KenR, June 2005:Antonio
and I skated from the Broadway Bridge up thru Riverdale + Yonkers +
Dobbs Ferry to Tarrytown + Sleepy Hollow. We tried a more scenic
(and hilly) start thru southern Riverdale, and some quieter streets
thru Tarrytown. Antonio said at the end that the entire route was
hilly -- not intended as a negative.
We met at the McDonald's on Broadway in the Bronx by the 225th St
IRT subway near Broadway Bridge and the Marble Hill train station.
It was a weekday morning, and we decided to start with a more scenic
and hilly route thru Riverdale.
We went north on Broadway, Left (west) on 230th St to its end.
Turned Left up a hill on a street for which I didn't see a sign with
a name on it (but the right turn would have been Riverdale Av),
perhaps further up the hill it becomes ? Johnson Av ? Long
climb, car traffic more difficult because road was temporarily
narrowed due to construction. The main road made a sharp right at
the top of the climb, but we did a sort of "bear Left" to continue
ahead south thru some apartment buildings, and our road soon curved
right (west), then down moderate-steep, underneath the Henry Hudson
Bridge, then climb, curve right (north) and it becomes Palisade Av.
Down a long hill, then another shorter up and down, then some rough
pavement near its end. Right turn onto an unsigned street (248th St)
going east, which climbs up a very steep hill on rather rough
pavement (fortunately not very long). Left turn onto unsigned road
and climb north moderately on rough pavement. Just before "Wave
Hill", we turned Right onto 249th St to its end where it is blocked
by the Henry Hudson Parkway - Rt 9A.
We turned south on the west service road for the Henry Hudson
Parkway, at traffic light Left on 246th St over the Parkway, Left
(north) on the east service road for the Parkway.
Instead we could have continued on 246th and
turned Left on quieter Fieldston Rd.
Or there might be some other easier way to get
from Palisade Av to going north on the east side of the Parkway
or to north on Riverdale Av)
We passed by 253rd St and the service road curved left to go over the Henry Hudson
Parkway, then we turned Right onto 254th St for a block.
The purpose of that turn was to avoid some
moderate-steep downhills into traffic lights, north-bound on
Riverdale Av between 254th and Valentine Lane.
Left on Mosholu Av, and continued to go down a hill into a
traffic light and turn Left onto Fieldston Rd.
Next time I would avoid this downhill into a
traffic light by turning off Mosholu Av earlier, Right onto
Liebig Av (untested), then perhaps Right on 261st St, Left on
Tyndall Av, Right on 262nd St, across Fieldston Rd, Left on
Spencer Av to its end.
Right on 262nd St, Left on Spencer Av (becomes Leighton Av) down
a hill to its end. Left on Valentine Lane, Right on Riverdale Av
(north).
Most of Riverdale Av thru here had two lanes of traffic in each
direction. As we went thru Yonkers, we continued straight and the street
name changed to Warburton Av. The southern section of Warburton Av has
only one lane of vehicle traffic in each direction and lots of
parked cars, so it wasn't much fun in morning rush hour traffic.
Further north the traffic lanes of Warburton Av got wider and there
were few parked cars, so I had fun skating the rolling hills.
At the end of Warburton, we turned Left onto Rt 9 North, which
was mostly pretty wide. Up a moderate hill, Left at traffic light
onto Livingston Av, down a hill (pass by steeper downhill to Dobbs
Ferry train station), then moderate climb up Main St past some
food-stop opportunities, Right (east) on Cedar St, and we stopped
for some coffee.
We had originally planned to turn around at Dobbs Ferry, because
I didn't think it would be good to skate some of the sections of Rt
9 north from here while there still might be some rush-hour traffic.
By now it was around 9:00. Antonio hadn't been to up Tarrytown
before, and he suggested lets see how bad it is. So we turned Left
at traffic light onto Rt 9 North, Left at next light to continue on
Rt 9 North. I was surprised -- there wasn't as much traffic as I
feared, and in some sections there were two vehicle lanes in each
direction, so often the remaining vehicles didn't have any trouble
moving over to go past us.
thru Tarrytown: We skated the sidewalk of the bridge
across the NY Thruway just east of the Tappan Zee Bridge. Straight a
little further on Rt 9 North, but I don't like skating with all the
parked cars and one traffic lane in each direction further into
Tarrytown, so we avoided that by going:
These streets had at least a couple of short moderate-steep downhills
into traffic lights, but I still liked it better than Rt 9 thru
Tarrytown.
