27. April 2010 by Kevin.

04-24-10

  The Mile Hill Rd. overpass has been mostly dug out revealing a large drain pipe,which had allowed a small stream to pass under the road. I had seen the new drain pipes ready to be put in place.Work on the new bridge over Vineyard Ave.,in the village of Highland,has begun with the forms in place for the pouring of the new concrete supports.

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21. April 2010 by Kevin.

04-15-10

  I had wanted to ride a portion of the new Atlantic Coast Route,in Dutchess county,from the Walkway in Poughkeepsie to Salt Point. After a leisurely
 lunch at the Walkway,I had realized with all the stops to take notes,and pictures,there would not be enough time to go all the way to Salt Point.
 I would do a shorter loop to Hyde Park and back instead. That,at least,was my revised plan for the day …

  After 4 miles,I was at the Stop & Shop in Hyde Park.I had stoped at the store for some refreshment.While enjoying my Snickers bar,and a cold,non alcoholic, beverage,a city of Poughkeepsie hybrid transit bus pulled up to the bus stop.At this point all was well with the bicycle and myself.I had thought “I will ride home… I don’t need the bus”. Interestingly,the City Bus NORTHSIDE route, goes all the way up to Hyde Park.One of the relatively new diesel-electric hybrid transit buses,with bicycle rack, has been consistently used on this route. Another 1/2 mile,I was at the Hyde Park Brewery and across from the FDR Home NHS.Next door to the brewery,is the southern trailhead for,what is now, the fully developed FDR NHS Farm Lane,part of the Hyde Park trail system.This was a pleasant surprise.

the Roosevelt Farm Lane 2010

When I had gotten my used Giant Rincon ATB (an older model with rack mounts,no suspension,and 1.5 inch tires) a few years ago,I had read that the property
between the FDR home on US rt.9 and Val Kill,Elanor’s home,had been aquired for public use and future trail development.There was an old farm road that went through the forested property.FDR used to drive between the 2 homes on this road.This would be a good oportunity for a first off road ride with my newley aquried ATB,I had thought.I would ride to the northern end of the property across from Val Kill on sr 9G. I would ride,or atempt to ride,that old farm road to US rt. 9 across from the FDR home.There had been some spring rain and flooding a few weeks prior to this 2008 outing.The old farm road started out as just that,an unpaved road, but quickly deteriorated to a technical mountain bike trail.Aparantly,sections of the old farm road over the years,or perhaps with the recent rain,had been washed away.There was just a jumble of rocks and boulders in one section,that was on a downhill grade.I must not have secured my bike computer fully,and at one point had come off the handlebar mount-receiver.  I had to walk back up the road-trail to retrieve it. (that Topeak “Panoram” bike computer is quite rugged - still working to this day) One section was actualy part of a flowing creek and I was riding the muddy creek bottom.When I arrived at US rt.9,I and my bicycle were coated with mud.My ATB had had a proper mountain bike “christening”.Therefore,how nice it was to see the Department of the Interior National Historic Site sign at the southern trail head on US rt. 9.The actual Roosevelt Farm Lane road-trail is part of the longer main trail, of the Hyde Park trails, emblazoned with a distinctiveTulip leaf marker.After a bit of coarser,rougher gravel,the road-trail surface was hard packed fine gravel and much smoother. One could easily ride this with a road touring or “hybrid” bicycle equiped with 700 X 35c tires.The main road-trail is the only trail that bicycles were allowed. Bicycles are not allowed on the side hiking trails.There were motor-vehicle-road-like signs on the Farm Lane trail, at ATB height.There was even a 15 MPH speed limit sign.There were a series of small roller coaster hills at one point.On one of the downhills,I exceeeded the speed limit a tad. I had hoped there was not a HP bike cop with a hand-held radar gun at the bottom of the hill!     I will have to return for a more thourough exploration of this trail from Val Kill,past the FDR home and to the Vanderbilt mansion.

