CrankyMigs

Hi. I know it's kind of crazy. I ride everyday, everywhere. But in NYC, so is not more than an hour at a time (two or three a day). Next week i'm gonna ride to Cold Spring, NY, spend the nite and ride back. I'll take the bike path to Nyack and cross the Bear Mountain bridge. It's a 65 mile ride, one way. I'll pack the bike as I would for the Montreal trip, to get a sense of what I can do.
Cheers

Standalone 

I love hiking around Cold Spring. The Catskills were my favorite outdoor escape destination when I lived in Qns, though.

Enjoy!

02Pilot

I live about 20 minutes from Cold Spring, and I'm reasonably familiar with most of the roads around there and up into Dutchess and some of Columbia Counties. As a general rule, the closer you are to the river, the more traffic you'll have contend with. The roads between the Taconic Parkway and Rt.8 in Connecticut are mostly smaller and less traveled than Rt.9; Rt.22 in NY and Rt.7 in CT are the only other major non-parkway roads running north-south, and see some truck traffic due to restrictions on the parkway (not a lot, though). Cutting east north of I84 is probably your best bet, as that's about where the Hudson Highlands gives way to flatter terrain (relatively speaking). You'll have more food and lodging options on the MA side of the NY-MA border.

It's worth noting that, if you want a break from dealing with traffic, there is a rail trail that runs all the way from the Bronx to Brewster, and another from Wassaic to Millerton.

If you have questions about specifics in Putnam and Dutchess Counties, let me know.

CrankyMigs

Hi. Are the maps in MapMyRide more reliable than Google Maps? Also, can anybody recommend a bike GPS?
Cheers

40 Cent

My wife and I rode from Brooklyn to Montreal last summer. Before we headed off we looked for route ideas and ended up following velonomad's suggestions here:

https://www.bikeforums.net/archive/in.../t-101352.html

It worked out great. South valley rail trail > North valley rail trail > Harlem Valley Rail Trail. Eventually followed Rt. 23 -- very beautiful -- all the way up to Salem, NY, and then head into Vermont. We diverged from velonomad's directions and went up Rt. 30 (gorgeous!) to Middlebury. Then took Rt. 7 and Greenbush Ave to Burlington, accross to the Champlain Islands and then cross the border at Rouses Point.

Total of 430 miles. We did it in 5 days, which was fast, but we were credit-card touring with just small backpacks and minimal gear.

Note: Amtrak from Montreal to NYC does NOT allow bikes, or any checked luggage for that matter. We took the train but ended up sending our bikes back UPS, which was expensive, especially compared to getting ourselves back ($65 per person on the Adirondack line).

CrankyMigs

I'm trying to figure out the best way to plan my route (and follow it) What would be a better choice, MapMyRide or Google Maps. Also, can those be loaded into a Garmin GPS?
Thanks in advance

CrankyMigs

Does anybody know if places like Motel 6 and such allow bikes in the rooms? Trying to budget. Thanks in advance.
Cheers

fietsbob

If I were You, 1st thing I would do is read the History books,
on everything that happened in, ..., the Hudson river valley, and Lake Chaplain
in the last , say 500 years.
places you pass thru will have more meaning, then.

reducedfatoreo

Would love to see this route mapped out as I'm living in Inwood (just south of Riverdale) and have a friend who's in Montreal right now. I think the ellipses broke the link, though. When'd you do the tour? Good on you for pointing out the fueling stops not to be missed!

CrankyMigs

Thanks to everybody for the responses. It's been very useful in the preparations, with the trip almost here (On April 28th). Giving the last touches to the bike, refining the route, and off I go. Thank you, again.

Cheers

CrankyMigs

Another question. Can anybody recommend a waterproof, light backpack?
Thanks

jscalia

I have never been told I could not put my bike in my room by a hotel or motel. However, I would not ask. Just do it discreetly. Last year I did ask and was told that I can use a vacant room for bike storage!

CrankyMigs

Hi, everyone. Just a brief message to thank you all for the advice, and to let you know I'm now only fifty miles away form Montreal (in Alburgh, Vt). The trip had to be shortened a little, because of time. I took off from Pittsfield, Mass., instead of Poughkeepsie. Later I will give more details.
Cheers

reducedfatoreo

pics or it didn't happen!

djb

Well, sat sun and Monday were beautiful here, so I hope you were around here in mtl. This week however looks rainy and grey, hope you aren't riding home in it.

brooklyn_bike

just bumping this thread. i'll be rolling out of brooklyn around august 1st for montreal. here's my rough travel path (i'll be going through the town of Keene to visit friends one or two days before crossing over to canada)

crankymigs or anyone else feel free to weigh in with feedback / advice. thank you!

https://goo.gl/maps/dvMmY

manhattan west side bike path -> cross Broadway bridge to Bronx -> rail trail starts at Van Cortlandt Park and runs parallel to Sawmill River Road (9A) to Carmel -> take Country Rd 60 (Fair St) -> to Patterson pick up NY-22 to Wassaic -> railtrail to Millerton


then either take the 22 all the way to Shoreham VT
OR
cross into NW corner of CT briefly and into MA (since there's some rail trails this way to Shoreham)


i'll be crossing Lake Champlain near Chimney Point State Park and Bulwagga Bay to Keene and from Keene -> Rt 9 to Rang Saint Andre to Montreal.

michaelb05

I haven't drive it in a long time, but getting in and out of Keene will involve some big hills. But it is beautiful in that area. For Quebec, from Lacolle, were you making a specific decision not to ride the Route Verte? From the border there, there will be pretty clear bike routing north along the Richelieu River, and then the bike path starts along the canal to Chambly, and then there are paths/routes into Montreal from Chambly.

jscalia

Where exactly are the bike routes from chambly to montreale? I was there in June and couldn't find them. As a matter fact we got a bit lost and had to take some very heavy traffic roads into Montréal.

