Last Sunday 5:30 AM found me biking to the Battery where, with a few hundred others, I helped put on BikeNY’s Five Borough Bike Tour. My main job was to ride very slowly, fix flats, gears & chains, hand out water, snacks and encouragement to 30,000 riders. In a previous post I suggested low-key NYC rides you can still go on. Below, I suggest somewhat more adventuresome multi-day rides in order of their physical demands.

When I was a very young teen, I rode on multi-day bike trips organized by the 92nd Street Y and American Youth Hostels. We carried our gear and food; rode 30 or so miles a day on fairly unforgiving 3-speed English touring bikes. I loved it. Heavy duty exercise, lots of unsupervised time on the road for making out, group meals. My dream – never achieved – was to lead those trips.

Fifty years later, in the course of courting, I’ve been getting my wish. On a dare, a couple of years ago I signed up to help put on a multi-day bike ride in the Adirondack Mountains. I practiced and practiced until I could get up the steepest hill in Central Park without collapsing. (Of course, in the Adirondacks, most every hill was steeper and longer than those in Central Park.). Since then, I’ve been on a number of multi-day rides and I want to invite you along.

The following three rides – sponsored by non-profits --, in order of increasing difficulty,