Fantastic ride in Westchester County with a fun group! We started at Goldens Bridge, but traveled north towards Carmel Hamlet and the beautiful Croton Falls and Middle Branch Reservoirs. These routes have less intense climbs than we did on our previous “three speeds” ride in Cold Spring, but you should still expect some hills.
Overall: There were lots of reservoirs, leaves turning color, forested roads and horse country estates. The dirt roads were mostly in very good shape for riding, with just a few wet spots from yesterday’s rain. The weather was great, too. A little cool, but very comfortable. Most people stayed after the ride to hang out over cold drinks and food (i.e. tailgating at Goldens Bridge Station, which is across the street from a supermarket and a few stores). A fun time!
This was the second year that we’ve done this ride (previously in 2022). It needs to become an annual tradition! This is some of the best riding in our broader region. Absolutely worth the trip and the effort. Note: You’ll need a car (or a lift from another rider) to get to the start location.
Ride description: Epic gravel ride that includes the climb up Mt Riga (~1250ft), the more challenging climb to Sunset Rock (~1050ft, but considerably steeper), the flat (and beautiful) Housatonic River Road, and other premium stretches of gravel in the region. It includes the option to visit Bash Bish falls (the trail is just steps away from the route). This can easily be made into a two-day bikepacking adventure (camping overnight at Taconic Falls State Park). Worth the drive!
Itinerary for our ride. -19.5 mi: Optional water/gatorade stop at LaBonne’s Market in Salisbury **34.5 mi: Required stop at Depot Deli for snacks/food/water. This will be needed after climbing Mt Riga and before climbing Sunset Rock (each 1250ft and 1050ft, respectively). Bathrooms potentially available at Taconic State Park campground across the street (when open for the season). **49 mi: Lunch or snacks at one of these places: a) The Marketplace Kitchen and Cafe in Sheffield (sandwiches, etc, but extremely slow service); b) Gulotta’s Convenience Store next to the Mobil Gas Station has sandwiches, gatorade, etc, but no batherooms!; c) The Bakin’ Bakery (good place for desserts, they had small bottles of gatorade, and a bathroom). -65mi: Optional detour to Falls River Cafe. **78: Required Stop at supermarket or gas station in Sharon, CT. Last reliable place to get food/drinks before end of ride. Gas station = no bathrooms. But the supermarket across the street has bathrooms.
Parking: Housatonic Meadows Picnic Area has been a safe choice. They had a decent pit-style toilet (no running water) when we last visited (Oct 2023). There is no fee (just drive and park — no booth). Mark’s ride starts at Housatonic High School. I’m guessing that will work for weekends or summer, only.
Too long? Try these still epic, but shorter options. The shorter routes include both big climbs and the Berkshires sections.
Areas north of NYC experienced torrential rains during a mid-July storm (2023). It’s already mid-September, but some roads and trails have not yet been repaired. Be extra careful if you plan to ride in these areas, below.
Parts of Sunken Mine Rd, in Puntam County, NY were destroyed during the aforementioned storm. I’ve heard from a few groups of riders who found this out the hard way. In one case, a rider went down pretty hard as they approached the destruction. Even on the “better” parts, I’ve heard that the road/trail is pretty rough and there are many downed branches. The photo above the post, with the rider in yellow, is of Sunken Mine Rd. It was taken by Ken shortly after the July storm. Thanks Ken!
NOTE: Many of the dirt roads in Putnam County are in rougher shape than usual. On our last ride, we encountered many more washouts, big potholes, or soft spots (where riders lost traction) than usual. Old Albany Post Rd is one example of a great dirt road, which is rideable, but extra caution is required – particularly when going downhill, where speeds will be high. We purposly routed uphill only for most of our time on that road, with one short exception, which you could consider cutting around by staying on Rt 9 in that direction.
Black Rock Forest is a beautiful place to ride. That said, it should be avoided by bike until the roads and trails can be repaired (consider a hike instead). The trails and some of the other infrastructure at this research forest were badly damaged in that July storm. I think some of that damage will take a long time to repair. Note: bikes are only allowed on the roads / jeep roads — see their trail maps. Currently, trails are open for hiking but they state: “Please exercise extreme caution on trails and roads, and especially stream crossings!”. Has anybody been to Black Rock Forest recently and ridden on the bike-allowed trails? It would be great to understand current conditions.
Storm King Highway still has a section that was washed into the Hudson River. Yes, this is a paved road, but it is also the main way to travel through that area, on a bike, without riding on the side of the highway (9W) with an intermittenly disappearing shoulder (the shoulder turns into a drainage culvert in places), which I do not recommend. You will *not* be able to walk around that destroyed part. One section of the rear slope is a sheer rock face with water running down it, like a waterfall that is ready to carry you down the cliff.
Know about other damaged dirt roads we should watch out for? Let us know! email: track.smart@gmail.com. In particular, we tend to ride in these areas, which are within striking distance of NYC: Westchester, Putnam, Orange, and Dutchess Counties in NY; Litchfield County in CT; and the Bedminster region in NJ. Thanks!
The photo below is the state of Storm King Highway as of recently (September 2023). I’m not going to provide a photo credit since you aren’t supposed to visit that spot. The waterfall-like section is not visible in the photo, but please understand that you will not be walking around this mess.You will be stuck on one side or the other.
