| Date | June 14, 2014 |
| Hosts | Rich and Michelle Dittmar |
| Where | Harriman State Park, NY |
| Who (else) | Larry & Brenda Isherwood, Duncan & Cindy McPherson, Bob Powers & Cindy Sylte, Jeff Winick & Wendy Samuelson. |
Our hosts did not have the usual pre-ride bagels, but rather decided to nourish us with an elaborate spread of lox with all the sides and hot coffee. This was a leader-led ride in Harriman State Park and around Bear Mountain on the back side, then up and down to the top/overlook, and back through Harriman State Park to the parking lot, where we had our bagged lunches at the picnic tables.
While this was a hilly ride, 45 miles with 4,200' of climb, the only real steep climb was the 4 miles up to the overlook. This part showed on my Strava to be an average of ~6%. The other 2-4 mile climbs were more of a long gradual grade with some very short steeper parts averaging between 2-4%. The most worrisome part was when we were on a back road near training grounds and numerous Apache Helicopters were flying overhead. :-) Everyone did wonderfully, riding all the climbs and gathering at the tops. The views riding up and at the top of Bear Mountain were too beautiful and worth every ounce of effort. While riding up the mountain, Larry saw the NY Gran Fondo markings on the road!
Thank you, Rich & Michelle, for hosting a wonderful ride and showing us a new and pleasant riding area to experience, not to mention the glorious riding weather after a week's worth of rain and fog!