Cycling Coast to Coast

We’re finally in Pittsburgh, and have our first day off!

The last few days since Poughkeepsie have been really tough. We climbed Mt. Pocono and crossed the Appalachians and the Allegheny Mountains. We’ve all had very long days, with thousands of feet of climbing each day. Most of us were near the breaking point, so this day off comes at a very appropriate time.

I don’t have time right now for a full recap of the last few days, but some of the highlights include:

• riding through Amish country
• completing my first century
• eating lots of ice cream
• inspirational chalk messages on the really bad climbs (left by faster riders)
• taking pictures on hay bales
• climbing to the top of a mountain and riding by the base of giant wind turbines

As for today, we’re heading out soon for a great breakfast place that Emma loves (she’s from Pittsburgh), and then will spend the rest of the day wandering around the city, and taking care of a few errands.

As promised, here’s a little recap of the previous few days.

Day 5: Andover to Fitchburg, MA - 41 miles

The forecast was for a chance of rain, and it rained. : (

I rode with the fast group, and had a great time.  We got a bit lost before lunch, but luckily Erin, who lives in the area and got us back on track.  Our little detour even bypassed the first major hill of the day.  There were a couple climbs after lunch, and then a long steep descent into Fitchburg, where we stayed at the First Parish Church.

Day 6: Fitchburg to Amherst, MA - 54 miles

As our cue sheet for the day proclaimed, welcome to the Berkshires!  This was another rainy day, though better than the previous one.  There was a lot of  climbing (about 4,000 feet of it), with lots of long gradual climbs and some shorter steeper ones.  Soon after leaving Fitchburg, the fast group dropped me on a climb, and I rode by myself for a long while.  I stopped for a while on when I caught up with Jess R, who was feeling sick, and then rode with Devon and Johanna (at times) for the rest of the day.  The climbs were tough, it was somewhat frustrating to be slowly grinding up a hill in my lowest gear, and only going about 5mph.

The worst part of the day was before lunch, when we were riding in some hilly terrain through the woods.  Devon’s chain got screwed up somehow on a climb, so we stopped, and I took a pit stop in the woods.  Unfortunately for me, there were a bunch of mosquitos around, and I got bitten a lot.  I’m allergic to insect bites so these swelled up a lot, but more about that later.

At the top of the highest climb, we stopped to take some pictures.  You can’t really tell from the photos before, but from the top we could see Quabbin Reservoir, which is the primary water source for Boston.

 From L to R: Johanna, Devon, Me

 Devon

Me!

Our host for the night was the Hillel at UMass Amherst, and we went to some Bike & Build alums’ house for dinner.  The original plan for dinner was to take the bus to their house, but just as we left the Hillel, it started to thunderstorm, and we all got soaking wet waiting for the bus.  The trip leaders quickly reconsidered, and we ended up doing van shuttles to dinner.

Day 7: Amherst to Pittsfield, MA

This should have been a very hilly 55ish mile day, but I only got to ride about 3 miles.  My bug bites had swelled up so much that I was starting to get worried, so I asked Sophie if I could get taken to a clinic to get a cortisone shot.  Shortly after everyone left, Jess L called for a van pickup, because her knee was hurting.  We went to pick her up in the van, and then went to the UMass Amherst clinic.  At the clinic, there was a bit of a hullabaloo about if my insurance would cover the visit, but finally after some paperwork, they agreed to see me.  Instead of a cortisone shot, the doctor I saw prescribed me an oral corticosteroid, in a tapering regime.  I’m on it for 6 days, taking 6 pills the first day, then 5, then 4, etc.  Because the visit to the clinic took so long, the plan was for me to ride in the van to the lunch location, and then I’d bike the rest of the day.

After lunch, I got on my bike, and started riding.  About 3 miles in, however, I started feeling nauseous and had to stop, I’m guessing because I’d taken the first few pills without food.  So, I got in the van again, and rode in the van for the rest of the day.

Day 8: Pittsfield, MA to Poughkeepsie, NY - 84 miles

This was a very long day for all of us, and the longest ride I’ve done to date.

We crossed state lines on a bike! About 10 miles into our ride, we crossed into New York.  In the photo below, the 5 of us are attempting to spell out “NY” with our bodies.  If you can’t tell, I’m the diagonal portion of the “N”.

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There were some big climbs in the 20ish miles, and then rolling hills for the rest of the day.  Once entering the state of New York, we started to descend to sea level and had first lunch in the town of Hudson, on the Hudson River.  At lunch, Amol dropped some of his pasta on the ground, but he was so hungry that he ate some of it (the parts not directly touching the asphalt) straight from the ground.

Some time after lunch, around mile 50, we came across a farm stand and stopped for some strawberries.  We split a box for $5.  There were small and delicious, and really hit the spot.

Around mile 60, it started to drizzle.  We had a quick second lunch at mile 70, and at that point, we were so close to Poughkeepsie that we pushed hard to get in.  I was riding with Lindsay, and since she goes to Vassar, she knew here way around town and led us to campus for a stop to check email in the Vassar library.  After checking email, we followed Lindsay to our host location, the Oakwood Friends School.  Shortly after we arrived, it started to thunderstorm.

