Hopewell Junction on the Maybrook Rail Trail

Stephan and I met Saturday to ride the Empire State Trail, aka the Maybrook Rail Trail, from Brewster to Hopewell JCT and back.  I don't bust his balls too much because he is riding an eBike, except when he smokes me on climbs. He's rehabbing after heart surgery and needs the assist right now but he plans to transition back to his Specialized Diverge once he is up to it.

Some storms ripped through the area the day before and we heard a lot of thunder off in the distance. In fact the Lunartics were going to do a Black Beard Pub Ride but the uncertainty of the weather canceled that idea, however, it didn't rain until much later. New rule of thumb, when in doubt, just ride. 

There were quite a few trees down over the trail this morning.

I love riding by Whaley Lake and thinking back to the all the good times I had here as a kid. My church had a camp at the northern end of the lake and we used to come here year round for Boy Scouts, to camp, canoe and fish.

We came upon another tree down

that we were able to walk under.

Rolled by the Green Haven Correctional Facility and I kept looking for the siding that I thought came off the Maybrook Line for the Clove Branch Line but looking at Open Railway Map it came out of the Hopewell JCT. There wasn't much to see in Hopewell JCT so we turned around and headed back towards Brewster.

I lost sight of Stephen as he got a little bit ahead of me. He told me later he was cramping up a bit and his method of dealing with it was to pedal faster. With pedal assist, that meant he sped up and I couldn't keep up with him.

When we were heading out we passed a woman in a 4x4 that was taking care of the blow downs and as I passed her on the way back I asked her if she got them all but she said there was one more.

I caught up to Stephen at the blowdown that hadn't been cleared as of yet.

Then it was my turn to drop him. Little did I know he was almost out of battery and he was trying to conserve energy.

I rode up on these two guys with panniers that took an Amtrak to Hudson and now were riding back to Brooklyn and going to overnight somewhere near Mahopac.

I had passed two women earlier and concluded that they were these two girlfriends or wives.

When I stopped to let Stephen catch up he told me he was out of battery and now he was pedaling a 70 lb bike. I said to him if you can pedal this thing now I think you are ready to go back to non-pedal assist. He chuckled. I am not sure he will ever go back because I think he likes the eBike too much.

After the ride we went back to his place to drop off the bikes and change. Then we headed over to Decicco & Sons, this Grocery Store with a tap room in it. After shopping for something to grill we hit the tap room and met up with a guy that we had passed earlier on the trail. 

What a place!

They even had Reverie on tap!

And I picked up a crowler of Dunkelweizen Bier!