Hills: The main route sections have a total of about 7200
vertical feet of climbing, which is plenty hilly for a route under 100
miles.
On the West side there are some route choices to
select the level of hilliness -- especiall Variation B of the GWB
to Nyack route.
But on the East side, northern Westchester is just
hilly almost everywhere: There is no gentle route on the roads
through there anywhere near the Hudson River. For discussion
of some attempts to connect with a gentler route inland, see some of
the Trip Reports.
Two climbs stand out:
- - the River road in West section A, north from
the GWB has a climb of about 400 vertical feet, with a large portion
of that at a steepness grade
in the neighborhood of 10%. (This and a couple of other
steep-ish 100-foot climbs on the River road could be simply avoided
by taking Variation B of the GWB
to Nyack route)
- - South Mountain Pass Road in East
section A climbs about 400 vertical feet with an average
steepness of 6% grade.
But several sections are steeper and whole climb is on dirt.
(But there's no way to ride to Peekskill from the East end of the
Bear Mt Bridge without some substantial climbing).
Unpaved or Off-road: There are three unpaved segments on the
main route sections:
- - the Dunderberg Bypass Path, 1.8 miles of
off-road dirt trail on West
section B;
- - Manitou Road and South Mountain Pass Road, 2.3
miles of dirt roads on East section A;
- - Old Croton
Aqueduct trail, 1.8 miles of a dirt trail with some road
crossings, on East section F.
(This segment could be avoided by taking Variation F-3.)
Two of the Variations offer additional riding on dirt:
- - on West
section B, Variation West-B-2 has around 4 miles on the off-road
Nyack Beach to Haverstraw path, mostly unpaved.
- - on East section
F, Variation F-2 offers an additional 1.5 miles on the Old
Croton Aqueduct trail.
Traffic: This route has a substantially larger number of miles with moderate
and high volumes of motor vehicle traffic than almost any other route
on this website. And there are specific road sections that
have greater traffic-interaction risks and require
"advanced" traffic-handling skills -- more so than most other road sections in routes on this website.
Warning: Do not ride this route -- unless you
are a very experienced road rider with an "advanced" range
of traffic-handling strategies and skills, and you are willing to take
on different kind and higher level of traffic-interaction risks than
for almost any other route on this Bike Hudson Valley
website.
This route -- and some of its Variations even more so -- has
several miles on roads with two lanes in each direction and little or
no shoulder that often get substantial vehicle traffic.
There's at least two views on this: One is
that it's bad and dangerous to obstruct a lane normally used by many
other vehicles. Another perspective is that when there's two
lanes side-by-side in the same direction with reasonable visibility
ahead, vehicle drivers are very accustomed to detecting something
slower in front of them and moving to the other lane to get around
it, and that this causes little inconveniece to anyone as long as
the traffic volume is not high. (It's not the role of this
website to say which perspective on this is right for you.)
When we go on a long ride, we usually like lot of variety:
quiet roads shaded in the woods, streets in an interesting city with a
nice food stop, an off-road path, a big view of the water, long fast
cruise on a road with few traffic lights. And that's how we've
tried to set up the "main route" for this loop -- but skewed
toward quieter roads and more turns than we might normally choose on a
ride this long.
Many of the Sections of this route offer a choice between an
alternate high-traffic road which is shorter -- and the main route
which has less traffic but usually more distance, and always more
turns.
The Summary table
of the route Sections compares some of these alternatives. For
many of the Sections on the East side, the high-traffic alternate
road does not offer much advantage in distance or
climbing.
The Trip
Reports also have some discussion of pros + cons of some of the
main route versus high-traffic alternate choices.
For some ideas about riding only parts of this route on the East
side, with the assistance of the Metro North trains, see Bicycling
in Westchester county.
For a route between the GWB and Bear Mt Bridge that makes its loop
all on the West side of the river, see NYC
to Bear Mountain Adventure.
For route directions for going in the opposite direction alongside
the River down the West side (north-to-south), see the second half of
the NYC to Bear Mountain
Adventure route.
To focus on the fun downhills around Bear Mountain, see Seven
Lakes to the River.
To connect with Metro North trains at stations further North on the East side of
the Hudson river -- such as Cold Spring and Beacon -- see Bear Mt to
Newburgh-Beacon Bridge and Train
Stations with Bicycle Routes.
To connect with routes and train stations around Manhattan, see Riding
from the GWB.
