Day 3 recap

Day 3 was by far the best yet.  I'll get the negative out of the way first.  I picked Newburgh as my stretch destination, and after disappointing progress the first two days, it would be a big boost to me if I actually made it.  As the day wore on, my Newburgh ETA moved back from 6:30...to 7:30...to 8:00, which is a pretty good limit to put on the day.  Anyway, about 20 miles out I was following my favorite road of the day - a little farm road the went up and over rolling hills...called Leetown Road near Holmes, NY, I think.  I slowly began to suspect that i had been on this road longer than I thought I would, so I checked the map...Yup, missed my turn and had gone 15 minutes out of my way.  Backtracked to my turn and was back on my way....but had wasted 30 minutes of precious late-afternoon time and energy.  I DID make it to Newburgh (at 8:30), but overdid it a bit, and I'm a bit more sore this morning than I'd like.  I'll back off a little today but if I had to do it again, I'd still have pushed it to here.

Second minor negative is the my bike is shifting funny.  It's tough to fiddle with the derailleurs with all the bags on, so ill fix it this morning.  No problem.

Ok, positives! 

First, made it through the night in my first stealth campsite.  There aren't any campsites in Enders State Forest, so I just walked in out of sight of the road, and no one bothered me, man nor beast.

Next, my dad drove up to meet me in New Hartford, CT and brought me an awesome breakfast.  We ate and hanged out for a while before I had to go.  It was much needed.

The ride to Torrington, CT was hilly, and the climb out of Torrington was murder, but after that it was rolling hills and lots of long downhill all the way to New Milford, near the NY border.  I did have to go over a mountain to get to NY, but it was actually really nice.  Once I got off my NY dirt road it was all smaller roads without and big climbs all the way here.  And at the top off that mountain at the start of NY I got my first really pretty views.  The picture I posted is actually down a ways from the top, but I was whizzing downhill so fast I couldn't stop to take a picture farther up :)

The weather also cooperated.  It stayed in the 70's, and I had little wind for most of the day.  It definitely made a big difference, and was part of my ability to make it this far.

When I got to Newburgh, I found that all the restaurants are on the water, so I went down there and got a hamburger.  I also learned that all the motels were 4 miles west of there, and that I had to pass through Newburgh City, which, I was told later, has the worst crime rate in all of NY state.  Seriously - the place was a dump.  Very surprising...I thought most of these Hudson River towns were nice.  Made it the 4 miles, showered and crashed in a Super 8.  Much needed.

I'll relax this morning, play with the derailleur and eat my continental breakfast, and get going whenever I do.  I'll aim towards Port Jervis, now only 40 miles away.  I'm tempted to go through western Jersey so that I can save Pennsylvania for Sunday, and keep up my state-a-day pace.  Either way, my path now begins to turn further south towards North Carolina!