Jim Kukula

This might help for biking in Quebec:

https://www.routeverte.com/rv/home

skyvat

Thanks for the wealth of info here. Can anyone tell me a bit more about good routes out of Wassaic heading North along the NY/MA border? I am hoping to rail/bike combo to an event in New Lebanon in one day, and then make a return trip a few days later by bike-only back to NYC, probably taking 4+ days and going at a slower pace. Most of my riding is just commuting and hopping around NYC, but I can do 20-30 miles comfortably, and have done up to 75 miles in a day without luggage.

I'll have a tent and sleeping bag. I'm not an experienced solo-camper, and while I can pitch a tent without worry, I won't have much for cooking. Might do a mix of Park camping and B&B just for comfort and the convenience of charging up my iphone.

First post to this (great) forum and first multi-day tour, so any advice appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Mongoeric

I live in St. Albans, Vermont (just north of Burlington) and bike in the area. I've ridden to Montreal a few times, a few different ways, so I'm familair with the area.

The ride from St. Jean-sur-Richelieu to Montreal is shouldn't be missed. It is along the Richelieu canal and varied and interesting. It is worth the extra miles.

The ride from the border into Canada has a few options. The Route Verte 2 is not bad. There is little traffic and lots of cornfields, but I find it boring and some of the roads are very poor condition (worse than Vermont dirt roads.) Going up on the east side of the lake is also little taffic, but more interesting. Riding along the Lake and Pike River is a better route, in my view.

There a two choices around Lake Champlain, the west side, through New York, or the east side, through Vermont. I prefer the Vermont side. Both are beautiful but the Vermont side is more interesting, there are more choices of routes depending on what you are interested in and there is more to see and do.

I hope this helps. I'd be glad to help out with any specific routes for any section.

Jim Kukula

I haven't ridden around there but I have driven on route 22 up to Millerton. 22 is a main road but not too busy - I think you could ride on that. A side road would be better but it gets hilly around there. I bet that 22 is where it is because it follows a nice flat valley. The alternatives might be a lot tougher.

skyvat

Thank you Jim, I took your advice. From Wassaic/Amenia I rode the Harlem Valley Rail Trail where I could and then mainly Rt 22 from there. Google maps diverted me for about 5 miles at one point, which I shouldn't have followed. They were nice, empty, gravel roads, but unfortunately the grade was a little steep in parts and I wasn't able to effectively climb, my wheels kept spinning out under torque and weight. So I walked at a few points and stuck to 22 for the remainder of the ride, which was fine. The shoulder was adequate, and the drivers were mostly courteous, though there was a lot of glass scattered about and a lot of roadkill, which kept me on my toes.


Return trip was New Lebanon to Copake on day 1, Copake to Hyde Park on day 2, Hyde Park to Beacon on day 3. I got on the Metro North at Beacon since I was not really enjoying the ride the closer I got to New York City. It's a bit crazy that New York State considers the entire length of Rt 9 a bikeway. At points around Poughkeepsie I was basically on a 6 lane freeway with no shoulder and very aggressive drivers. Had to wait by the side of the road and then sprint to the next safe area between the gaps in the traffic. No thanks! Maybe I'll try 9W next time but there's something to be said for taking the train out to the end of the line. Pretty cheap and saves a lot of headaches.


Best day of riding was Copake to Hyde Park, across Duchess County and then down Rt 9, which took me along some pleasant rolling gravel roads and gorgeous farmland. Last 5 miles spent in a very heavy downpour, but otherwise weather was clear through the entire trip. I was very lucky!


Definitely a great weekend that inspired me to plan more trips like this in the future. Thanks again for the tips.

Cmyr

I'll just chime in that the roads on the canada side of the border on the vermont side have just been resurfaced, and are now a pleasure to ride again. They were rough for a while. I haven't ridden the new york side but doubt you could do better then the route along the champlain bikeways to st-jean-sur-richeleau and then the route-verte, via chambly, into montreal. It's a really marvellous approach to the city, mostly on separated and paved paths.

Here's a link to my route from burlington --> montreal. The least fun bit was the stretch of highway 2 between burlington and south hero, but I think from platsburg you should be able to take a ferry that will let you avoid that? I'm not totally sure. There's also a stretch after sabrevois where you want to avoid the 133, but there's really good road that runs parallel a bit east at that point; it's only 15 minutes, but the 133 is unpleasant. You should be able to see that on my map.

It's a great ride, hope you have a blast!


linky: https://www.strava.com/runs/19210360

stayfed

I plan on doing this trip as well. As soon as the weather permits. Hopefully sometime in April. Anyone do the ride around that part of the year? Would love to hear how peoples trips went.