Trip Reports on
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Sharon and I rode sections of route on an unexpectedly cool + clear Sunday in late July. Overall enjoyable day, lots of riding on quiet roads. Perhaps not as many roadside sights as other routes in Columbia county, but enough to make us glad we were out riding on those roads. We rode the later section from Elizaville to Livingston (except we skipped the out-and-back spur between Wire Rd an the Hudson River) -- and then the early section from Livingston to Philmont to Hillside to Copake. Problem for us was that more of the roads in the first section between Livingston and Philmont have reverted to dirt. Our feeling is that a couple of miles of dirt road on a route adds variety -- and that's what this RJK route had when we first rode it in 1993. But now it's just too many miles for us. So in the future we'll use variation A, and perhaps think of some way to avoid some other dirt sections. Oak Hill Rd is a dirt road which we've ridden lots of times over the years, but this time the surface seemed more difficult especially on the climb at the south end, and there were some difficult-to-see potholes in some low sections in the middle. This weekend, a friend and I rode the Roeliff Jansen Kill route and enjoyed the route very much--a lovely hilly route with lots of scenic bends and great roads (some of which have been newly paved). We wanted to report a change we had to make due to construction. The bridge on Wire road (mile 72.1 on the cue sheet) is out. We found it very simple to get around this bridge by turning right on Wire Road from Dales Bridge Rd, then left on Blue Hill and Right on CC 10. Thanks again for the great resources. I look forward to exploring some other routes soon! See more Reports about bridge on Wire Rd. John, May 2003: Just want to let you know I tried your Roeliff-Janssen Kill ride today and enjoyed it very much. I started and ended at the Elizaville Post Office, riding up route 19 to Livingston and intercepting your cue sheet from there, but omitting the Germantown loop at the end. It came to 67 miles with 2900' altitude gain according to my Avocet Vertech watch, which averages about 40-50% less than topo data you're probably using. Two points about the route I'd like to share. Catskill View Rd., which is unpaved, has a slick surface when wet and there are sections with smooth round rocks on which one can easily slide -- probably not a good idea for road bikes unless totally dry. The other roads were unpaved sections were no problem. Farther into the ride, Dawson Road, which is noted as rough in the cue sheet, is in good shape now.
Patrick, May 2002: Thanks for another great ride. Today we rode the "Roeliff Jansen Kill" ride. We don't know how you found some of those really small back roads but we appreciate that you did. We parked at Jackson Corners Rd, just off the Taconic Pkwy...a little over an hour from home. We omitted 14 miles by taking 19 north from Elizaville.
Story of this routeWe explored this route back around 1993, when we discovered that lots of our other explorations in Columbia county had been crossing this same creek with an name that was tricky to spell and pronounce. We saw on the map that it was a long creek that cut through the ancient west Taconic ridge to connect the east side of the county with the Hudson River -- which makes it special on the east side. Also, we thought it would be gentle and mostly downhill to ride from the source of the RJK to the Hudson. Our concept was to get most of uphill climbing work down in the first half of the route, and then enjoy the reward. We then discovered that the roads closest to the real source of the creek were difficult, and that we couldn't have the satisfaction of viewing the Hudson at the point where the creek reached the river. And that while the creek flowed all downhill, the roads near to sometimes went uphill. We have not ridden the route since then. But it includes lots of nice riding, so we've kept it up on the website as a route. see also:
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