Next half

On Sunday morning our host cooked up the cheese blintzes we had brought from Greenpoint and we ate them with sour cream and maple syrup, yum! He also cooked up some eggs, so we were well nourished for our morning ride down to Cold Spring. Before taking off though, we spent a few minutes tossing the disc around, which is something I really need to get into the habit of doing.
The ride down 9D was not bad. At first Brandy was apprehensive about the 55 mph traffic coming on our asses with little to no shoulder. She does not have a lot of bike experience, except in the city or rural roads, but after a bit we were able to relax some since the traffic volumes weren't high enough to warrant concern. It was a scenic ride down the valley and much shorter than expected. Turns out we were staying about half the way between Beacon and Cold Spring and our expected 6 mi ride turned into 3, downhill the whole way for added convenience.
Cold Spring is a small town in the forest on the river. It's smaller, and more affluent than Beacon. The scene is less artsy fartsy, more oriented towards antiques. There were some interesting stores, but after two I was over it. We tried to find a coffee shop where I could get some work done. Unfortunately that was not to be. We found what looked to be hopeful, a little bakery with coffee and nice tables outside, but after ordering a coffee it was discovered that there was no bathroom and the coffee was Seattle's *ahem Best. We stayed long enough to choke down the coffee water and we headed down to the river.
They have a wonderful plaza with benches sticking out into the river. There is a huge stone mount across the river and the river also makes a large turn here, so there is a nice view of the cliffs as well as West Point.
From there we went to bar right next to the tracks in the old depot with plentiful outdoor seating. I got a bit of work done here before we decided to walk around in the woods for awhile before meeting our host for dinner.
There is a nice trail around the south edge of town that passes along a swamp and then a babbling brook in the forest. The trail goes through a forested glen that feels very isolated, but is right next to the town. All throughout it are the foundations and wall remnants of some old factories and the area is strewn with bricks. At the head of the glen, the creek passes through an old dam, right underneath the 9D bridge. After the dam, the creek crashes through a narrow gorge, about 10-15 feet deep. It was a very relaxing place to stop and rest. It was a bit unnerving how the creek sprayed out through the spaces between the old blocks in the dam, but we laid on the rocks beneath nonetheless.
There was a large amount of beer cans and other trash marring the beauty, so we filled up a large garbage bag, which had conveniently been tossed as well, and carried it into town.
Dinner was at a pricey French restaurant, which was fairly decent, although they overcooked my "medium-rare" ribeye.
We ended the night pretty early since we were all leaving at 7 the next morning, capping it off watching some TV show about this chemistry teacher who decided to start making meth after he finds out he's dying, which was fairly entertaining.