Wolves, gather your panniers… we’re going on a bikepacking trip!
Join us as we travel to Poughkeepsie to ride some of the beautiful Hudson Valley Trail to New York City.
Expect a trip that is a good amount of fun and exploration, peppered with some food and bevy stops. It’ll be about 100 miles with camping half way.
All details below are rough and may be tweaked, but prepare for the following if you’re in for the adventure:
- When: Saturday, September 19th to Sunday
- Where: Mostly Hudson Valley Trail; Poughkeepsie to Battery Park
- Accommodations: Primitive private camp site
- Terrain: Trains, asphalt bike bath, country roads, some packed gravel, city
- Cost: Chip in for camp fees
Jon is steering this ship and prepared the following itinerary:
We will take the 7:57 am Metro North train from Grand Central Station, arriving in Poughkeepsie at 9:59 am. This train is specially designated as allowing extra bikes.
Once in Poughkeepsie we’ll explore “Walkover the Hudson State Park” (The world’s largest elevated pedestrian bridge) before we turn around and head south on the Empire State Trail for 18 miles. We’ll leave the trail and travel 20 miles of county roads to the campsite for the night, Chestnut’s Landing booked through Hip Camp.
Expect some cars but the riding should be fairly comfortable.
Several opportunities for beer and food along the way as well as supply stops for the nights camping. We’ll have dinner at El Coyote Mexican bar and grill less than a mile from the campsite.
Sunday morning we’ll break camp and continue south towards NYC riding similar county roads for 15 miles before again hooking up with the Empire State Trail.
30 miles into our day we will stop at Captain Lawrence Brewery. They serve food as well. We’ll then continue on the trail to the northern tip of Manhattan where we can take bike lanes and ride through Central Park on our way to Penn Station and the NJ Transit trains home.
You can get an early NJ Transit train to Penn Station and then ride the one mile to Grand Central Station.
Leave a comment below, or get in touch with Brian, Peter, or Jon, if you’re planning on joining.
Check back here for any updates.