventure Biking Bike in New York City.