2006-2007 Reports on Westchester County Trailways |
||||||||||||||
what's here
I rode from Columbus Circle in Manhattan to Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown on November 11, 2007 via the Hudson River Greenway on Manhattan's West Side, Old Putnam Trail in Van Cortlandt Park, South County Trail and finally Old Sleepy Hollow Road. The Old Putnam Trail in Van Cortlandt Park is mostly packed dirt, however there were many muddy stretches on the trail and large stones and partially buried railroad ties made for treacherous riding for the road bikes. I can't give a wholehearted recommendation for cyclists with skinny tires to use this trail to reach the beginning of the South County Trail. If you do, tread slowly and gingerly, and walk your bike if you need to, otherwise you'll likely end up with a flat. Look out for fallen branches as there were a few on the trail. Otherwise, it's a beautiful stretch of path and you're hard pressed to remember you're in the middle of the Bronx and not some upstate wilderness area. The South County Trail from the NYC line north is mostly gorgeous riding, and the Maple tree leaves were a riot of sunsplashed yellow color. From the NYC line, the trail is complete until you reach Redmond Park, where you must exit the rail and do a little bit of road cycling. The route previously reported Clifford is simple and straightforward. More adventurous types who would like to try using the unfinished missing section of the trail between Redmond Park and Tuckahoe Road will be blocked by fallen trees. The section of the South County Trail from Tuckahoe Road to Elmsford is also some fine scenic trail riding. The finished trail still ends in Elmsford at Route 119 and you have still have to do a short stretch of road cycling to Warehouse Road. After the serene and sheltered cycling on the Trail, bridging the unfinished section of trail in Elmsford on the busy streets is jarring: N. Central Avenue/Saw Mill River Road is a heavily traveled artery which does not have a very wide right of way or shoulders and crosses a major highway interchange, so use caution as you travel between Route 119 and Warehouse Road to get back on the Trail. I then exited the South County Trail at Bedford Road/Route 117 and traveled west, turning left on Route 448/Beech Hill Road and then immediate right onto Old Sleepy Hollow Road, a lightly traveled two lane back road that goes through Rockefeller State Park and ends up at Sleepy Hollow. The road is gorgeous and passes by stately homes and bucolic landscapes -it is one of my favorite stretches of country riding. The fall colors were magnificent and many leaves were still green, so I expect that there are perhaps a couple more weeks of color before all the this year's late autumn color show is finished. I thought this might be helpful because I can now tell people how to bridge the missing part of the South County trailway. Yesterday a few friends, my wife and I explored the whole length of the South County Trailway. It is almost complete. There is a two mile section between RH Redmond Park and Tuckahoe road that is not complete. There northern section that connects the South County Trailway to the North County Trailway is also not complete. Traveling the missing sections – North from RH Redmond Park to Tuckahoe Road – Near the end of the completed, paved trailway take the path down to Redmond Park. Go Southeast to the exit on the opposite side of the park. Make a left turn onto Cook Avenue. Cook Avenue becomes Mile Square Road. Continue on Mile Square Road until it ends at Tuckahoe Road. Turn left onto Tuckahoe Road, then make the first right onto Touissant Avenue. After a few hundred feet Touissant Avenue forks to the left. After another fifty feet there will be a path on your left down to the newly completed section of the South County Trailway. South from Tuckahoe Road (actually Touissant Avenue) to RH Redmond park. At the end of the paved section of the trailway there will be a path up to Touissant Avenue. Make a right on Touissant and ride a few hundred feet onto Tuckahoe Road. Ride another few hundred feet. Mile Square Road is the next road to your right. Turn right onto Mile Square Road. Go up the steep hill and continue on Mile Square Road. At some point (a gas station) Mile Square Road forks to the left. Remain on Mile Square Road past Palmer Road. In a few blocks bear right onto Cook Avenue. Follow Cook Avenue another few blocks to the entrance of RH Redmond Park. Enter the park. Go to the Northwest corner of the park opposite the entrance and follow the path onto the South County Trailway. The paved trailway continues to Van Cortland Park at the Bronx border. The trail through Van Cortland Park is not paved but is hard packed soil and is rideable on a bicycle. On the South Country Trailway page it says:
On May 31 2007 my wife and I found the South County Trail paved from Redmond Park along Cook Ave in Yonkers to the Westchester border at Van Cortland Park in the Bronx. The trail is unpaved in Van Cortland Park. The text should probably now read:
I hope this is helpful KenR, September 2006: South County Trailway conditions Sharon + Tony + I started at the 242nd + Broadway #1 subway station in the Bronx. Entered Van Cortlandt Park and rode roughly east about 0.25 mile on a wide paved sidewalk which briefly turned to dirt and soon took us to the parking lot and a building for the golf course by the south end of Van Cortlandt Lake. Some other paved trailway continued east, but we turned north onto an unpaved trail which immediately crossed a bridge along the west side of the south end of the obvious lake. This trail very straight, sometimes wider, sometimes narrower -- and mostly OK for us to ride our bicycles (though I doubt I'd want to do it the day after a rainstorm) and we rode on it about 1.75 mile until it became paved, which was around the southern border of Westchester county with New York City. We continued north on nice pavement, but then encountered a creek with water in it, but the paved trailway did not cross it. Instead there was a partly-constructed bridge that looked kinda difficult to cross. Later we got back on the trailway's route, and most of it was dirt and later there were lots of big tree branches blocking the way and it got very difficult, so we rode north on some roads. Near the northwest corner of the intersection of Tuckahoe Rd and Touissant Av we found the trailway was paved again, and we followed South County Trailway north on nice smooth asphalt, with some intersections with motor vehicle roads and driveways, to the Farragut Av parking lot, then on further north to meet Tarrytown Rd / Rt 119. We went east on Tarrytown Rd a short ways past the traffic light to a nice bakery in Elmsford for lunch. From Elmsford we rode north on the public motor vehicle roads -- Vreeland Av and other streets, including a short section along high-traffic Rt 9A to the traffic light for Warehouse Lane. Turned Left (west) on Warehouse Lane, and just before its end found the next section of South County Trailway. (We also looked for a trailway connection between Rt 119 and Warehouse Lane, but that's still missing). Road north on the paved trailway up the hill and the nice bridge over the Saw Mill River Parkway. Instead of continuing onto North County Trailway, we turned Left (west), up and over a little hill to the Eastview Park & Ride. From the Eastview Park & Ride, we crossed west over Neperan Rd (extension of Rt 100C) onto another paved trailway -- Tarrytown Lakes extension -- up a little hill and alongside a pretty lake and rode west on this to its end on nice asphalt. Construction on South County Trailway: new pavement sections on South County Trailway in 2006, south between Farragut Parkway and the New York City Bronx boundary. August 2006: see discussion on NYC.bicycles under the subject "N/S Trailway to Croton, OCA Back" July 2006: see discussion on NYC.bicycles under the subject "S. County Trailway Extended" Chris, June 2006: North-South connection Rode from Barney Street to Route 119 on June 9, 2006 and the section from Route 119 to Warehouse Lane remains missing. According to the latest map from Westchester County Parks, a detour route is in the design stage. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
