Rock To Rock Rides On Through Rain

A cold spring morning downpour couldn’t keep father-son cycling duo Larry and Taylor King from riding for a good cause — to raise money to help keep their home city green, sure, but also to spend some quality family time outdoors and on two wheels, rain or shine.

The Kings were two of several dozen biking stalwarts to seek shelter under the pavilion in College Woods park in East Rock at around 8 a.m. Saturday in anticipation of the 8:30 start of an assuredly soggy 40-mile ride.

They showed up in the morning rain for the 15th annual Rock to Rock ride, an Earth Day-adjacent tradition that saw over 500 cyclists sign up to participate and over $200,000 raised to support the work of a host of local environmental nonprofits, including that of the event’s lead organizers, the New Haven Leon Sister City Project and the Urban Resources Initiative (URI).

The event included 1‑, 5‑, 12‑, 20‑, 40‑, and 60-mile guided bike rides, as well as hikes and bird watching around East Rock Park, followed by a ​“green fair” with food trucks and live music by Nu Haven Kapelye All Stars and Gammy Moses back at College Woods.

Taylor King of Westville said he came out in the rain — with his bike and his dad — to keep a father-son tradition alive.

“We do this every year,” he said about the Rock to Rock ride. ​“It’s a good cause,” and it’s a good opportunity to spend time with his father.

Rain is a reality that biking enthusiasts like the Kings have to deal with when riding in Connecticut. Taylor said he and his father rode in the rain a few weeks ago on the Connecticut River Trail. In hindsight, that wet ride proved to be good practice for the Rock to Rock ride to come. His favorite part about two-wheeling around the state with his father? ​“I get to see all the different” trees and parks and trails and greenery the area has to offer.

Some of the raingear-clad bikers out in East Rock early on Saturday admitted that, yes, it would be nice to not have to ride through such cold and wet weather.

“I really wanted to lay in bed” this morning, said New Haven Academy science teacher Josh Glaab. But he had signed up to be a ride guide for the 40-mile ride. So duty called, Rock to Rock continued, and Glaab got out to College Woods in time and — with the help of an egg-and-cheese-on-a-sesame-bagel sandwich — warmed up enough to lead his designated ride.

Fellow 40-mile ride guide Dale Hargreaves, a Newhallville native who now lives in Naugatuck, also reconciled himself to the reality of sometimes unpleasant biking weather before hopping on his two wheels to help lead the ride.

“It’s part of biking in New England,” he said about the rain. It’s always good to ​“practice in the elements,” he said with equanimity.

With binoculars around their necks and cameras in their hands, Yaw Darko and Amy Paterson were steeling themselves for a wet morning ahead — not on two wheels, but on their own two feet, as they prepared to lead a birdwatching tour of East Rock Park.

Both are with the Connecticut Land Conservation Council, and were eager to take walkers who braved the cold on a tour of the park to look out for chickadees, robins, grackles, and — if we’re lucky, Darko said — a pileated woodpecker.

With a megaphone in his hand and a flower in his helmet, cycling advocate Paul Proulx called the 40-mile riders to attention — letting them know that the ride would soon begin. 

“Please be safe today,” he said. ​“Leave your distances. Braking’s going to be difficult.”

And with that …

… the riders were off, through East Rock and Newhallville, over to Westville and Valley Street, on into Woodbridge and the Litchfield Turnpike before winding their way back to East Rock (and, in this two-wheeled correspondent’s case, cutting out early at the Farmington Canal near Sleeping Giant to rush on home and desperately try to get warm and dry).

Even in the rain, and even with sopping wet socks, Saturday’s Rock to Rock ride — like every year’s such outing — was a reminder of just how beautiful the New Haven area’s outdoors can be.