I brought a real camera with me last weekend for an early AM ride through Harriman State Park. It was perfect riding weather. Early morning, there was hardly any other non-motorcycle vehicular traffic (unless you count pedal bikes). Can’t wait to get back up there when the leaves are changing. I rode with my friend who also has a monster. Got some snaps similar to some from last year around this time.
Complete with obligatory timer selfie-
It’s hard to believe that we only have one month of summer left. I feel so much pressure every summer to make sure that I take advantage of all of the nice days, and make the best of the ones that aren’t so nice (because they are still nicer than the best day in winter). Summer is B’s busy season, including weekends, which leaves me with a bit of free time on at least one day of the weekend. I have been getting a bit of moto riding in, and bought a cheesy bar mount for my old skool gopro hero3. I have been experimenting with it a bit, mounting it in a few different spots on the bike. The vid below is a little slice of one of my usual weekend rides. The segment at the beginning- getting out of the city is sped up to 20x. It slows down to normal speed when I get to Harriman State Park. I have unfortunately been riding solo for most of this summer because everyone is having babies, etc.. Hoping to get the right camera situation dialed in before the next ride with my crew, and possibly upgrade to a gopro that shoots better than 1080p. I feel like that footage would be a lot more interesting to view. Anyway, for those who have 9ish minutes to spare, here’s a nice cross segment of city and country riding–
Basic NYC Weekend Moto from Jacob Breinholt on Vimeo.
One of the crazy things about upstate New York is that it is like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In the summer it is so green, lush and vibrant. In the winter it is like a dystopian wasteland. Anyway, we were in the Catskils over the weekend doing some research. It was kind of snowing, kind of raining, generally gross weather. We came across some dilapidated mansion/hotel looking structures that I had to pull over to get a couple of snaps of. I also love these awesome little trestle bridges where the highway goes back and forth over the river. Here are a couple of frames from the drive.
Saturday morning was one of those rides where I wish I would have had my real camera with me. I saw so much good stuff. It was a little hotter than ideal, but the visibility was really good and the sky was loaded up with cartoon looking clouds. Anyway, here are a couple of images that I managed to snap with my celly.
Three years ago, this month.
With the patchy weather over the weekend, it was good to have an indoor option on the docket. Since apparently we can’t get enough of upstate large scale art installations, we hit up the Beacon arm of Dia. It wasn’t as packed as it had been on my prior visits, which made for some nice photos.
I see this place a little bit differently every time I visit. Even though I was having major allergies the entire day, I had good company and amazing weather. Always worth the trip.
Something that B and I have in common is that we like to get out of town for our b-days. For two years in a row we have seen our first snow of the season on the weekend between our b-days. This year we spent a couple of nights in West Kill, NY. It is a little town not far from Woodstock and Phoenecia. The place we stayed is on a dead end road on the back side of Hunter Mountain, called Spruceton Inn. The Inn is a cutesy (but not too cutesy) spot designed for exactly the type of weekend we were looking to have. Friday night we were able to build a fire and grill some burgs before the rain rolled in. We slept late on Saturday before hitting the Phoenicia Diner for brunch and exploring the town of Phoenicia for a bit. As we were headed back to toward the Inn Saturday afternoon, the rain turned to snow.
Saturday evening we dined at Peekamoose, which was a short drive from the Inn. Afterward, we stayed up late socializing and playing card games with some of the other guests in the Spruceton Inn canteen. Sunday morning the sun finally came out. B and I took a short hike (more of a nature walk, really) to Diamond Notch Falls before heading back to the city.
Despite the less than ideal weather, we had a really great time just relaxing and being off of the grid for a couple of days. I would definitely recommend all of the spots we stopped through. Although, be forewarned that the diner feels an awful lot like north Williamsburg. Even though we missed peak foliage, there were still plenty of colorful leaves on the trees. We may have to do it again next year.
My B-day was on Sunday. We took a little trip upstate to check out the leaves. It was still a little on the early side for colorful foliage. Next weekend will probably be closer to peak. We did a little hike near Cold Spring and encountered some pretty good light in the process.
Giving me the stink-eye
