The weather was perfect for great day of climbing through the Catskill Park. The Big Indian route was laid out like this:http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/47491386
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Mark, Gary and I met in Ellenville, NY at Aroma Thyme Bistro. This year, the the mileage was cut to 95 miles from the massive 138 that Gary and I did last year, but there was plenty of climbing (over 5800'). The plan was to ascend four major climbs on this route: Sugarloaf (Cat 2), Big Indian (Cat 4, tops out at 2700'),Peekamoose (Cat 3, from the Ashokan side), and Red Bush (Cat 2). I'd never done the two Cat 2 climbs on this route gave me butterflies.
The refuel stops were the Claryville Country Store (mile 23) and Bread Alone (Espresso stop, mile 60) with the finish at the Aroma Thyme Bistro for a well deserved beer and
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This was the pre-Irene plan. Reports from the Frost Valley, were that Irene mad the Frost Valley Road impassable, and a complete disaster zone. With this knowledge, I decided to bring a map and go with the original plan. All was well up past the Rondout and up Sugarloaf Road. The Sugarloaf Road climb is one that Gary and I agreed was the toughest on the route, and dreamworthy for climbers like us. Virtually trafficless, unmarked roads with burgeoning forest on both sides. This CAT 2 climb has a couple formidable pitchy sections, and is almost always gaining vertical. We passed a local who declared Sugarloaf to be the hardest climb in the Catskills, and warned us that Frost Valley Road was impassable.
We pushed on to our first refuel stop, and soon reached an area where we could detect that a major storm event had made its mark. Washed out shoulders, detritus littered lawns, and home owners making repairs on battered dwellings. The full impact of the damage didn't hit until we reached Frost Valley Road. The road was gone, and earth movers were dredging stone from the river.
Flats! Minutes after passing through this area, I got a flat. I pulled my tube from the my back pocket.. Pumped it up... no good. Mark
gave me another tube and that one was good. At this point, we had two CO2s and one tube left.
We continued on the steady climb up Big Indian and topped out at over 2700 feet. We passed countless road washouts, and were warned that the road was IMPASSABLE! 75 foot crevasse, 75 feet deep! We continued on.
There was, indeed, a canyon where a section of Frost Valley Road once was. Luck for us, they cut a four-wheeler path down to a log bridge complete with a safety rope for us to cross. No adventure ride would be complete without a log crossing.
We continued on through the wreckage of flooded homes along Frost Valley Road. Eventually made our way to Bread Alone where we stopped for espresso and a bite. We continued to the foot of Peekamoose where Mark got a flat, and we went door to door looking for a pump to try to save it.
Lessons learned for Catskill rides:
1. Check your patch kit
2. Take extra CO2
3. Take extra tubes
4. Take a Schrader to Presta valve adapter
Duh. Mark convinced us that it was ok to ride on the rim with a flat; he'd done 20 miles on it and was still rolling his middle grade Bontragers. It says a lot about owning sturdy over ultralight bike components. As a sport rider, I'm sold on sturdy! I swapped Mark's flat for my front, since I had gotten 3 out of the 4 flats. And we began the climb up Peekamoose. I was surprised at how the rim held up. At one point, were all cruising along at 17 mph, which was good for our remaining 25 miles back to Aroma Thyme. We opted to save Red Bush Road for another day, which didn't really reduce the mileage but only elevation gain. Overall, this was an epic adventure ride that will be hard to surpass. But we'll try to next year.
