thesearethesuns

Okay, just got back yesterday from riding the proposed route through Rockland County to link with Route 6 to PA. Based on the above bits of advice, I ended up avoiding Bear Mountain altogether, and looked to link up to Route 6 via southern feeder routes that skirted the border towns of southern New York State, all in an effort to bypass heavy NJ traffic. In theory, this sounded like the best solution, and, without realizing the types of grades I would be up against in this area, I was set to take this on. This route ended up being a COMPLETE disaster.

While in Rockland County I spent roughly half my time literary pushing my bike up some incredibly steep hills while traversing residential areas, after having come off 9W to meet with Route 59 to cut across the southern tier of the state. Prior to any of that, the GWB crossing itself was impossible without dismounting and carrying bicycle, panniers and gear up and down several flights of stairs on both sides of the bridge, including a secondary high pedestrian bridge crossing the highway on the NJ side. In the process I must have thrown out my back--really not worth it. Next time, I'm paying to take the ferry to Liberty Park, and I would suggest that any reasonable person who is touring fully loaded and is looking to make a Lower Hudson crossing into NJ do the same. In the end, with back thrown out and weary legs, I made roughly 50 miles before reaching Suffern, NY and took the NJ Transit Rail (lucky for me) home from there.

Lessons learned: Rockland County is WAY too hilly to cross if you're looking to get to Northern PA from NYC, GWB crossing is a *** unless you are looking to do a commute/day tour.