Teen Treks

We woke up in the of the atrium of the Lincoln Baths and quickly packed our bikes and took some last minute photos before heading over to Uncommon Grounds for bagels, oatmeal, and talent show videos. We said goodbye to the town of Saratoga Springs and biked to the state park on Moreau Lake where we enjoyed swimming, frisbee, and Taps. After a short ride we ended up at the at a Subway for lunch. After lunch we biked to Lake George on a very nice bike path through the woods during golden hour where the sunshine shimmered through the leaves. When we left the bike path we were greeted by a lovely view of the lake and we watched the water and ducks from the Military Dock. We ended the day by settling into our campground making broccoli mac and cheese, highs lows grows, and looking at the stars. We are excited to be taking a ferry tomorrow and heading into the much anticipated state of Vermont. Written by today’s documentarian Bella

Well, today was a crazy day… This morning we emerged from our rooms at the Holiday Inn Express, bleary but rested, for a warm continental breakfast. We were on the road by nine after meeting up with Lis’s delightful friend Eileen, who rode with us for a couple of miles. It was cool and overcast, a very pleasant day of beautiful bike trails. We stopped for lunch on a lawn in front of a picturesque church for peanut butter sandwiches, and reviewed highway safety with sticky mouths. We received many honks of enthusiasm and talked to many folks, especially today. Soon after lunch it began to rain, but, unscathed and donning our raincoats, we continued to chug along. We pulled into the town of Saratoga Springs, and wandered into this amazing cafe. Lightning and thunder joined the rain while we were inside. We read on the floor of a bookstore and had a dinner of bagels. While Lis and Gaby ran around trying to find us a dry place to sleep, we played charades in our cafe. Our supreme leaders returned announcing that we had a police escort! We speculated as to whether we would be sleeping in a jail cell while we rode to the station. We met the park police officers outside and they told us they had a place inside where we could sleep at the Lincoln Bathhouse. A huge thank you to Officers Frank and Jesse!! We are currently in a large room in the middle of a dark police station, safe and dry, playing charades and Uno.  We had an incredibly fun day, and we can’t wait to do some serious biking tomorrow. 

Written by today’s documentarian Juliet 

This morning we slept in until 8 (which was much needed after our 5:30am wake-up yesterday) and enjoyed a continental breakfast at our Holiday Inn Express. We slowly rolled out of the hotel (without panniers) aboard our amazingly lightweight bikes wearing matching t-shirts, bandanas, and fanny packs and headed down the road for some donuts and fancy iced teas. After our second breakfast we took a scenic bike ride along the Hudson River to Troy, NY and played a game of telephone. Here we took a stroll through the farmers market where we got lunch and Navarro enjoyed a handful of fresh dill and chocolate milk. While we ate Lis spotted Sawyer Fredricks strolling around with his guitar (winner of “The Voice” in 2015). Suraj walked over to confirm his identity while Lis quietly fangirled. He invited us over and we listened to his incredible voice and heard some of the songs he’s working on. Then we met up with a friend of Lis’ father and he gave us a tour of Albany which was awesome! He brought us to a cool cycling shop where Gabe was able to get new shoes. After this stop we perused down to Lark St. to pickup some post cards and check out the  thrift shops before heading down to check out Gabe’s great-grandmothers old house. To refuel we had a picnic in the park and watched a basketball game with some very enthusiastic announcers. We finished off our day with a ride around the capitol building and through the Empire State Plaza which was quite scenic. We are now giggling away as we share our thoughts on the day before hitting the hay before our 50 mile ride tomorrow!

A 5:30am sunrise wake up, gifted the group time to explore the old ice house site on the banks of the Hudson. The sun rose over the trees, sparkling through the leaves to shine on our pavilion protected row of tents. We meandered through a Nutella, peanut butter and bread breakfast, sleepily stumbling through another long conversation. After waiting for the rainy weather to let up, we followed the two points (Juliet and Gabe) to The Store, a half convenience store half coffee stop. Here a couple trekkers made their first phone calls home while the rest of the group nerdily talked about our all time favorite books and movies. We also did some yoga and stretching, then headed out to our next stop, Aldi just outside Albany. Sitting in the parking lot around sourdough sandwiches, cucumbers, yogurt and sweet potato chips, the group played two truths and a lie with some comical laughter from everyone. With full bellies and some newfound face masks and nail polish for our spa night, we journeyed off to the Holiday Inn Express hotel where we started laundry in hopes of quelling the stinkiness of our panniers. More fun calls home to parents and some showers later we descended to search for a dinner spot. A Thai restaurant on a cobblestone street in downtown Albany served us a scrumptious dinner of pad Thai, pad see ew, and various curries. Returning to the hotel we piled into the guys room for a “spa night”, applying face masks and nail polish with more peals of laughter filling the room. We finished off an extraordinary day with another circle to review the highs and lows of the day. Looking forward to exploring “small”bany tomorrow! 

Today was a day which will live on in infamy.”-Navarro Dodge after rain began while he was riding up a hill.

Our day began with a swiftness unmatched by any of our other wake ups. An 8:30 leaving time gave us an energy which led to the duties of the morning being finished by the same time we were pouring almond milk into our cereal in our other mornings. As we biked down rural roads the aches from our other rides loomed like the grey rain clouds above us: constantly threatening to break our stride. We stopped by a Dunkin Doughnuts and bought for ourselves a sugary treat and fled quickly onto the road. We flew down the street so swiftly that by the time the rain came down we had biked 10 miles, breaking the 100 mile mark on our bike computer odometers. The rain was hard but through strength it made no difference: in fact the rain seemed to embolden us, being a welcome break from the heat of yesterday. Once we stopped by Hanafords, our grocery station of the day we had not broken a sweat and had doubled the amount we rode now reaching 20 miles: the halfway point for the day. As we ate our pickle, mustard, chocolate sandwiches we awaited our next stop: Hudson, NY. Once we got there we drank wonderful coffee and discussed world affairs: which led to a very informative and educated discussion on the Israel Palestine affair. We left with cleared minds meeting back with Suraj who had had a series of bike malfunctions but had fixed them with Gabby using their shared brilliance. While waiting, Navarro, Bella, Gabe, Simon and Juliet also jammed out to Hamilton and Aretha Franklin in the rain with Lis. Next we biked over to our dinner destination where we gluttonly ate pizza and wings. We left and by the light of our blinkers of our bikes and thunderclaps above came to our campsite on the banks if the Hudson River. 

–written by Navarro