Tag Archives: dutchess

Spirit of Dutchess Awards

Last month I was nominated for a Spirit of Dutchess Award for the effort that I’ve done with the Poughkeepsie Farm Project. It’s something I’m very honored by. There are nearly 30 nominees, and all are quite impressive. In a field as good as that I finally understand the phrase “it’s an honor just to be nominated”. This letter to the editor (skip past the Harold Camping one) in the Poughkeepsie Journal drove that point home even more.

Tomorrow is the luncheon for the awards, which I’m really looking forward to. I’ve got no allusions that I’ll be one of the few winners from this field, but I am looking forward to participating in such a celebration of service in our county.

The Dutchess County Rail Trail Expands

Yesterday, a new 6 mile section of the Dutchess County Rail Trail opened. This means that we can now ride out our front door, and in less than 3 miles get onto 8 miles of scenic ride with only 3 at grade crossings the entire way.

I managed to get out there tonight after work, though given that it was the first ride of the year, cheated and drove to the entrance. 1:45 and 16.5 miles later, I’d ridden down to Hopewell Junction and back. While I didn’t end up with any riding companions, My Tracks apparently has a new feature where it speaks to you after every completed km or mile (depending on your units) with total time and averages. That freaked me out the first time, but I got used to it as a nice cadence.

Here is my own track from tonight:

And the trail map for people in the area that might be interested:

Well worth venturing out, it’s a great ride.