June 2, 2022
Day 54 - Totowa to Haverstraw
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Our goals for today were:
1. Have fun
2. Not get rained upon
We were able to achieve both of those things.
Rain/thunderstorms were expected between 1 and 2 this afternoon. We only had 34 miles to ride, so we didn't think it would be a problem to get to our B&B in time to avoid the rain. I called the B&B owner and made sure it was OK for us to arrive by 1 and she said we were welcome any time.
We started out from Totowa riding to Paterson. It has nothing in common with Short Hills (from yesterday) except that they are both in New Jersey. This is gritty, dirty and a little bit scary New Jersey. Kerry said perhaps Ride-with-GPS could add a neighborhood rating of some kind to alert you to high crime areas. He was joking, but we probably would have re-routed if we knew what we would be riding through.
Leaving Totowa, we rode along the Passaic River to Paterson.
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When we got to Paterson, we planned to ride through the Paterson Great Falls National Park. We got across the first bridge, but the second one was really closed. No bicycle access for this trail!
Kerry here... Pet Peeve of the day: The above bridge was only about a hundred yards from the trail entrance, but it was around a curve so we could not see it. Being this is is a National Park, you know that this was not a spur-of-the-moment project and that there was a lot of Federal Bureaucracy involved. Wouldn't you think, that in one of their planning sessions, someone would have come up the the idea of erecting a sign at the trail entrance stating that the trail was closed ahead?? As it was, it was a hassle backing the bike out a ways before I could get it turned around.
We added to our Paterson miles by making a detour through town to get around the park. We were both happy (and relieved) to get that behind us. There are no pictures from that section.
It was only a few miles before we came to our second park trail of the day. In Glen Rock, we got onto the Saddle River Pathway. It was quiet, clean and well used by walkers, runners and cyclists.
After the pathway, we rode through several small towns with many not so small hills. It wasn't as steep as yesterday, but it was a lot of up and up and up.
I didn't find much to photograph today. Maybe I just wasn't in a picture mood. When we reached our destination of Haverstraw, NY, the sky was getting dark and it had started to sprinkle rain just a little bit.
Haverstraw is on the Hudson River, which we will cross on a ferry tomorrow morning to reach Ossining, NY.
We came way down this winding road into town. In the morning, we will have a big climb back up from the river. We will most certainly be using four-on-the-floor for part of that climb.
We are staying at a B&B in a restored old house on the river. Our favorite feature of our room is this terrific rain shower. Kerry came out full of ideas on how we need to remodel our shower at home!
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And, we beat the rain by about 20 minutes. It has rained on and off all afternoon and it is supposed to rain all night. We have our rain here inside where we can really enjoy it!
Today's ride: 34 miles (55 km)
Total: 1,858 miles (2,990 km)
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