Westchester/Hudson Valley riding? Route 9?

[superslomo]

Has anyone ridden any or all of the stretch of route 9 on the East side of the Hudson? I was thinking about taking a drive or a train up there to ride some of the stretch North of Tarrytown, possibly as far up as Beacon and potentially over to Newburgh.

How is the car interaction and/or the road condition? Very hilly or not so much? Thought it might be a nice ride, as I've driven there at the North end regularly and it seemed beautiful.

[geo8rge]

I once went from the bear mountain bridge to Beacon along 9D. 9D runs out of shoulder many times and is a truck route. There was not much traffic but the trucks moved fast. If you have mechanical problems you are screwed. Many stretches with few or no stores. Basically flat although you are going uphill as you follow the hudson upstate.

You have to pay attention to what is behind you due to fast moving sparse traffic consisting of many large trucks.

There is an alternate route from Cold Spring to Beacon, and offical bike route, that goes uphill and basically follows route 9 and 10. Longer, harder, and more prudent than 9D.

[Stacy]

I used to ride a small motorcycle from Croton-On-Hudson to NYC and Route 9 was a real nightmare in some places. Check http://www.roberts-1.com/bikehudson I'm sure The North County or South County trails woild be preferable .

[Lucky07]

I ride the upper half of 9 occasionally, above Poughkeepsie. It's pretty traffic-y, but there are lots of secondary roads that that run parallel to 9. The east side of the river has lots of rolling hills, but not alot of steep climbs. The west side of the Hudson above Kingston has LOTS of climbing.