Biking - A long, scenic (aka "hilly") ride on a perfect day

Today, some friends were doing a 40-mile ride up in the hills between Schenectady and the Schoharie Valley to the west. It's a very scenic ride, as it looks across both the Schoharie and Mohawk valleys to the hills far in the distance. But first we had to climb the hills on our side of the valley.



Having done the first major climb, and several smaller ones, we rode along through farm fields on very pretty and lightly traveled back roads. Coming down from the hills, we found ourselves in Minaville on NY-30, where we stopped at a small local diner for a second breakfast. Then it was up again, before the final descent into the Mohawk Valley and a flat ride for the next 5 miles. Unfortunately, our starting point was up several more short steep pitches, to the home of the friends where we'd started. I was pretty well spent by the end of those climbs, but happy that the legs had held out and let me do them.

Altogether, this ride had over 2,400 feet of total climbing, a pretty respectable day, and not too different from many days I had last summer on my trip.