A new favorite ride
@##=#<3,R>@##=#The Beacon, NY area should be the Girona of the New York racing scene.* Currently, there’s no scene here, just me. Seeing another cyclist, especially a racer, here, is like coming across an albino squirrel. You look at it. It stares back at you. You wonder how it survives without its natural camouflage. It wonders what the hell you are. Before you remember to wave or nod, the racer is gone forever in the opposite direction and it’s back to solo training.
If you saw last weekend’s New York Times article on Beacon, let me suggest you buy now. Really, you should have bought 5 years ago. Here’s the cyclist’s real estate agent in me talking: Central to all northeast races from NJ to VT, Fitchburg to Bethel, and especially Bear. Hills short and steep or long and gradual. Low traffic. No smog. Metro North to Grand Central in 90 minutes.
Here’s my newest reason to love it up here, and maybe why you should too. When I moved up here I found on a map a road to the top of Mt. Beacon. I tried once or twice to find the road, but gave up–there is more than enough climbing already. I learned it was dirt, and forgot about it. But just a couple of weeks ago someone asked if I’d ever ridden it, and he told me how to find it. **
@##=#<6,L>@##=#So on a damp Sunday I set out to ride up Mt. Beacon on my old Klein Rascal. Starting off on the wrong side of a gully, I pushed the aluminum beast uphill for 45 minutes of hike-a-bike before hitting the road. Then I hit the washed out service road. More like loose stones, loose rocks and loose gravel than dirt. Up through the clouds and to the top.
Here’s the new ride. For all practical purposes, the only downhill is the one flight of stairs out of my apartment. Then it’s a quick coast to Fishkill Creek, and the fun starts. Once off the paved city streets the bike is slipped under the gate*** and the real riding begins. Lift up the rear wheel and shift into the 26 x 34.**** Most of the ride from the gate to the top is a complete grind of about 25 minutes. In 2.75 miles there’s almost 1,400 feet of up. And, the last two miles pack a 13% grade, including nearly a mile at 15%. Parts are so steep as to be barely ridable, even in the granny gear. Come to a stop and it’s a hike up to where the @##=#<4,R>@##=#slope eases a bit. I’m no expert mtb’er, but it took me several runs up this road to be able to make it all the way without stalling out and unclipping. Basically it’s threshold with a few minutes of above threshold every now and then just to keep upright. The descent is a screamer illustrating the necessity for disc brakes. I’d like to credit this high-speed off-road riding practice for earning me gas and motel money by taking the sandy edge of the sprint at Sturbridge, but it was probably just luck. Two or three repeats and I’m done.
The Mt. Beacon ride: another installment in why you should get out of the city and give me some company up here, and one of my favorite area rides. The following meal was also recently declared a local favorite.
I’m sure this is blasphemy in many ways, but let’s call it Vietnamese Teriyaki Salmon.
The sides are brown rice and a salad.
Suggestions for the salad: thinly slice or shred Napa cabbage, red cabbage, green onions, celery root (celeriac) and carrots. Add mung bean sprouts, cilantro, Thai basil, sliced kumquats. ***** Dress with a slightly modified version of Nuoc Cham, the essential Vietnamese dipping sauce. This is based on Nicole Routhier’srecipe. (The ginger and sesame oil are the additions.) Thoroughly mash the first 4 ingredients in a mortar, then combine everything and stir or shake in a closed container until the sugar is dissolved
2 crushed cloves garlic
1 or 2 fresh Thai chiles (the small green ones), minced.
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger.
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper******
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup Vietnamese fish sauce*******
1/2 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
The salmon is based on Mark Bittman’s recipe for teriyaki salmon in his book The Best Recipes in the World.
@##=#<2,R>@##=#Brown 4 8-ounce salmon filets, skin on. Do this by first crisping the skin side in a very hot pan with a bit of peanut or canola oil. You may want to score the skin with a knife to keep the fish from curling, but don’t cut too deep. Cook only one or two filets at once. Press the fish down lightly if it starts to curl. Turn down the heat as soon as you put the fish in the pan. Once brown, briefly flip to the flesh side. Try not to break up the filets or move them around too much. We’re also trying to not cook it all the all the way yet. Don’t worry if the flesh side doesn’t brown. Remove and set aside.
After all the salmon pieces are browned, add a few tablespoons of water and scrape up any bits of fish. Add 1/3 cup sweetish white wine, 1/3 cup mirin (or 2 tablespoons each of water and honey), 2 tablespoons sugar 1/3 cup fish sauce, a small squeeze of lime juice and 1 teaspoon ground black pepper. Cook this liquid until it starts to get bubbly. Carefully put the fish back in and cook a bit more on low, coating all sides in the sauce. Try to leave the center of the fish translucent.
Serve on the rice and salad and garnish with kumquat slices.
* I’ve promoted Beacon as a future local Girona before, and will probably say it again. Some people might like to keep the secret, but I’d rather have bikers up here than even more artists who can’t/won’t/didn’t/don’t want to make it in NYC. Writers are welcome, however.
** Take E. Main all the way up the hill. Look for the water tank. Go past Pocket Road, cross the bridge and turn up the gravel road.
*** All the signs say no trespassing, but there are also plenty of hiking trails. It’s the Hudson Highlands State Park. This road is used by service cars going up to the communications towers at the top. Although a park ranger with Scenic Hudson once told me it was OK to ride the roads, I would not bomb down the hiking trails. ATVs are the enemy, not MTBs, as long the hikers are left in peace.
**** No, that’s not backwards.
***** I had never eaten kumquats before making this. Use the skin and the insides. In a reversal from the usual citrus experience, the skin is sweet and the inside sour.
****** Really, you have to use fresh ground. Otherwise, don’t bother.
******* I’m not sure how to evaluate the quality of the juice of fermented anchovy-like fishes, so I just buy the most expensive bottle. Seems like the safe thing to do. But, do get it in Chinatown, not the ethnic section at Key Foods.