Remote Anchor House - NYC Edition

My tenth year participating in the Anchor House Ride for Runaways was nothing like the previous nine. As you might imagine, COVID-19 cancelled the traveling portion of the ride, which led to me instead doing a 7-day, 500-mile circuit locally, in and around New York City.

This annual ride's main goals are to raise awareness and operating funds for the Anchor House, a not-for-profit organization based in Trenton, NJ. The Anchor House supports homeless, runaway, and abused youth in the community, and is all about the kids. With a full acknowledgement of how difficult of a time it is for many of us right now, if you are able to support the House with a donation, I would greatly appreciate it. Any amount counts!

Still time to donate here! https://anchorhouseride.rallybound.org/RABuckley

From Sunday, July 12th, through Sunday, July 19th, I completed my local circuit of 500 miles of riding. Below, I've summarized my seven days of riding, along with a few pictures and the Strava map. I hope it makes for quick and enjoyable reading!

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Stage 1: Point Lookout and Back

I hit the road early Sunday morning (6:45am!) like a traditional Anchor House rider should, to beat the heat! Started with some very high energy loops of Prospect Park and Greenwood Cemetary, the pace of which showed me just how hyped up I was to start the day and the week.

Took the bike paths under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, then out to Coney Island, and then across Jamaica Bay via the Marine Parkway Bridge (pictured on left) to the Rockaway Peninsula. No shade here as I traversed the whole island to the Atlantic Beach Bridge out to Long Beach. No shade on the barrier islands is a theme. Stopped for my sandwich at Point Lookout (picture on right) at the end of the island before turning around.

If they could, I think Nassau County would ban New York cyclists from coming onto Long Beach Island altogther. Definitely not the most friendly place I've ever ridden. Once I turned around and biked back onto the Rockaway peninsula in Queens, Carrie came down to meet me for a half beach day! We spent a few hours at Rockaway Beach, before I biked home on the Cross Bay Bridge.

Getting back on the bike after all that time in the sun made for a particularly crispy segment. Hot start, literally!

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Stage 2: New Jersey Highlands

An even earlier start (6:10am out of the house!) to sprint up to the East 35th Street Seastreak station in Manhattan on the East River. From there, I took a 50 minute ferry ride to Highlands, NJ.

Today's route was planned off Bike New York's annual "Twin Lights" ride, using mostly the 55/75 mile loops they made available online from last year. I edited the route a bit, to pick up Kyle at his parent's beach house in Long Branch, and also to take us through lovely Allaire State Park.

I felt a touch of nostalgia to see the blue and yellow County Road signs in New Jersey. Great to get Wawa for lunch. Kyle and I made it back to Highlands around 2:45pm to meet his parents, and caught the 4pm ferry back to the City. Home by 6pm after the ride back from Pier 11 at Wall Street; the longest day of the week for me, from a sheer time perspective. Nearly two hours on ferries will do that.

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Stage 3: Palisades & the New Tappen Zee

Pops drove down on Monday afternoon, and we woke early the following day to ride what I think is the best ride in the NYC area. Across the Brooklyn Bridge, north through Manhattan, and across the Hudson, lies gorgeous Palisades Interstate Park.

After clearing the NJ State Line and getting back into New York, we stopped in Nyack for lunch before crossing the new Mario Cuomo Bridge (the new Tappen Zee; below picture on right) back across the Hudson. A nice ride with excellent river views. Our path back to the City through Westchester County used the shaded and mostly smooth South County Trail.

A total of five bridges crossed with Pops on this Day 3-- the not so great bike path/sidewalk on the George Washington Bridge (not pictured because we just try to cross as quickly as possible), the Broadway Bridge to get into Manhattan from the Bronx, and then the Manhattan Bridge from Manhattan back into Brooklyn.

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Stage 4: The Island of Staten

After a rest day on Wednesday for work and some yoga, I got back on the bike on Thursday.

It wouldn't be a true five borough ride without all five boroughs, and any opportunity to take the free Staten Island Ferry is enough for me. I rode a slightly re-tooled 45 mile perimeter loop of the island, courtesy of the Staten Island Bicycling Association. With the twelve miles round-trip between home and Whitehall Terminal in Lower Manhattan, plus 13.5mi after four loops of Prospect Park tacked on at the end, I had a tidy day of nearly 74 miles.

