We didn’t know how long we’d be welcomed to stay at Luke and Andrea’s, but we wanted to spend as much time as we could getting to know this relatively-uncontacted segment of our tribe without burdening them (and, we still needed a break), so we hoped for at least three days. Well, then there was Read more…

In this part of New York heading south, the Empire State Trail is a fully-off-road, paved bike path. It also runs along former rail lines, so has uses much gentler grades than the roads that cross the still-significant hills on the east side of the Hudson Valley. Finding those gentle slopes was definitely a challenge Read more…

Last night I rode off in the dark (to let the caretaker know that I wouldn’t be delivering our food to her for storage after all), and I nearly wiped out just as I started because my pedal fell off. Apparently 46 miles worth of pedaling had been enough to “unstick” it from its half-on/half-off Read more…

Our beautiful lakeside campsite remained nice and dry all night, so we were able to keep the rainfly on Rett’s side of the tent rolled away, giving her the panoramic picture window onto the glassy water reflecting the lightening morning sky. Following our dinner idea of bringing frozen meals from the dollar store, we had Read more…

The trees continued to drip onto the tent all night long, and into the morning. But at some point it had switched from being rain-remnants, to being fog condensing on the leaves and then falling from them in solid form. That’s something I don’t remember experiencing outside of the Pacific Northwest. As we departed, we Read more…

The thermometer inside the tent said 70 degrees when we woke up, but outside it was revealed to be a much-more-reasonable 52. There must have been something about no wind and gathered humidity (the inside of the rainfly was soaked, as was the grass everywhere) that created an insulating layer. We haven’t quite yet made Read more…