15.2 Mile Ride on the Albany County Rail Trail
Sunday, June 4, 2017
Didn't feel like driving very far, so I headed over to the Slinglerlands trailhead for the rail trail. Before I left I swapped out my skinny road tires for the wider dirt ones, with a washer added on the rear axle to see if I could use the 8-speed freewheel without it rubbing against the rear dropouts (turns out I can, but the shifting for the 2 lowest gears is glitchy.) The packed-for-paving surface on the trail heading toward Voorheesville seemed like a good chance to try that out.
Turns out the trail is packed all the way to Hilton Rd now... I turned around there because it looked like the last section into Voorheesville, while smoother than it was a little over a week ago, was still rougher than I wanted to tackle on the road bike. What a difference heading back made... on the way out I was averaging 8-9 mph, but on the way back I easily hit 15 mph, between the downhill grade and the packed surface.
The trail down into the Delmar and even down to the S Pearl St parking lot was pretty busy. The ride downhill is always fun, other than knowing that soon I'll be pumping my way back up the same hills. Took my time and had no problems, though I suspect my legs will be letting me know that I rode 30 miles over the last two days, with half of today's ride uphill.