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Stage 5: Bronx (and only Bronx)

A great revelation for me from this NYC-centric cycling week was the beauty of Riverside Drive along the West Side. I used this on the Palisades day to get to the GW Bridge, and used it again today to get up to the Highbridge across the Harlem River, pictured below. Some nifty navigation through the Bronx got me out to City Island, even after popping my rear tire in Pelham Bay (terrible bike paths).

However, grander designs on this day would have to wait. After one of my bike cleats failed and no longer clipped into my pedal, I tried a few bike shops in person and over the phone with no luck. I eventually abandoned the back half of my planned day (over Randall's Island/RFK Bridge to Queens for a loop there) to set course for REI in SoHo, which had a set of cleats in stock. Once that got fixed up, it was pretty late in the day. Tacked on another four loops of Prospect Park to salvage the day from a mileage perspective.

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Stage 6: Queens

After abandoning this Queens section of my planned loop for the day before, I set out to complete it the following day, albeit without the Randall's Island crossing. For kicks, just on a lark, I decided to take a quick trip around Roosevelt Island too.

A day of many new turns, but it came together quite well. Went past LaGuardia airport without a hitch, then to a pedestrian path along the Long Island Sound to run through Flushing (below). My furthest point North was at Fort Totten, with views of the Throg's Neck and Whitestone Bridges. Fort Totten was a little underwhelming compared to Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island, but the fact that Totten is still being used as an FDNY training ground probably contributes to that. A hot day with not as much cloud cover as I might have liked, but it felt good to see some new roads I wouldn't otherwise make a point to ride.

I ended this day with four more loops of Prospect Park again, which adds both elevation and mileage in an efficient way. Hey, when you're trying to get to 500 miles, you have to get there in whatever way possible. When you've got a beautiful park in your backyard, you take advantage of it. Speaking of which...

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Stage 7: "Efficient Parks & Bridges"

One of the challenges of urban bicycling is the stop-start nature of traffic lights, stop signs, etc. It can be hard to combine an interesting route with uninterrupted pedaling. The car-free loops within Prospect and Central Park make this a bit easier.

Dad came down again for the last day of the week, and we began with two loops of Prospect Park, followed with a loop of Greenwood Cemetery, which has a slightly gnarlier hill. These are my two main training grounds. Then went down 9th for a quick scope around Red Hook and Brooklyn Bridge Park, before shooting up to Central Park for two loops there. With those Central Park loops clocking in at 6.1 miles each, we were on our way. A couple quick bridge crossings: Queensboro, Williamsburg, and Manhattan, and we were done!

Lucky to have these lovelies waiting for us at the finish line.

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Conclusion? It was great! It was weird! It was fun. I'm glad I had the opportunity to spend the time just out riding in my City like this. Riding in the City is so much more difficult than the rural miles we get on a typical ride. Makes the days that much longer, but the opportunity to explore new routes was incredible. If you want to do some of these rides with me, let me know! If you want my directional "cue sheets" for some of the rides I did this week, just ask!

It was incredibly different and weird to be in the midst of real life while doing seven days of riding. While I took off work four days out of five, it was still there, in the background, so much more than in the past. Especially with COVID, my work as a civil servant has been busier than ever. Sleeping and waking up in your own bed, not needing to ride a bicycle to get to your next bed... that does have an impact on your motivation to ride!

There is a benefit of being on the road and having no objective other than getting on the bike, especially when it comes to food. On a normal ride week, you're in a new hotel every night (hopefully with a continental breakfast), you've got a rolling SAG crew providing water, Gatorade, and quick food stuffs, and you're staying in small towns with restaurants for lunch and dinner without much of a choice or thought to cook for yourself. So, as fun as my local ride was, I'm looking forward to hopefully getting back on those open rural roads in 2021.

Connecting with friends and family to raise money for such a great cause is what this week is all about, and every year I am amazed by everyone's generosity. So, I'd be remiss to not close with a question, especially if you've made it this far: Donated yet? If not, click here to donate now! Thanks again if you have already!

The 2021 Anchor House ride will run the planned 2020 route back, starting from Charlottesville, VA, and going through Maryland and Pennsylvania. 'Till next year!