Ride to Cold Spring

DateOctober 9, 2011
HostsRonna and Bob Weiner
WhereNew City to Cold Spring, NY
Who (else) Caren and Mike Bianco, Nancy Robart and Howie Soutall, Cindy Sylte and Bob Powers, Linda and George Wells, Liz Williams and Doug Coleman

[Team Weiner report]
Five teams convened at the County Animal Hospital for the ride from New City to Cold Spring. Since not everyone signed the sign-in sheet, and since everyone on the ride (except Ronna, of course) was new to me, I'm afraid I don't remember everyone's name. When we planned this ride I was concerned that this might be an ambitious route for tandems. Clearly I underestimated the strength of the DOGS teams. Caren and Mike Bianco, Cindy Sylte and Bob Powers, Liz Williams and Doug Coleman (Did I get that right?) and Nancy Robart and (Howard?) headed out at 10:30 on a perfect day for riding. It became clear that we were destined to be the Lantern Rouge of this group. I told Ronna that we would need to ride sweep.... Little did I know we had no other choice!

The ride up was uneventful (past the Haverstraw Marina and up over Dunderberg Mt.) except for heavy car traffic around Bear Mt. We picked up Team Wells just after the Bear Mt Bridge. The traffic made making the left turn onto 9D dicey, but all teams were able to navigate that safely. I have never seen so much traffic around Bear Mt. I guess the combination of perfect weather, imminent foliage change, a 3-day weekend and Octoberfest created the perfect traffic storm.

We had a nice lunch together at Cup'O'Cinno in Cold Spring and headed back. We avoided riding around the Bear Mt.-Rt 6 circle by taking the service road from the bridge and crossing 9W to head south. We climbed Dunderberg again (longer but less grade than on the way up) and regrouped at the Cove Deli in Tompkins Cove. From there we headed back and up over HiTor Mt. and enjoyed the 1 mile switchback descent on into New City. Ronna and I managed to hang on and keep Team Bianco (I think it was theirs) resplendent Rootbeerfade Calfee hanging about 50 yards in front of us until we missed the traffic light at Phillips Hill Rd. We got back just in time to open the door as the other teams were racking their bikes.

We all enjoyed the usual post DOGS festivities with beer, chips, salsa, brownies, blueberry cake (what did I forget?). I think on balance I might have gained weight on the day!

On Rt 9D there is an Inn north of Cold Spring. Years ago Ronna and I drove past in a car at the peak of leaf season on a particularly beautiful day. The marquee on the Inn's sign read, "What a glorious day". The same description applies to this ride. We so appreciate the distances the teams drove to join us. We'll start thinking about another route for next season.... Greenwood Lake maybe? New Paltz? We'll see what I can talk Ronna into next time!


[Team Wells report]
Team Wells cannot issue a complete ride report on yesterday's Cold Spring ride hosted by Team Weiner (Bob and Ronna), since we didn't do the entire ride--somebody else will have to do that.

Team Wells just was not up to the full 52 miles that were planned so, after some e-mail discussions with Bob, we made a plan to ride from Cold Spring down 9D South to meet the other riders and ride back with them to Cold Spring and share lunch with the assembled DOGS and other tandemists. It worked well for everyone. At first, we were wondering if we were going to be able to complete our plans since parking in Cold Spring, on a Sunday morning, is all but impossible on or near Main street. But we found a parking spot near a local athletic field (complete with bathrooms), that was close to 9D.

We headed north for about 2.5 miles, just into Duchess County, while getting spectacular views of the Hudson, sharing the road with cars and hundreds of hikers. There were a few dicey spots but it worked out well. 9D rolls and we never left our 39 tooth middle-ring for the entire ride. Our turnaround came at the top of one of the climbs, where we coasted down at speeds in the mid 30's. (We could have gone faster, but prudence was most important.)

We came back through Cold Spring and found that the rollers were true "tandem-rollers", where we could accelerate to near 30 mph before hitting the next rise and crest at a good speed, then fly down the other side. George said to Linda, "We're going to pay for this on the return," as they bombed down one particularly nice grade. Linda agreed. A while later, we got to the base of 9D where we were to combine with the other riders (quite a busy intersection). We called Bob on the cell phone and our timing was perfect -- the rest of the group had just finished their brief stop at "The Carousel" in Bear Mountain Park and were just about to depart and would meet us.

During that telephone conversation, Bob told George they'd see us in ten minutes -- and he was right! The first team, (Howie and Nancy), were first to cross the bridge, followed closely by the rest of the pack. They passed us like we were standing still, largely because we were standing still, watching them cross the bridge instead of mounting our tandem and getting underway. As usual Team Wells was the tail end, once again! However, George's comment did not pan out. The rollers worked both ways! We were in sight of Team Weiner who were "leading from the back" of the pack, keeping both us and the rest of the pack in sight. -- Nice work and thank you, very much!

The sight of six tandem teams rolling down Main Street did get a lot of attention from the people in town. There were a lot of pointing fingers amazed to see all of us there.

After stopping on Main Street for lunch, Team Weiner recommended a shop called Cup-O-Ccino that served up a variety of delicious sandwiches, paninis, desserts and non-alcoholic beverages. It was such a beautiful day, we all enjoyed our lunches and conversations outside the shop, at tables, on the sidewalk.

At around 2 PM, the group headed out for the return trip to New City, while Team Wells headed back to their car and drove home to Molly (meow) who was "Home Alone", missing her people. Team Wells logged 24 miles while the rest racked up 52 miles, that included some daunting climbs.

Thanks to Team Weiner for hosting this ride.

The season isn't over yet! 29 October is the Halloween Ride, hosted by Team Flint/McPhee. Also, the annual Winter Solstice Party will be on 10 December at Chez Cate in Maplewood. Let's not forget that there are still a lot of open weekends available for scheduled or impromptu DOGS rides the rest of October and all of November.


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