Rockaway Gateway Greenway Path Brooklyn: have you done it?
 

Hey all.

Well it was a spur of a moment thing. I didn't plan on riding it. It was like after 3pm today saturday and I didn't have much sunlight left. But all of a sudden I found myself riding the path. The Rockaway Gateway Greenway path is part of the Gateway national park area here in the south tip of Brooklyn New York by the way.
It really was a race against time to finish the path before the sun went down. After that it would have been more dangerous to ride. I don't have reflectors on my fairly new carbon specialized roubaix pro and alot of the bike path was on multi lane highways. Anyways, I started near floyd bennet field and followed the path north east toward cross bay blvd. Then headed south over two bridges to the rockaways. Then I headed west toward the gil hodges bridge to head north to where I started off at. Total trip time for me was 1 hour and 50 minutes. I didnt follow the path totally as I went all the way to cross bay blvd before I headed south. Part of the path sucked though as some of the smaller bridges and streets had debris and pebbles like a freakin mine field.....oh my poor carbon roubaix. :(
Here is a link to a .pdf file of the map for the rockaway greenway path. Have any of you locals ridden it before?

Rockaway Gateway Greenway Path............

So overall, did you enjoy the ride?

I did part of this ride mid-summer. I started from my place in Williamsburg and rode down to Coney Island via Ocean Parkway from Prospect Park. Then headed east until I caught up with the greenway. By the time I hit Frank Charles Memorial park I had used 2 CO2 cartridges and figured I should turn around and head home. I haven't been back as I "discovered" New Jersey soon after that and have spent most of my weekends over there instead but i may check it out again in the spring. What did you think?

I plan on riding to Prospect Park from Long Island's south shore using that route.

Overall I did. :)
The scenery was great. Its amazing though....
By car driving past there hundreds of times going up the belt parkway into long island you just don't get to see the places that you could while on a bike. I've never been to cross bay blvd before or those bridges on the path there. The channel bridge and the cross bay bridge. Both offer great views of the bay and what not.

I think what you did was smart. Yeah I took a risk too doing this today. I shoulda made it an early morning ride instead of late evening with the sun setting earlier and all. It woulda just been perfect if I had gotten a flat over one of those bridges and I had to try to patch a tube as the sun went down. :rolleyes:

I have done that Beltparkway-Crossbay-rockaway loop quite often in the past, but the greenway path between Rockaway pkwy and Crossbay blvd is horrible and an easy place for flats. Had to do the loop last weekend while Prospect Park was being paved. Luckily only 1 flat during both days.

To make that loop longer you can go into Breezy point.. an extra 10 miles total.. Or you can go east on beach channel into Atlantic beach and out to Lookout Point.. Roads are okay..

Yeah I tell ya....alot of this path is in terrible disrepair. Wasn't there talk by some officials of making the path more bike friendly? Well, it is friendly in general in terms of the path actually existing. But alot of it needs to be cleaned up. Some of the shore parkway sections needs to be paved and the gravel and pebbles cleared away. The debris along the side of the road on the cross bay blvd side needs to be cleaned of tree branches.
Also, if they are not going to put a bike path on beach channel drive roadway then at least pave the sidewalk area. It is very wide there on some parts and would be great for bikes. But alot of it is not paved. I only see fishermen using it.

Edit: Also, if you notice the upper right hand corner of the path map the jagged lines starting at 78th street....trust me its 78th street use google earth to confirm. Anyways, I woulda taken that if there was more of an indication thats where the bike route was going. I didn't see it and instead I rode further to crossbay blvd. Geez government people a sign woulda helped. :rolleyes:

Hey thanks for the reply...but I think (with all of the other negative comments about the road) I will stay over here in New Jersey. I live in Trenton (about 55mi. from NYC) but have always wanted to ride in or around the city. I am going to do Prospect Park one day if it kills me.

Cheers,

Brian

Hey can someone tell me something?
The path in its full circle...in miles how long is it? I'm just curious. I would like to know how far I went. :|
Be sure to figure in me going all the way to cross bay blvd before I started heading south to the bridges.

I have done this loop - at least most of it - as part of the Tour of NYC century ride. It's not great, but it's do-able on a bike with slightly more substantial tires, such as 700x25-28, or certainly a mountain bike. Lots of small rocks, uneven pavement, etc... We did not use the trail exclusively however, and spent some time on the parallel roads as well. It is pretty, though, and it's nice to see that part of the city on a bicycle.

Yes it is very nice. But it was rough yes. I'm still using the 23c tires that came with my bike but I want to change over to those new 23c/25c specialized roubaix specific tires thats new for 2006. Maybe it would be better for the tougher roads. LOL I even fell when I did the ride by the way. But I fell in such a way that it was funny but no permanent damage. I will reply on what happened when I finish up some work here in the office.