I was “sick” and we took the day for ourselves. It was a very hot Monday after an insanely hot weekend for April! Which, for us, is awesome weather in every way. We took the back-road route to Minnewaska State Park, noticing the canal ruins all along the way. When we got to Minnewaska, we found that the trails were closed to horses and bikes due to damage from an ice storm! That sounded particularly ludicrous on such a hot day, but we realize that it’s still barely spring and they wouldn’t have had time yet to repair the trails.
That’s how we came to ride at Mohonk instead. We followed the Overcliff Road to the Rhododendron Bridge, and then rode up the steep hill toward the Mountain House. We got a little lost at the Farm circle, somehow, but eventually found our way. We descended on the Glory Hill trail and back to the Rhododendron Bridge, where, feeling totally whipped from the heat and humidity after a winter of reduced activity, we needed to rest. Our snack and drink time was interrupted by simultaneous attacks of bugs and allergies! Still, despite how uncomfortable we were at times, we kept commenting on how awesome this weather was for April, and how thrilled we were to be able to get out and enjoy it.
We rode back on the somewhat cooler Undercliff Road and spent time watching some climbers on the cliffs. Then we crossed over and rode for a while on the West Trapps Road, just to see what it was like and where it went. We made it to the bridge but not quite to the waterfall (we’ll save that for next time). Back to the car and then to the Visitors center, where Rich bought me his new favorite t-shirt, we found a mistake on the 3D model of the park, and we learned from another visitor that some trails that had been restricted to hiking are now open for riding. The woman working at the center gave us an annotated map.
Tonight’s well-deserved supper was at Lemongrass in New Paltz. I chose the spicy shrimp prik khing, always one of my favorites, and Rich had an unusual and tasty lemongrass and black pepper chicken dish. We started with shrimp spring rolls as an appetizer. We were extra-thirsty, so in addition to some Thai beers, I also drank a Thai iced tea.