- Where: in the Wallkill
River valley in Ulster County.
- 44 miles. Moderate hilliness (2400 vertical feet, hill
index 3.7).
There are several major Variations.
A -- to cross a covered bridge, see different roads (add 3 miles).
B -- bypass Kingston and Rondout waterfront (subtract 7 miles).
C -- bypass nice farm + orchard country (subtract 5.5 miles).
Here are some alternate routes which use the variations.
- 31 miles. Take major variations B and C -- the shortest.
- 47 miles. Take major variation A --
includes a covered bridge. (to also visit the beach, add
another 3 miles)
- Highlights: Variety of interesting settings -- beautiful farm
country, three towns with shops and food, into the woods, and the
Rondout waterfront.
- Characteristics:
Hill climbs: Some steeper hills -- about five of them
over 6% grade.
Longest hill about 250 vertical feet.
Traffic: Some high-speed traffic sections, but many quiet
roads. But some of the other roads which sometimes have
moderate traffic are not that wide and
or do not have shoulders (like some sections of Ulster County Route 7).
And sometimes the shoulders on Rt 213 are not very wide. If you're not skilled and comfortable with
handling that sort of traffic situation, you should consider choosing a different route.
Railroad tracks: On the "visit a sandy
beach" Variation on Strand St in Kingston (near mile 17.8), there
are some railroad tracks crossing the road at tricky difficult angles,
which could result in a bicyclist falling suddenly if not handled
well. See the Resources
page for some ideas on how to handle this. If you're not
sure you can handle it, get off and walk your bike across the tracks
-- or just don't use this Variation.
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More . . .
- Directions to Start:
By car from
South or North: NY Thruway to exit 18 (Poughkeepsie / New
Paltz). From the exit, turn Left onto Rt 299 West, which is
Main St of the village of New Paltz.
By car from the East: Rt 44 West
across the Mid-Hudson Bridge, then Rt 9W North a couple of miles,
and take Rt 299 West to New Paltz.
The start of the route is just after Main St (Rt
299) crosses Rt 32 (Chestnut St) at a traffic light -- between the Wallkill
River bridge and Rt 32.
Parking: There are lots of options in New
Paltz. What usually works for us is to park about three or four blocks
from the Wallkill River bridge, somewhere north of Main St. Then ride
west on Front St / Lenape Lane and/or south on Huguenot St to reach the
starting point.
by train: New Paltz is 11 to 12 miles from the Poughkeepsie
train station, with service by Metro
North from New York City, and by Amtrak.
For ideas about riding a bicycle from there, see Connecting
between Poughkeepsie trains and New Paltz.
Other starting points: Rondout
waterfront in Kingston, Port Ewen (on Rt 9W), Rosendale (on Rt 32).
- Map: You should have a detailed road map of Ulster County to do this route (see
Road Maps).
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of route | Cue Sheet | Trip Reports |
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