On this wonderfully cool Saturday morning, we tackled a fun and challenging set of routes that included many of the big climbs in Putnam County. We modified our original routes to avoid some dirt road sections that were badly damaged in a storm in July (particularly Sunken Mine Rd), but we still traversed some beautiful terrain.
The long route, unlike our Spring Gravel Series version, saved the two largest climbs for the last 1/3 of the ride – and we might have broken a couple of riders with that setup – sorry! Those two big climbs are tough at any time, but especially difficult after you’ve already done 5000 ft of climbing. The route was mostly downhill for the last ~10 miles if that counts for anything.
Many riders stayed to hang out over cold drinks and food after the ride, which was fun. Our long-distance group missed a few people before they headed off (we got back a little behind schedule). For the record: Kathy (medium group) and I (long group) had almost the exact same moving time, 4:14 and 4:15, so our planning was actually pretty good. That said, we ended up taking some longer pauses in the long distance group for a variety of reasons, which slowed things down a bit.
We revisited another of our Spring Gravel Series of routes. Once again this was after a three month absence. This time the beautiful Bedminster area of New Jersey was our target. If you haven’t ridden here, it is worth the drive or train ride to experience it. This area of NJ has some of the nicest gravel riding in our region: Dirt roads through woods, forests, and along peaceful streams; Ridges and hills with beatiful pastoral views; Quaint small towns with General Stores. You’ll find at least one cooler in the woods with local maple syrup and an on-your-honor jar for depositing money.
We started from the lovely Natirar Park (named after the Raritan River, but spelled backwards, however you might feel about that). We had an awesome ride with a fantastic group. Highlights included the rugged climb up the Teetertown Ravine, the spectacular Lockwood Gorge – and of course many beautiful country roads through farm and forest. We saw some wildlife, too, including a bear and it’s two cubs (thankfully off the side of the road – so we could avoid getting between them!). Just about everyone hung out after the ride for cold drinks and snacks. As always, thank you to everyone who joined us and made it such a fun ride!
ROUTES (Same as our 5th Spring Gravel Series – These awesome routes deserve to be ridden more than once!)
Medium-distance group traveling through the beautiful Lockwood Gorge.
Long distance group again.
Most of us walked the two short rocky sections in the Lockwood Gorge. These short hike-a-bike areas (a few hundred yards) are well worth it to enjoy the rest of the scenic (and rideable) parts of this closed-to-cars former dirt road.
On Saturday, August 7 the GrNY group returned to Dover Plains after a three-month absence. As expected, it was worth the drive or train ride! We had three pace/distance groups (long, medium, short) who traversed the picturesque dirt roads of Dutchess County. We were fortunate to get absolutely perfect weather, too! After the ride, everyone celebrated with food, drinks and/or ice cream at Kelly’s Creamery and Kelly’s Husband’s Food Truck.
The medium-distance group did our less-intense variant of the classic Dover Plains Dirt loop (i.e. this route: ridewithgps.com/routes/36062828). This medium-distance variant (link further down) is possibly the best version. It skips the two steepest climbs in favor of other great dirt road riding. It also adds more civilization, including better food options in Amenia, NY and Sharon, CT. It uses a spur of the Harlem Valley bike trail to connect it all together and adds some new (flatter) dirt/gravel roads make up for any lost dirt, including the always lovely (and well-graded) climb up Deep Hollow Road.
The short-distance group did the same route, but stayed on the Harlem Valley Rail Trail at the midway point. This made for a shorter but also extremely pleasant ride back to the start. Finally, the long-distance group did a very different route that cut westward and traversed the area around the Wassaic Multiple Use Area (a lovely forested area).
We revisited our Katonah “Spring Gravel Series” routes. It had been three months and these routes are too good to save for just once per year! We had a fantastic group of riders in all of the pace groups. The intersecting routes worked out great. It was fun for all of the pace groups to come together at the top of the Mountain Lakes Climb and then again at Hayfields Market for drinks and snacks mid-way through the ride. Almost everybody stayed to celebrate and hangout at Paulie’s after the ride.
Beautiful ride! The long distane group took a bit of a shortcut back and did some soft pedaling (rider with mechanical), but that didn’t take away from an excellent and enjoyable ride. Everyone gathered for cold drinks and food by the river afterwards, which made for a fun post-ride social. The weather was perfect, especially the cooler morning hours. We never regret traveling up to this area. We hope to see everybody out there another time!
Fun day out! After some logistical delays, we started the ride with a bang by immediately tackling the longest hill of the day (Tower Hill Rd). There were great rural roads, pastoral views, horses, cows, and even a giant snapping turtle sitting on one dirt road!
Later in the day, we were feeling the sun and heat with some riders suffering towards the end. Still, everybody made it and we celebrated with some cold drinks and food (with a cooler pulled up onto the train platform — the only shade to be found at Tenmile River station!)
Note: This was a first-try and these routes need some work. We’ll make some changes in the future to stay on nicer roads more of the time.
Report: A highly enjoyable route that covers familiar terrain, but in a way that feels like a totally different ride from our SGS Katonah route. In cases where we are on the same roads, it was almost always in the reverse direction. All of the pace groups overlapped multiple times throughout the ride, which was a lot of fun. It also gave me (Steve) the opportunity to jump into the Medium group for the last few miles – I was starting to feel the afternoon heat!