At this point we decided to visit the old Dutch church and
cemetery and the Philipsburg Manor. Then we came back to
Beekman Av and went west on this to the Hudson river and the Metro
North train station for Tarrytown (with more trains back to NYC than
Philipse Manor station), as follows: continue on Beekman about 0.7
mile west, a gentle downhill with a sweeping curve south across a
big view of the river and the Tappan Zee Bridge, then up over a
bridge across the train tracks (Left on Division St a little, Right
on Hudson St) and then down the other side to the Tarrytown train
station.
KenR, October 2003:
I joined an
Empire Skate Club skate on Saturday from Manhattan to
Sleepy Hollow, and it was lots of fun [
see the Photos ]
I was impressed to see how different members of the Club were so
experienced and competent to handle a group that started with about
15 skaters. Especially the helpful way they dealt with
things that came up along the way (including the
designated leader being unable to make it at the last minute). It
was their positive way of working together that made it become such
a fun day.
Here's some notes about the route we took:
We started at Columbus Circle at the southwest corner of Central
Park in Manhattan. We skated up Central Park West where there
was a bike lane. Then north on St Nicholas, and we tried a new
idea of following Amsterdam Ave as a way to avoid that steep-ish
downhill on Broadway.
It went rather well on Amsterdam for a good ways, but then after
it curved west we ran into a downhill steeper than anything I
remembered on Broadway (and I later found out that this downhill
ended at a T-intersection into Broadway). Many in group
decided to take their skates off and walk down, and we all made it
down with no harm, but I think skaters need a different route than
Amsterdam for the future.
We went north on Broadway, over the Broadway Bridge on its east
sidewalk -- and all the way to the 242nd St elevated IRT 1 + 9 station.
Broadway underneath the elevated train worked better than I expected
-- it offers a couple of different options on where to skate
depending on traffic and parked cars.
After the end of the IRT train line, we turned left sharp onto Manhattan College Parkway -- a climb long and curvy
but never steep. At the top we found our way onto the service
road for Rt 9A.
It was a bit of a trick to get onto the service
road which runs parallel to the high-speed limited-access
lanes of Rt 9A, and not the main highway itself. My memory of
it is that just after the top of the long climb, the entrances for
these two options are next to each other, with some signs for 9A in
between. The way to the service road is the right-hand one.
The day we were there, I saw several yellow arrows pointing the
correct way, painted on the pavement and labeled "C" or "TBX".
We followed this a ways, and let it take us over the Rt 9A
highway and onto Riverdale Ave. Riverdale
went over some hills (a couple with traffic lights in the middle of
downhills) then a nice descent into Yonkers, where we stopped at the
intersection with Main St at the
Greyston Bakery and Cafe (with toilet).
We made a pleasant side trip on Main St to the Yonkers waterfront
on the Hudson River, then a block north on Buena Vista and east a
couple of blocks by Larkin Plaza on Nepperhan St up to a left turn
on Warburton.
About 4.5 miles on Warburton Ave through Greystone and
Hastings-on-Hudson, then less than a mile on Rt 9 North, and a left
turn on Livingston Ave into Dobbs Ferry. After a ways down,
this led into Main St and a long gentle climb. We broke up
this climb with a stop for me to sample the delights of Settepani
Bakery (with toilet).
After that a couple of people decided to end their skating day by
going down to the Dobbs Ferry's Metro-North station to take the
train back to Manhattan. The rest of us finished the Main St
climb thru Dobbs Ferry, then back onto Rt 9 North at a traffic light
with a Left turn followed by another Left turn to continue North on
Rt 9.
We took this a few miles over some rolling hills with re-groups,
crossed the bridge over the New York State Thruway on its sidewalk,
then north on into the center of Tarrytown. Lots of parked
cars and vehicle traffic going thru Tarrytown -- but fortunately
there was so much car traffic on that Saturday afternoon that
the cars weren't moving much faster than we were skating. (if
the cars had been moving faster, I think I would have preferred a
different way thru Tarrytown).
Down a steep-ish hill not as bad as I feared with a nice run-out,
and suddenly there we were at the Sleepy Hollow cemetery and the Old
Dutch Church. Most of the group were talking about seeing the
cemetery and then going back to a nice restaurant in Tarrytown, but
I needed to get home to other commitments.
So I finished by going back a little ways south on Rt 9, Right
onto Lawrence Ave, Right on Beekman about 0.7 mile west for a gentle
downhill with a sweeping curve south across a big view of the river
and the Tappan Zee Bridge, then up over a bridge across the train
tracks (Left on Division St a little, Right on Hudson St) and then
down the other side to Tarrytown's Metro North train station, and in
five minutes a train arrived to take me back to Grand Central
Terminal. [
Photos |
Empire Skate Club
]
