Cars make you weak. So along with Charlie who is out there every day getting stronger and stronger I’m out there matching his efforts and trying to one up his ass. Rain or shine heat or cold. I’m like the fuckin mailman who likes pain. My mantra as I’m grinding up hills faster than I should be is “you can do more than you think you can” When my heart is pounding out of my chest and I’m sucking in more pollution than a fucking chain smoking model, thats what I tell myself. It worked in the marines, and it sure as hell works out on the streets, trails or whatever else you choose to apply it to.

Now get out there and keep the rubber side down.

Dawn and I have been taking overnight riding trips out of the city. Its a amazing and great way to get away, and feel like you have went on a vacation without paying for the plane ticket. This weekend we rode out to the New Croton Reservoir. We spent a couple minutes on the bridge and then headed back to the hotel we made reservations at. The hotel we chose the Kittle House was a pretty fancy place. Little did we know that one of the top chef master’s would be serving up some amazing food in the kitchen. Secondly they have one of the most extensive wine collections in the world. It was a really impressive place. We had the most amazing meal of our lives, and highly recommend the place to anyone looking for a quick get away from the city.

If your looking for an amazing trip the New Croton Reservoir is a quick ride from the city and the Kittle House comes highly recommended. We were dressed like cyclist and were treated like we were first class guests. When Dawn asked what we could do with our bikes, the manager without skipping a beat said that we could store them in our room and he would have someone carry them upstairs for us. They also said that we were the first cycling guests that they have had, so it feels pretty nice to be cycling ambassadors.

Rocked a solid 50 today.
It felt good real good.
I started off by taking the subway up to van cortlandt. I got ahold of tiki my ride partner and he was rollin late, I fucking knew it. Glancing around I’m looking for a place to get some food, I see a taco shop, the Queen Of Tacos Taco shop to be exact. Although there listed on Yelp as King Taco.

I posted that photo on yelp, as you can see they are some creative business namer’s. Probably an insurance scam. What wasn’t a scam was the title, those tacos are good, damn good. Not the best, so they cant claim to be the King of Tacos but the queen yea sure ill buy it. I scarf down 3, two steak, and one spicy pork. Hell’z yea now i’m fueled up. I also grab a ton of crazy mexican candies, and snacky cakes with various mexican wrestling animals and crazy characters on them.

I wait around and tiki shows up about a hour late. No biggie its not a race, if it was he would be eating my dust. WE head out to find the beginning of the trail-way. We start at van cortland and head north. Its pretty easy all fire road through van cortlandt park, and then starts into a 50ish mile greenway up to Carmel Hamlet, or Brewster. We ride up to yonkers and I try and find another way through to the other side of the bike path. You have to get off and traverse the town for about 8 blocks. I had heard on my previous ride that you can take an old railway trail through the park and it connects on the other side. This proved to be harder than anticipated, with fallen trees directly in the path. We just decided to go around.

Its a quick 10 miles to Elmsford the second town you have to traverse, and I know we need to eat. Tiki at this point is swearing he can rock another 20 or so. I know he cannot, nor can I without some food. We eat at a hole in the wall subway store. The indian guys behind the counter seem to busy flirting with the local underage women to care. We eat, and hang out for a bit while it rains.

Here is a link to our trip

The ride back was a quick one, it’s almost all downhill, you have to traverse the off path parts again but hell its not as bad when you know you got a place to go home to. I left tiki at turnoff to the train station and decided to ride all the way back. Luckily about 5 minutes after I left ban cortland it started raining. I rocked a solid 20 miles in the rain. But not one point did i think i should turn around and go home. It was a nice ride albeit wet. SO until next time. Keep the rubber side down.

I just thought this was too good a post to pass up sharing. It’s right along the same vein that i roll with.

As long as I can remember I have hunted for singletrack. That line of dirt, carved in a place where it really doesn’t belong yet somehow makes the journey better. It doesn’t matter if it is .25 miles or 25 miles long, I’ve got it bad. When I was a kid it was those shortcuts through empty lots, with their little jumps that were so much better than the sidewalk.

link: Tuesdays with Dirty: Singletrack Hunting. | Drunkcyclist.com