labor day weekend, part 1

last Friday I mentioned that Billy and I were thinking about getting away for the holiday weekend. well that we did. somehow we ended up riding 70+ miles (many of them mountainous!) on our bikes, hiking, climbing and exploring. but let’s back up…

we went to happy hour Friday evening, and sometime between our 2nd vodka drink and our dinner at Westville,

Billy had booked us 2 nights at a bed & breakfast “in the Rondout valley, between the beautiful Shawangunk Ridge and the panoramic Catskill Mountains” (source). this certainly isn’t the 1st time we’ve made impromptu travel plans, however this time we didn’t need our passports. I’m looking at you, Belize.

if you follow me on Instagram (dorrybird), there’s a chance you saw a few of the images I posted over the weekend. Mom – you should get on Instagram.

we slept in on Saturday morning, loaded our backpacks full of essentials (sunscreen, snacks, clean clothes), and rode to Grand Central to catch a train to Poughkeepsie.

I managed to eat all of my trail mix the 1st day (ok, more like the 1st couple of hours), but thankfully Billy brought some, too. we also brought some of my favorite bars – Vega Sport and Vega Vibrancy – and other things like crackers and hummus.

view from the train. bikes on a train. we arrived in Poughkeepsie at 2pm.

from there, we rode 10 or 11 miles to the college town of New Paltz where we stopped to look around and have a snack – seared tuna taco with guacamole on blue corn tortillas. New Paltz is rad, and we plan to go back again sometime.

we continued on for another 10 or 11 miles OVER A REALLY STEEP MOUNTAIN to reach our destination in Stone Ridge, NY. we stayed at the lovely ElmRock Inn Bed & Breakfast for 2 nights. casual hospitality, comfortable rooms, beautiful property.

when we showed up, the inn manager told us it was a first to have guests arrive on bikes – more on that in another post. after hot showers, we spent some good time in that hammock (eating more trail mix). the Carriage House is pictured below, but we stayed in the main house which is sort of pictured above.

homemade chocolate chips cookies and dark chocolate truffles.

our bedroom.

we ate delicious breakfasts on Sunday and Monday mornings. the chef at the b&b was more than happy to accommodate dietary preferences (no dairy or gluten for me), and Billy really enjoyed his banana stuffed challah French toast with bacon and fresh fruit one day, while I had poached eggs both days, smoked salmon and fruit.

there’s much more to our getaway, but I’ll save that for part 2.

hope you had a very happy holiday weekend!

any exciting stories? epic bike rides? total relaxation? delicious food?

Tagged as: catskills, clean clothes, corn tortillas, friday evening, guacamole, hammock, holiday weekend, hot showers, last friday, passports, poughkeepsie, saturday morning, steep mountain, town of new paltz, vega