How did we do that? Google Maps Bicycling, sorta. Because the Google Maps iphone app only allows you to find directions for driving, public transportation, and walking, we relied in two life lines to send us a turn by turn PDF. Thank you Laura et al.
Google gave us three options of which the shortest had almost as many turns as it had miles. But my technocratic companions ruled by majority vote and we decided to wing it no matter how tedious it might have turned out. At the least, we wanted to put google's beta cycling directions to the test.
To give cyclists the best route, google includes trails. The first one we encountered was the Pualinskill Valley Trail, but the entranced had two Private Property signed on either side. So we backed up and remained on Route 94 which had a nice shoulder, low traffic, horse farms on the sides, and was frequented by well kept relic vehicles.
Hoping to get back on the google path, we found another entrance to the trail. A couple of horseback riders waited to get in while Cora snapped a picture of me there. It was a dirt path not really apt for touring. Personally, the image of my back wheel whipping up fresh horse dung onto my back was uninspiring. A local cyclist I met later confirmed that that trail ain't really for biking.
So we kept to our Route 94 even though it did eventually lose it's nice shoulder and get pretty hilly. But not needing to turn at every corner counts, so we might ride it out all the way to the Hudson River.
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