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Ken Roberts and Sharon Marsh Roberts
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what's here
We spend our day out exploring on our bicycle in the Hudson valley, about
once every
other weekend in the summer and fall. Sometimes we join up with partners,
other times it's just the two of us on our one tandem bicycle. We cruise
by horse farms and apple orchards. We zoom down curvy descents with
sweeping views -- after getting some burn in our legs climbing up. We stop
for snacks and lunch in villages nobody in the city has heard of. We
try out new roads and get surprised.
We do not live in the Hudson valley, and we spend lots of time each year
traveling to other places for fun (or work). And we didn't
always do rides like this. But now each year in the summer and fall we make sure to set
aside days to be out on our bicycle in the Hudson valley.
Getting started -- Actually we started out with skiing and
climbing. We got into mountain
biking mostly as a conditioning exercise for backcountry skiing -- usually toward the end of the day
after climbing. Sometimes this required sections on the road at the start or
end of the ride, and we found out those could be fun too. Then we started
climbing with Tony, who had lots of experience road riding -- and it was with
him that we began our early exploration of Ulster and Dutchess counties. A
couple of years later we found out about the Mid-Hudson Bicycle Club and tried
their annual century ride, which introduced us to more riding partners -- and the back roads of Columbia county.
Tandem -- Learning to enjoy riding a tandem bicycle together accelerated our
explorations. We could try out bigger routes in unknown territories,
easily talking together as much as we wanted to along the way -- and knowing
that we could jointly pedal through or away from unexpected difficulties.
And now we're finding it natural to share what we are doing and finding, with
this website.
Website -- The first focus of this website is our rides and partners, and the routes we
enjoy. Then we added some resources and routes which we hope will be
helpful for other bicycling folks.
The Hudson valley is a great region for bicycle road rides. This website focuses
on the lower Hudson River valley -- below Albany.
- lots of pretty agriculture -- horses and cows, fields of corn, orchards
- an interesting road network to explore -- established before motor
vehicles and planning
- lots of interesting hills to go down (and up)
- the beautiful Hudson River to cross over and ride alongside
- reasonable access for daytrips from the New York metro area, by train and
car.
- To enable more people to discover the experience of riding bicycles on the
beautiful routes and roads of the Hudson Valley.
- To support clubs and other organizations who are promoting good bicycling
in the Hudson Valley.
- To find other bicyclists who want to meet together and talk
before, after, and during bicycle riding.
- To collaborate with other people who like to explore for new routes.
- To make the good routes safer for bicyclists -- by getting more riders out
on them, so that motorists become accustomed to watching for bicyclists on
those routes.
Survey of the website
It has routes
scattered all over the valley, routes along the Hudson
River, and great climbs and descents -- because those are what the two of us like
to do most.
We think it's fun to ride together with other people, so we give some leads
on how to find riding partners.
We also have some general notes, including what road
maps you can
use -- and some links to other information about bicycle
riding in the Hudson valley.
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