Sunday I lead a fun and very difficult ride in Central Putnam and Dutches Counties. My ride posting on the Westchester Cycle Club website tried to give fair warning. The ride name was “Eder Sanction” After one of the best Clint Eastwood adventure movies, the Eiger Sanction. A movie, Lloyd, Bob, and Jauntxo knew, but Katie did not.

I pointed out that we’d start with a the climb on Church Road out of Putnam Valley, It’s about the easiest way out, but still a nice climb as we headed to one of the longer and tougher climbs in the area, Dennytown, yes the hard way. Dennytown climbs to the top of Fahnstock Memorial State Park and is nearly two miles long. The base is gradual as it builds towards the multiple steep sections to the top. It’s a climb that you think is finished at times with a flat or even one downhill section, but no, it raises again as steep as before as you head to Rt 301.

We rolled up, down, UP, and down 301 to Farmer’s Mill Road where we turned a quick left onto Miller’s Hill Road. If you’ve ridden in the Lower Hudson Valley most roads with the name “hill” or “mountain” got their names honestly.

Miller’s Hill starts on a quite wooded county road. Just beautiful, we meet another club ride from Beacon heading North as well. It’s after about seven tenths of a mile the climb begins. This is a new climb for me, I test road it first Saturday and again with the group Sunday. The climb gets steeper and steeper towards the top. The tough part looms ahead as the trees open a little. I looked down and on the flatter section just before the steep part, I had one more gear left, the 39X27 and it was a lot steeper then what I was on.

We regrouped at the underpass of the Taconic at the middle of the fast downhill before we join Shenandoah Road. This road really feels like the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Thanks to Eric who was a member of the Rockland Bicycling Club who now lives in Pawling. He emailed me about the ride and suggested Miller’s Hill. He tells me it’s harder from north to south and I believe him, it was a super fast descent.

Along the way I noticed a bike computer on the road. Katie Marshall jumped to catch the group from Beacon who was just out of site and I turned and went back to get it. Just up the road a rider was heading back and happy to have his computer, he hadn’t even noticed it had fallen from his bike.

So we rolled to Blue Hill road, one of the few roads with hill it it’s name that really is not much of a climb. We stopped at the Smoke Haus Deli in East Fiskill and refueled as the day was getting hotter in the sunshine. Yes – sunshine on a weekend, just not used to this.

We headed back out on RT 52 to make our way to our destination, Eder Road and it’s slopes. As we could see it I said, we’ll regroup at the top. Juantxo lead the way, his Basque roots kicking in, while Bob and I went up the step section close together, but he pulled away as the climb eased off. Katie was next with Lloyd finishing the climb off for the group. We joked about now understanding the name after and Lloyd wanting to watch the movie again. I encouraged Katie to watch it, even though it’s a guy flick.

We headed off on to some rolling narrow and rough roads making our way to RT 292 for our next really hard climb. Katie picked up on the “really” part of that. I warned everyone about the more then ninety-degree turn and gravel at the base of North White Rock Road and that it is steep at the start. As we made the turn and started the climb Katie looked over at me and asked, “are you trying to kill us?” I just laughed.

We all made it to the top, this is a hard, twisty, rough ascent west of Whaley Lake in Pawling. It dead ends on to South White Rock which is a fast gnarly descent with a couple of short big ring power climbs and one little ring hump.

At this point everyone was looking forward to the Gypsy Trail descent and rolling Rt 301 and Peekskill Hollow road to the parking lot. But this area is never flat and we knew more climbs awaited so we grabbed more liquid in Ludingtonville before the finish.

I know everyone enjoyed this ride and hated it at times as well. It was a tough 56 miles. Not only the steep hills but the twisty rough roads also beat your body up a little. It was tough at times to find a rhythm no matter what the terrain. It was a route I’ll do a number of times on my own in the coming months. There’s little traffic, beautiful scenery, and it will make me stronger.

Katie pointed out after the ride that on Eder Road her heart rate was down in a good range, but he muscles arched as she turned her cranks. Most climbs hit your heart rate first and then the legs feel t he pain from the lactic acid build up, on Eder, it just hurt.

Juantxo told me his altimiter had 5150 feet of climbing and Lloyd had 5,080 over the 56.5 mile loop. My legs hurt more from this then the 104 miles and 7,000 feet of climbing I did a few weeks ago. Gotta love the pain in order to rep the gain!