Meet the Gunks

Yesterday I went to Poughkeepsie with my friends Jim Zisfein and Irv Schachter. We had a great ride through New Paltz and up the Shawangunks to Mohonk and to Minnewaska State Park.
This was a scouting trip for my May 3rd 5BBC/NYCC ride.
The climb up to the Mohonk Golf lodge was long and steep. There were other climbs as well.
Looking at the elevation profile, I can't imagine what it thinks is 1500 feet of elevation and a 30+ % grade at the roughly 12 mile mark; that's in the town of New Paltz. Our really serious climbing started where Mountain Rest Road crosses Butterville and Canaan Roads. I did some calculations from the GPS data for the climb up Mountain Rest Road from that point, an elevation of 317 feet and at 13.66 miles into our ride.

At the first bend in the road, its an elevation gain of 152 feet and we'd traveled .38 miles so that's a 7.58% grade.



From there to Spies Road, it's an elevation gain of 268 feet and .74 miles further. That makes it "only"a 6.86% grade.

The whole leg from 1st bend to 2nd bend is 435 feet elevation gain over 1.07 miles: a 7.70% grade.

After that is a deceptive recovery leg to the 3rd bend in the road: 103 feet of elevation gain over .38 miles for a "mere" 5.13% grade.

From the start to the stop at the golf lodge is an elevation gain of 811 feet over 2.12 miles for an overall grade of 7.25%.

Huff. Puff. Repeat.

Jim Zisfein, myself and Irv Schacter at the Minnewaska overlook

View from the Minnewaska scenic overlook