  I had almost,but not quite,made it to the parking lot at sr 9G,when I had thought,at first,there might be some more of that rougher,coarser gravel,but this was not the case and indeed my back tire was flat,as I had feared.The second part of today’s adventure was about to begin. I dis-mounted and rolled my bike to a fence at the north end,away from the path of motor vehicles entering, to begin the fixing-of-the-flat “ritual”. When I went to get everything needed from the tool bag,I had discovered I did not have any more self-sticking glueless patches.There was only one “regular” patch left,but alas the glue had dried up.I had been carrying an old tube with me thinking this was a tube that could hold air at least long enough to get me to the Stop & Shop so that I could take the bus,which I now might need, home.The tube did not hold air even long enough to allow me to re-pack  the bike.Time for “plan C”. I would have to rely on the kindness of a stranger to give me and my bicycle a ride,in their motor vehicle, to the bus stop.As I pondered my fate,hopeing for a “trail Angel” to provide me and my bike a ride to the bus stop, someone arrived.A woman got out her car and let out a large  sized dog from the back of her car.Another woman then arrived with an even larger vehicle,an SUV with a “base” Thule rack on top,with 2 even larger dogs in the back.I would ask this woman if she could provide me a ride to the Stop & Shop so that I could take the bus home.Ellen would be willing if only her friend,the first woman that arrived,could take care of her ATB sized dogs so that I could put my ATB in the back of her SUV while she drove me to the bus stop and back. Ellen’s friend agreed. My trail “Angels” had come to the rescue. I took off the front wheel and slid my bike in the back.At the bus stop,I extracted my bicycle and front wheel from the back of Ellen’s SUV.I thanked Ellen,and put the front wheel back on the bicycle so that I could roll it easily.The bus arrived.I had asked the driver if the MAIN STREET bus had one of the newer buses with a bike rack. He told me yes and I put in the extra fare for the transfer.This will get me a few blocks from where I live,thus avoiding the indignity of wallking all the way from downtown with my bycycle. At the main stop,I took the bike off the NOTHSIDE route bus and onto the MAIN STREET route bus. At the stop near my home,like a team mechanic at the Tour de France, I jumped out of the bus,put down my bag and helmet on the sidewalk,took the bicycle off the rack, and folded the rack back up all within seconds. I then,like Tevia in “Fiddler on The Roof” when his horse could not go any farther and he had to walk his disabled horse home,walked my “horse” home the last few blocks.
ahh… yes it is not about the riding … it is about the adventure

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13. April 2010 by Kevin.

04-07-10

the ROW looking east in the area of the ”Vintage Village”

picture of the ROW and old station in the Vintage Village area - taken September 2009

  I had ridden up a side street off Tilson Ave., in the village of Highland, to get to the back end of the “Vintage Village” complex of antique stores to check on the progress,or lack thereof, of the RT “phase 2″ construction,and to take some pictures of course. I had just dismounted and leaned my bike against a dumpster, when one of the construction workers told me I would have to leave as he had to close the gate. This made me wonder about this small section of the ROW. In addition to the “Antique Village”,there is a small warehouse that has been closed for many years,and what may have been an old freight station,or perhaps the old passenger station? that had been converted for a business of some sort that also had been closed. Is all of the property,including the ROW, in this area under a single private ownership? IE: not the town of Lloyd. Will the completed new section of the rail trail in this area be fenced in with a road crossing for the back entrance access road? The ROW east of this area to rt. 9W has been cleared,but the short sectioon of ROW in that upper section with the warehouse and the old station,has not.

Hudson Valley RT - the east end of the current open section

  I then rode back out to Vineyard Ave. and then onto Commercial Ave. to get to the unpaved “tail end” of the current paved open section of the rail trail. I have ridden through this section to-from the main paved section of the RT many times over the years.However,I have never been on the RT this early in the season. With the sparse vegitation this time of the year,my focused attention due to the recent construction,and as part of that construction the removal of some overgrowth,I was able to see some details missed over the years. I had discovered,for example,a complete section of track that led up to that old warehouse. This must have been a siding from the main track. There were trees growing up from the middle of the track.

ROW cleared from Vineyard Ave. to Comercial Ave.

old warehouse and siding in the Comercial Ave. area

  From the end of the current open section,I rode west on the open paved section to the pavilion. Over the past few years I have noticed the trail surface to be rough in some sections. I had seen on this day on the edge of the paved surface,there were some pot holes.When I had arrived at the pavilion,I had noticed some clearing along the trail just east of the pavilion. The access gate at the private side road,in this area,was open.The pavilion,after all these many years,still does not have have signs on the 3 doors to indicated which one is the restroom.The middle restroom door was open on this day.

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11. April 2010 by Kevin.

04-01-10

the dirt parking lot as it appeared in August of 2009

  The split hill formed by the ROW siding,that is now the RT entrance off Parker Ave. in the city of Poughkeepsie, has been removed.This has allowed a view of the main ROW RT approach to the Walkway bridge from Parker Ave. thus changing the “landscape” of this part of Poughkeepsie that has remained unchanged for many years.Jason Anthony had told me the newly cleared area will be a dirt / gravel parking lot for the remainder of the year.

Anthony’s Bike Rental

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5. April 2010 by Kevin.

04-01-10

old ROW looking east - the west end of the WOTH SP can be seen in the background

  On this day I had seen that construction of a possible new parking lot along Haviland Rd. ,near the west end entrance of the Walkway OTH state park,
was underway. I would presume this will be the eastern terminus parking lot for the RT. I would imagine,in the future,this parking lot will serve as an auxiliary parking lot for the Walkway as well.The west end of the WOTH is only 100 yards or so away. I had ridden to route 9W north,on the east side,to see the ROW going under the highway via the tunnel. When I was here last year,I could hardly see the ROW with all the overgrowth. The ROW is now clearly visable. When I was at the Hanaford doing some shoping,I had seen a truck go by with old RR ties,then another flat bed truck with sections of rail. I could only presume that this was from the old ROW. I did not know that there was any track left, though.

the old ROW going under route 9W

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