Originally Posted by
Papa Tom
Ferdinand:
I'm glad that you had a good ride, but I have to say that I actually drove a good part of my route from Hicksville to Manetto Hill Road today and it was really some pretty bad advice I gave you.
To make a long story short, given that you are used to roads like Merrick, you probably should have just gotten from West John to Woodbury Road and taken it all the way to Manetto Hill. I think my route took you too far out of the way. Sorry...I guess I'm not always on my game.
Oh, no; your route was just fine. I wasn't looking for the most direct route; so using those streets that I had never used before was worthwhile.
Also, remember that I mentioned earlier that I had gone straight up Woodbury Road once before. Last year I had to go out to Northport for something, and I took Woodbury Road from Hicksville all the way up to Northern Blvd. (I actually didn't intend to stay on it that long. I had intended to take Pulaski Road from its beginning out of Woodbury Road; but I failed to spot the junction, and I stayed on Woodbury Road.)
I remember feeling a bit constrained by the thinness of Woodbury Road relative to its traffic, and not being altogether comfortable. Though I did enjoy seeing the historic marker at the Nassau-Suffolk border which states that this was formerly an "international" border between the Dutch and English colonies.
Despite my slight discomfort with Woodbury Road, I would have taken it back to Hicksville from its intersection with Pulaski Road on on my return trip home from Northport. Unfortunately, I got a flat as soon as I set out from Northport, and I just walked to the Northport LIRR station.
If I ever have to go to someplace way out on the North Shore again, then I would certainly use Woodbury Road. But for my purposes this past Saturday, your suggested route was better.
Originally Posted by
kaos joe
Hey Ferdinand, glad you had a nice ride, welcome to LI! I don't know if you've ridden over them but the hills on the bikeway north of Washington Ave. are really not much.
Ah, an interesting comment. Both Papa Tom and Billy1111 described those hills in pretty stark terms at the beginning of this thread.
The one previous time that I had ridden on the Bethpage Bikeway, I went northward from Merrick Road up to Washington Avenue, and then got off to head back home. I wasn't trying to avoid any hills; I just saw on the map that the route after that went on the L.I.E. Service Road, which didn't seem all that interesting.
Originally Posted by
kaos joe
When you passed through Massapequa Park, if you saw a guy walking an 80 pound dog and a 7 pounder (the odd couple), that was me.
I am sorry not to have noticed you! But if you saw a guy with the New York City and Philadelphia flags fluttering from his helmet, that was me. I would have gone through Massapequa at around 1:30.
One thing that confused me down there was when the Bikeway hit Sunrise Highway. There were no markings to tell riders to go west on the south sidewalk of Sunrise Highway in order to continue on the Bikeway. If I hadn't seen other cyclists doing that, I wouldn't have known to do it. I would have had to look at the map on my phone.
Anyway, a good ride overall. I enjoyed the streets as much as, if not more than, the Bikeway. I have a friend who lives in Farmingdale. The next time I visit him, I will probably use the reverse of the route which I used in order to go home, culminating with Clark Blvd. in Massapequa Park, and just go north to Farmingdale from there. That's nicer than dealing with Hempstead Tpke. all the way out from the City.