-
where: a loop on both sides of the Hudson river,
crossing both the George Washington Bridge and the Bear Mountain
Bridge. Goes through Bergen county in NJ, and Rockland and Orange counties in
NY on the West side of the river, and through Westchester county, the Bronx, and
Manhattan on the East side.
-
92 miles (or 83 miles with alternate high-traffic roads) -- hilly
(7200 vertical feet,
hill
index over 5.0).
The question is whether you think those benefits
justify the additional traffic-interaction risks.
The overview map +
multiple cue
sheets + discussion +
reports
here can help with:
- - making choices to manage the level and kinds of
traffic-interaction risk
- - finding a variety of interesting riding and
pretty views -- so you might feel like it's worth riding this loop again.
West side
A) GWB to Nyack [bhvr2a]:
map on Bikely |
Google Earth KML
| GPX
B) Nyack to Bear Mt [bhvr3a]:
map
on Bikely |
Google Earth KML |
GPX
East side
A-B) Bear Mt to Ossining [bhvr3b]:
map
on Bikely |
Google Earth KML |
GPX
C-E) Ossining to Tarrytown [bhvr3c]:
map
on Bikely |
Google Earth KML |
GPX
F-J) Tarrytown to GWB [bhvr2b]:
map
on Bikely |
Google Earth KML |
GPX
variations East A-1, B-2. B-3, C-3, C-4, D-2, E-2:
map
on Bikely |
KML |
GPX
> our usual mix East 2009:
map
on Bikely |
KML |
GPX
+ (non-digital)
overview map of entire
route
Hills: The main route sections have a total of about 7200
vertical feet of climbing, which is plenty hilly for a route under 100
miles.
On the West side there are some route choices to
select the level of hilliness -- especiall Variation B of the
GWB
to Nyack route.
But on the East side, northern Westchester is just
hilly almost everywhere: There is no gentle route on the roads
through there anywhere near the Hudson River. For discussion
of some attempts to connect with a gentler route inland, see some of
the Trip Reports.
Two climbs stand out:
-
the River road in West section A, north from
the GWB has a climb of about 400 vertical feet, with a large portion
of that at a steepness grade
in the neighborhood of 10%. (This and a couple of other
steep-ish 100-foot climbs on the River road could be simply avoided
by taking Variation B of the
GWB
to Nyack route)
-
South Mountain Pass Road in
East
section A climbs about 400 vertical feet with an average
steepness of 6% grade.
But several sections are steeper and whole climb is on dirt.
(But there's no way to ride to Peekskill from the East end of the
Bear Mt Bridge without some substantial climbing).
Unpaved or Off-road: There are three unpaved segments on the
main route sections:
-
the Dunderberg Bypass Path, 1.8 miles of
off-road dirt trail on West
section B (This segment can be avoided by taking
Variation West-B5)
-
Manitou Road and South Mountain Pass Road, 2.3
miles of dirt roads on East section A
(This segment can be avoided by taking Variation A-1.)
-
Old Croton
Aqueduct trail, 1.8 miles of a dirt trail with some road
crossings, on East section F
(This segment could be avoided by taking Variation F-3.)
Two of the Variations offer additional riding on dirt:
Traffic: This route has a substantially larger number of miles with moderate
and high volumes of motor vehicle traffic than almost any other route
on this website. And there are specific road sections that
have greater traffic-interaction risks and require
"advanced" traffic-handling skills -- more so than most other road sections in routes on this website.
Warning: Do not ride this route -- unless you
are a very experienced road rider with an "advanced" range
of traffic-handling strategies and skills, and you are willing to take
on different kind and higher level of traffic-interaction risks than
for almost any other route on this Bike Hudson Valley
website.
This route -- and some of its Variations even more so -- has
several miles on roads with two lanes in each direction and little or
no shoulder that often get substantial vehicle traffic.
There's at least two views on this: One is
that it's bad and dangerous to obstruct a lane normally used by many
other vehicles. Another perspective is that when there's two
lanes side-by-side in the same direction with reasonable visibility
ahead, vehicle drivers are very accustomed to detecting something
slower in front of them and moving to the other lane to get around
it, and that this causes little inconveniece to anyone as long as
the traffic volume is not high. (It's not the role of this
website to say which perspective on this is right for you.)
more . . .
Our thought is that nobody is going to want to
ride all 92 miles of the main route Sections on any single day.
Riders will want to skip sections they know well
already to focus on exploring sections that are new. Or need to
save time as daylight is running out. Or connect with train
stations to avoid doing the whole loop.
So the cue sheets
do not follow a single sequence of miles: Instead the several
separate cue sheets each start from 0.0 -- and you select the sheets
you find helpful on the day you've chosen to ride.
When we go on a long ride, we usually like lot of variety:
quiet roads shaded in the woods, streets in an interesting city with a
nice food stop, an off-road path, a big view of the water, long fast
cruise on a road with few traffic lights. And that's how we've
tried to set up the "main route" for this loop -- but skewed
toward quieter roads and more turns than we might normally choose on a
ride this long.
Many of the Sections of this route offer a choice between an
alternate high-traffic road which is shorter -- and the main route
which has less traffic but usually more distance, and always more
turns.
The Summary table
of the route Sections compares some of these alternatives. For
many of the Sections on the East side, the high-traffic alternate
road does not offer much advantage in distance or
climbing.
The
Trip
Reports also have some discussion of pros + cons of some of the
main route versus high-traffic alternate choices.
For some ideas about riding only parts of this route on the East
side, with the assistance of the Metro North trains, see
Bicycling
in Westchester county.
For a route between the GWB and Bear Mt Bridge that makes its loop
all on the West side of the river, see
NYC
to Bear Mountain Adventure.
For route directions for going in the opposite direction alongside
the River down the West side (north-to-south), see the second half of
the NYC to Bear Mountain
Adventure route.
To focus on the fun downhills around Bear Mountain, see
Seven
Lakes to the River.
To connect with Metro North trains at stations further North on the East side of
the Hudson river -- such as Cold Spring and Beacon -- see
Bear Mt to
Newburgh-Beacon Bridge and
Train
Stations with Bicycle Routes.
To connect with routes and train stations around Manhattan, see
Riding
from the GWB.
George Washington Bridge: See the
NYC
to Bear Mt Adventure, the
GWB
-- Central Park and Manhattan to
Nyack routes.
Bear Mountain State Park:
See the NYC
to Bear Mt Adventure and the Bear Mt
to Newburgh-Beacon Bridge loop.
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concept words: |
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places: Hudson river valley, New York state,
NY
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| counties: Bergen county New Jersey NJ
Rockland Orange Putnam Westchester Bronx Manhattan NYC |
| towns: Fort Lee Englewood
Cliffs Piermont Nyack Congers Stony Point Haverstraw Tomkins Cove
Peekskill Buchanan Verplanck Crugers Croton Ossining Scarborough
Sleepy Hollow Tarrytown Irvington Dobbs Ferry Hastings Greystone
Yonkers Riverdale -- west east north south -- city town village hamlet |
| sites: Bear Mountain Mt State
Park Palisades George Washington Bridge GWB |
|
bicycling: bicycle bicycling bike bikes bicycles bicyclist cycle cyclist
cycling touring riding rider riders
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routes: route routes ride rides tour tours turn cue sheet sheets map maps
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