Turns out we got really lucky, both on account of the weather, and because Lindsay was riding with us.  Most of the group got stuck out in the thunderstorm, and the directions on the cue sheet were inaccurate in directing people to the host location once they’d arrived in the town of Poughkeepsie.  There were a lot of frustrated riders on the road, stuck in the rain as it started to get dark, and lost just miles away from their final destination.  Fortunately, everyone made it in safely.

Also thanks to Lindsay’s efforts, Vassar donated $300 to our trip to spend on food for the two nights that we’re in town, so last night we ordered out for Chinese food.

This host location is one of the best we’ve stayed in so far.  It’s a boarding middle and high school, so we have beds, free laundry, and showers, all at our host location.  It’s little things like that that we take for granted in normal life, but we’ve all come to really appreciate on the trip.

Day 9: Build Day

Today we had a build day with Newburgh Habitat for Humanity.  I was really impressed with the chapter; they’ve done a lot of amazing work for the greater Newburgh community, and have a large scale vision of how to improve the affordable housing situation in their area.  The former president of the chapter spoke to us briefly at lunch, and told us that there are about 1800 households in Newburgh that are in need of affordable housing.  They’ve completed 34 houses since their inception in 1999, including 2 houses that were built in early June during a Blitz Build of 5 days.  We got to visit the completed house, and it was a beautifully constructed unit.  Because Newburgh is a historical town, the historical society required them to make certain aesthetic modifications such as brickwork at the base of the house, and a flat-top roof with cornices.  Frank, one of the head volunteers working with us today, built the cornices himself in his woodshop.

The group split up today, and my group went to a warehouse to unload furniture.  Sacred Heart University had donated two full truck loads of used dorm furniture, and we were unloading it and transporting it to the third floor of a warehouse where the Habitat chapter had donated space.  In a month, they will open a ReStore store, where the furniture we were unloading, and other donated furniture, will be sold to raise money to build more houses.

Here’s a quick update from the Vassar College library.  We are now in New York!  After leaving Pittsfield, MA this morning, we crossed the border into New York about 10 miles in.  Today was a long day, 80ish miles.  Tomorrow is a build day, so we get to stay here for two nights, and it’s a welcome relief as the last few days of riding have been really tough.

This is just a quick pit-stop for us; our host location is still a few miles away, but one of the people I was riding with today, Lindsay, goes to Vassar, so she led us on a small detour here to the library to check email before rolling into the host location.

More updates later.

Today was a build day, and we built with the Merrimack Valley Habitat for Humanity at a site in Lawrence, where I also happened to have completed my sweat equity.  It was really awesome to get the chance to return to the site and see how much progress had been made in the last month.  When Devon and I volunteered there in May, we were working on putting up interior walls on the first floor, and there was only the barest framework for the second story.  Today, I got to help put up rafters for the roof, and temporary flooring and scaffolding so that more work can be done on the attic and roof.

Since we have access to the computers here at the Pike School, everyone has been blogging alot, and I think there’s been sufficient coverage of today’s build day, so I’ll just post some photos.

For dinner tonight, we were graciously hosted by the Webbers again, who had a full Thanksgiving spread for us.  After we’d finished dinner, Joan and Bill (Chris Webber’s parents) gathered us all in the kitchen for cake, but before we dug in, we all went around and said a few words about our favorite parts of Bike & Build so far.  I’m continuously amazed at how genuine and passionate everyone is for this trip, and for this cause.  We’re only a few days in, but I know it’s going to be an awesome summer.

Tomorrow we’re biking to Fitchberg, and from here on out, I doubt the internet access will be as readily available and as great as it has been at the Pike School.  Certainly I won’t be able to update every day.

So, on to the pictures! (these are just a few of the ones I took today)

Today was our first day of riding on our coast to coast journey.

Wake-up time was 6am this morning, and Skip blasted Dropkick Murphy’s (again) to get us up. After packing up all our gear and loading the trailer, we were treated to a delicious breakfast of scrabbled eggs, pancakes, french toast, sausages, cereal, and OJ.

Around 8:30, friends and family started showing up at the church, and we had a group photo on the church steps before heading to Revere Beach, where we dipped our rear wheels in the Atlantic and Kristian (one of the B&B program directors) gave us an inspirational send-off speech.

Because this was our first day of riding and it’s pretty hairy getting out of Boston, we rode in larger groups with our trip leaders. It was a short ride (23ish miles), and we got to Andover a little after noon.

We’re staying at the Pike School in Andover for two nights (tomorrow is a build day). The B2SB route is dedicated to the memory of Chris Webber, a former Bike & Build director who was killed in a car accident in New York last year. Chris was from Andover, and attended the Pike School. We’ll also be biking through Poughkeepsie, NY, where he went to college at Vassar. His family met us at the wheel-dipping ceremony this weekend, and we’ll be going to their house later today for dinner. When he died last year, it was only a couple months before the first trip left that summer, and Bike & Build almost went under. It was only with the help of many Bike & Build alums that the trips that summer were able to get underway, and B&B survived.

Have to go now for dinner, but as we have access to the library at the school, I should be able to blog again tomorrow, after our first build day.