Hadley/Crane
Pack sandwiches and snacks into bike bag
Bring a lock on the bike.
Folding paddle might be better
First drop a bike at the glen. If using bike shoes you’ll need to keep those with the bike as well. It’s probably simpler to ride with regular pedals
- Leg 1: Kayak: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/course/43215671 - 18.5m kayak
- Leg 2: Hadley: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/course/43216684 - 19m bike, 3m run
- Leg 3: Crane: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/course/43216890 - 19.5m bike, 2m run (Note: this route has been updated since I followed the course. The old course routed over private property). Note: The climb up to the Crane trailhead is brutal and gravel. It also melted my brake pads on the way down so even the descent is brutal.
- Leg 4: Back to the car: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/course/43216982 - 21m bike
- Totals: 18.5m kayak (5h), 60m bike (6h), 5m run (2h)
- Total time: 13 hours
- Actual total time: It took me 13 hours when I skipped the hike up Crane (but also lost some time due to wrong turns). So it is probably longer that 13 hours by an hour or two. It is definitely worth starting early enough to have the 15 hours so that you're not finishing the bike ride in the dark. Then again I finished the ride in the dark and with decent weather it wasn't bad.
- Here's me completing the course (except the Crane hike) https://www.strava.com/activities/11616420157
- Thoughts: I kinda expected it to be a more aesthetically pleasing course. A circle or a square with the mountains, put-in, and take-out being the corners. Instead it involved a lot of out-and-backs like to the peaks, and taking a wonky direction to get from the take-out to Hadley. It was a great experience to do once. But I'm not eager to do it again. The kayak was long, and maybe ideal for this in that it wasn't very scary, had a lot of wave trains, but eventually it was long enough that it was getting silly (paddle paddle wave wave splash paddle paddle flat section wave train splash, etc). The bike ride was pretty neat, seeing a ton of generally really nice camps, it's a nicely developed (rustic but with very nice homes, many of them seasonal) area which reminded me somewhat of Burke (without the mountain biking). Maybe kayaking and biking is a great combo, where the kayak is interesting *and* the bike ride is interesting. Yeah that's basically what made this cool and worthwhile. That when you got off the kayak, it wasn't just a return slog on the bike, in some ways that's when the adventure really got rolling. This course all gets a lot of points for being such an easy drive from the house (about an hour from the take-out). I'd love to some of these further north, but the 2+ hour drive each way is a lot solo.
- What other outings does this lead into?
- Kayak the Hudson gorge up north?
- Rolling the kayak seems like a good skill for this
- Note the timing of the dam releases. Also this stretch seems to be runnable at lower levels?
- Is it worth exploring more of the southern Hudson by boat?
- Hitting up these stretches on Saturday during the weekly dam release
