Gallery TBA
Staten Island Ride:
Here we are at the last ride of Cyclopedia 2017. By now, everyone knows how to prepare for the ride. So, we all put our pinnies and helmets on, filled our water bottles, and checked our ABC’s right away so that we can catch the ferry on time. Our goal was 11 o’clock. Without delays, we walked down 96th toward the East River. It turns out that the path along East River was closed due to construction, so we walked back across FDR Drive, and biked to 2nd Avenue for the protected bike path. We whizzed past shops and turned left on 38th street to get back on the East River Esplanade. We continued South, under Williamsburg Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, and the Brooklyn Bridge until we got to the pier where the Staten Island Ferry was. Did we make it to the 11 o’clock ferry? Oh yes we did. With 15 minutes to spare, in fact.
The ferry ride to Staten Island was so relaxing. The breeze was nice, and the sun was shining. We saw the Statue of Liberty and other ferries too. After we got off the ferry, we rode to our lunch destination – the Snug Harbor. On the way, there was a slightly uphill ramp, and a pedestrian who saw our crew encouraged us by saying “LOW GEARS EVERYONE!” But, the Cyclopediacs thought it was too easy of a ramp to change and found it easier to stay on the highest gears for efficiency. It’s amazing how much we’ve grown in strength and endurance! After a nice ride on the bike path, we took a left on Lafayette Street and followed the signs to Snug Harbor. In the Snug Harbor, we passed a pretty arch that was covered in vines and stopped at a castle. This castle had a maze that we went through, and after that, we sat down for lunch. Remembering that we had brought the solar powered radio that Justin gave us, we decided to have some tunes durig our lunch. It took a little bit for us to figure out how to work it, but eventually the radio was playing music!
After lunch, we decided to explore the area for some geocaches. Alberto led us into a grassland where we found a geocache that was hidden under a bridge. This geocache had more trinkets in it that we had ever seen! Wanting to contribute to the collection, Cappy put a Cyclopedia logo sticker inside the cache. Hopefully, someone will take it when they find the cache. While getting ready to ride to the next geocache location, we found that Nestor didn’t have a helmet. Where was his helmet???? We searched and searched, but we couldn’t find it. It turns out that he had left it at the castle where we ate our lunch. Georgia, our helmet police, was not happy with knowing that he had biked without a helmet. She had him stand up straight, look at her in the eye, and take a helmet oath: “I, Nestor, will always wear a helmet wherever I go, because I like my noggin!”
The second cache that we looked for was under a concrete bridge nearby. The clues hinted that it should be near ivy/holly trees, but we couldn’t find it anywhere. Instead, we found a frog! It was hiding out in the bushes, but once we spread out to look for the cache, it jumped out into the river. With the rest of its body under the water, it was watching us intensely. Fascinated, we stared back, but after awhile we decided to head back to our bikes. On our way out, we had another animal greet us! We saw a deer on the path that we were taking. All of us were really quiet to make sure that we wouldn’t scare away the deer. Once we got closer, we saw that there were a family of deers. When everyone came closer, however, the family got scared and walked away from the crew. It was still breathtaking to see a family of deers. Resuming our return, we took a quick water/bathroom break and rode back to the ferry terminal.
Once we were on the ferry, some of the Cyclopediacs took a power nap. It had been a hot day and we had been biking for most of it. But, alas, the ride to Manhattan was a short one, and soon we were riding again back to homebase. Taking the Hudson River Greenway, we rode up on the West side of Manhattan, just as we had done on our Governor’s Island Ride. On 90th Street, we turned to make our way towards Central Park. Here we face our last few hills of the season, and all of our riders made it! Crossing from the West side to the East side on 96th Street, we continued riding on 96th Street, until 3rd Avenue. Finally, we were at Beacon again. It was a great ride with the perfect weather and all the great company. We found our geocaches and was even lucky to see wild animals.
This was an awesome season and a wonderful summer with a staggering 232.67 miles of riding. Just to list off some of the accomplishments, the Cyclopediacs rode through rain and heat; they traveled over the Wards Island Bridge, Triborough Bridge, Queensborough Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, George Washington Bridge, High Bridge, Pulaski Bridge; they became hill masters, geocache explorers, and spelunking masters; they rode through all 5 boroughs of New York City. And that’s ONLY on the official ride days! GREAT JOB CYCLOPEDIACS! YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!
Coleaders
Georgia Bancheri, Cappy Collins, JiaMei Huang, Judy Lee, Alberto Rivera, Rodrigo
Participants
Candia, Adriana
Galindo, Maria
Larrazabal, Nestor
Munoz-Medrano, Carmen
Navarro, Alexis
Navarro, Daniela
Nararro, Omar
Sibanda, Farai
Ride Statistics
Miles biked: 25.4 miles
Program time (hours): 7.8 hours
Ride time (hours): 4 hours 9 minutes
Calories burned*: 619 Calories
Water Quality Monitoring Results
Nitrate:
Nitrite:
pH:
Hardness:
Chlorine:
Lead:
Pesticides:
Bacteria:
*http://www.mapmywalk.com/improve/calorie_calculator/
Estimates based on 100lbs, 5′ 2″ ht, 13 yo, average between male and female.
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