Girls Bike NYC: Brewster to Tarrytown

Taking my road bike out for Summer Streets on Saturday was my way of confirming that I would be ready for the Girls Bike NYC ride on Sunday morning.

This week, the plan was to meet at Grand Central Station to catch the 8:09 AM train up to Brewster. We would then ride South from Brewster, to Tarrytown, and stop for tacos before catching a train back to the city.

I got ready, making sure I brought enough snacks to fuel properly/more consistently. I still haven’t worked out which foods work best for me but for future rides, I’m thinking of taking some snacks with higher sodium content since I sweat so much.

Time to catch the subway to Grand Central. We were set to meet at 7:45. I got there at 7:15 of course, so I got a coffee and bagel while I waited for the rest of the group to get there.

We gathered near the clock in the center of the main concourse at Grand Central and by the time we had to board, our group included 17 people! With that many bikes in tow, we had to split ourselves up across multiple train cars. One group was complimented by the conductor on their bike storage abilities and bragged about it in the group chat:

My group received no such compliments:

But we weren’t disheartened because we had BROOKLYN, the cutest dog ever, riding with us:

It was about an hour and twenty minute trip up to Brewster but once we got to the station, it was a short ride to the Empire State Trail. We had two big mechanicals right at the start but it was good to get them out of the way!

Riding on the Empire State Trail was a nice change of pace from some of our other rides since there was no riding through the mean streets of NYC! The ride was also a fairly fast one without always having to stop for traffic and lights. In fact, I ran out of water and needed a bathroom break before we made it to Tarrytown for lunch but I was able to keep it together.

Before we knew it, we were in Tarrytown! We took over multiple taco spots and then a street corner while we all dug in. Not pictured is the delicious chicken quesadilla I ordered for lunch.

The train ride back was probably the most exciting part of the trip. This particular Metro North train was not quite prepared for the number of cyclists boarding. The conductors were less than helpful and only yelled at us about where we were NOT allowed to store our bikes, rather than sharing information on where we could. It was an interesting journey as we wheeled our bikes down the narrow aisles of multiple train cars. Eventually, we got to the car with some space but the area was already filled with other people’s bicycles. Their method of storing the bikes was not conducive to fitting anyone’s but their own so it was quite the endeavor to get all of us and our bikes into suitable locations for the train ride home. Jaime accurately portrays our feelings about this situation.

A few people were feeling good enough to ride the rest of the way home from Tarrytown but I was more than happy to take Metro North to Grand Central and then hop on the subway to get back to Brooklyn. Gigi, whose health really seems to be improving (WOOHOO, I CAN SLEEP AT NIGHT), seems eager to join Brooklyn on our next ride.