2019 Riding Course

2019.07.22 Governors Island Ride

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Fortification

Definition: A defensive wall or other reinforcement built to strengthen a place against attack

Governors Island:
On the fifth ride of the season, we took our first trip to one of the islands around Manhattan (which is an island itself!) to Governors Island. We started off by meeting the guest rider that we had, Kaitlyn! She works at the NYC Department of Transportation and Department of Sanitation. When we started biking, we proceeded along some roads to start, which, at this point, is fairly routine. We took second ave. down to 88th st. then over to the East River on John Finley Walk. The views from the path were amazing on the calm Monday morning. We took this route, along with a slight detour onto second ave. for the entire route there. Towards the end, we passed by many groups of tourists and stopped for a geocache. At the ferry terminal, a brief history of the island was given by Adam and then half the group went to look for another geocache, and the other half stayed behind with the bikes. As soon as the ferry arrived, the group that was away was called over and came over running! However, there was no reason to run over because the ferry was not set to leave for several minutes.

On the ferry, some people started to eat their lunch (it was already around 1:30) even though the ferry ride was fairly short, only around 5-10 minutes. At the island, we biked over to some picnic tables and ate lunch while Alexis, Omar, and Henry played soccer in the nearby open space. After lunch, we biked to the trail that went all the way on the west side of the island. We biked over to the lookout hill and most of the riders climbed to the top while Jenny, Adam, and Alberto fixed a flat tire. We biked through more of the island until we got to the bathrooms. The bathrooms were a favorite for everyone because of how nice and cool they were! Around the corner from the bathrooms was the slides which were so much fun! While the slides were pretty hot, it was nice to take a small break and slide down the 50-foot slide. We biked around some more and went to a geocache on the island next to a small boat dock. After only a couple of minutes, the geocache was found and we were set to get on our way once more. After some more biking, we took a wrong turn trying to find our third geocache of the ride sow e had to turn around again and return to the ferry terminal.

The ferry ride back was nice, but everyone could notice the clouds start to roll in across the horizon. As soon as we landed on the main island, it started to pour down on us and everyone got drenched. Thankfully, there was a little bit of cover in some places and that the rain had quickly ended. Down the road, we had passed by the 9/11 memorial and new WTC building (although we did not stop) so we could try and return on time. Unfortunately, on the route, Oscar’s bike had gotten a flat and the Leaders tried to fix it but were ultimately unsuccessful. While waiting, Cappy pointed out a small plant that was nearby which supposedly had a lemony flavor. Upon trying it, we agreed that it did have a faint lemony taste! After some time, and unsuccessful repair efforts, most of the group opted to return back to the school, led by Kaitlyn. The route back was nice, looking over the river to New Jersey. We passed by the Intrepid, an old Navy boat, and rode by in awe of its size. The ride was smooth sailing until we were near west 103rd st. and it had started to pour again. This time the rain was relentless and did not stop at all. We tried to rush back to minimalize the wetness, but it was no use. Everyone was drenched once more by the time we reached the school.

It was a fun ride which was only slightly ruined by torrential downpours.

Participants:
Alexis, Omar, Estphanie, Fransisco, Logan, Oscar, Edgar, Yessinia, Henry

Co-leaders:
Cappy Collins, Alberto Rivero, Lauren Heuer, Adam Nathoo, Jenny Youm, Adriana Candia, Danny Navarro

Ride Statistics:
Miles biked: 23.54 Miles
Program time (hours): 8 hours
Ride time (hours): 7 hours
Calories burned*: 923

Water Quality Monitoring Results
No results were acquired.

*http://www.mapmywalk.com/improve/calorie_calculator/
Estimates based on 100lbs, 5′ 0″ ht, 12 yo, average between male and female.

2019.07.18 Bronx River Ride (Prev Lesson)
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