Larry Gude
Strung Out
...finally made our trip to New York to visit our herb plug guy. 750 miles in three days, most of which was Thursday and Saturday with Friday being the work day.
If you are ever up that way, 218 between Cornwall and West Point is a must do. Route 9W parallels it and makes a great loop. Found that out by accident after running 218 down and back (short but spectacular) we kinda, OK, I kinda got confused and took 9W South instead of 9W North so, we did 218 3 times.
Coming back up, heading north, it has one curve that you come out of and are suddenly a stone wall from pretty much straight down, awesome, world drops away feeling.
You can see this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollepel_Island from one of the pull offs fairly descent. Interesting story behind the place.
Oh, Newburgh, NY, near Cornwall, is totally worth avoiding. It's like the bad parts of Baltimore back of Fells Point. Good place for the Zombie Apocalypse to start.
Rt 97, the Hawks Nest, near Port Jervis, back West on the PA/NY border, is also a must do. Hawk's Nest, New York - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
If it wasn't the wrong way from home, we'd have kept on up 97 forever. Bit bumpy but, great road. We saw a Gold Wing and two HD's, FLHTCU's, at a pull off taking picture and, yes indeed, them boys were wiping down their bikes. In the middle of a ride.
In their defense, there was plenty of cicadas to ride through but, not really any worse than normal summer bug crap.
Out route up took us 194, decent, nothing special, to 30, through York, Lancaster, 222, Reading, Allentown, breif run on I78 to get to 33, Stroudsburg and then 209, the Delaware Watergap. It's a fine road, best part of the trip up but, nothing special.
Milford, PA is a cool little town. However, those people are weird. There is some local law where you can buy no more than 192 ounces, yes, ounces, of beer at a time.
Coming home, we did the Hawks Nest, took 97 up to Shohola and back down 434 then 402, better than 209. Got sucked in to going to see Bushkill Falls, total tourist gig, but, a great road into tourist trap hell, which we passed on, dumped us back on 209, then took I80 West to 11 then back down that way.
80 has parts that are all alone in this world save the road and whomever is on it. Good stretch to burn miles.
We spent Thursday and Friday night in Matamoros, PA, little nothing, nowhere place but a great stop for the Hawks Nest and up 97 if you're gonna do that as a destination ride. Friday AM, we took I84 to our grower in Walden and as we crossed the river we noticed a sign, along with Welcome to NY;
Orange County.
We had no idea when scouting the trip out. So, we swung by 'St. Paul's Cathedral' and bought a T shirt for our dog sitter. The Fire Fighter bike and all the patches on the wall will catch your breathe. I never liked much of what those guys do, at least on TV. No interest. However, see them in real life, I'd absolutely throw a leg over one of them and go for a ride.
Other than that, this place is Merchandising 101. The only thing that didn't have 'OCC' on it was the toilet paper. And the bowling balls. Yeah. There's a bowling alley in the joint.
Ride back down 11, we road with a Gold Wing for quite a few miles. first folks we came across the whole trip going our way AND who liked to ride the way we tend to...lively.
When he took off coming out of the ramp near the Shamokin Dam interchange, he got on it hard and he seemed a little surprised we stayed with him. 113 cubic inches of V twin fury hanging with the, what, 180,000 ci 12 cylinder whatever the heck is in those things.
In any event, Saturday was the long day. On the bike from about 11, detour up to the Hawks Nest, then well West trying to avoid the bleh route we took up and home around 8 hours later saddle sore and happy.
Good trip.
If you are ever up that way, 218 between Cornwall and West Point is a must do. Route 9W parallels it and makes a great loop. Found that out by accident after running 218 down and back (short but spectacular) we kinda, OK, I kinda got confused and took 9W South instead of 9W North so, we did 218 3 times.
Coming back up, heading north, it has one curve that you come out of and are suddenly a stone wall from pretty much straight down, awesome, world drops away feeling.
You can see this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollepel_Island from one of the pull offs fairly descent. Interesting story behind the place.
Oh, Newburgh, NY, near Cornwall, is totally worth avoiding. It's like the bad parts of Baltimore back of Fells Point. Good place for the Zombie Apocalypse to start.
Rt 97, the Hawks Nest, near Port Jervis, back West on the PA/NY border, is also a must do. Hawk's Nest, New York - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
If it wasn't the wrong way from home, we'd have kept on up 97 forever. Bit bumpy but, great road. We saw a Gold Wing and two HD's, FLHTCU's, at a pull off taking picture and, yes indeed, them boys were wiping down their bikes. In the middle of a ride.
In their defense, there was plenty of cicadas to ride through but, not really any worse than normal summer bug crap. Out route up took us 194, decent, nothing special, to 30, through York, Lancaster, 222, Reading, Allentown, breif run on I78 to get to 33, Stroudsburg and then 209, the Delaware Watergap. It's a fine road, best part of the trip up but, nothing special.
Milford, PA is a cool little town. However, those people are weird. There is some local law where you can buy no more than 192 ounces, yes, ounces, of beer at a time.
Coming home, we did the Hawks Nest, took 97 up to Shohola and back down 434 then 402, better than 209. Got sucked in to going to see Bushkill Falls, total tourist gig, but, a great road into tourist trap hell, which we passed on, dumped us back on 209, then took I80 West to 11 then back down that way.
80 has parts that are all alone in this world save the road and whomever is on it. Good stretch to burn miles.
We spent Thursday and Friday night in Matamoros, PA, little nothing, nowhere place but a great stop for the Hawks Nest and up 97 if you're gonna do that as a destination ride. Friday AM, we took I84 to our grower in Walden and as we crossed the river we noticed a sign, along with Welcome to NY;
Orange County.
We had no idea when scouting the trip out.
So, we swung by 'St. Paul's Cathedral' and bought a T shirt for our dog sitter. The Fire Fighter bike and all the patches on the wall will catch your breathe. I never liked much of what those guys do, at least on TV. No interest. However, see them in real life, I'd absolutely throw a leg over one of them and go for a ride. Other than that, this place is Merchandising 101. The only thing that didn't have 'OCC' on it was the toilet paper. And the bowling balls. Yeah. There's a bowling alley in the joint.
Ride back down 11, we road with a Gold Wing for quite a few miles. first folks we came across the whole trip going our way AND who liked to ride the way we tend to...lively.
When he took off coming out of the ramp near the Shamokin Dam interchange, he got on it hard and he seemed a little surprised we stayed with him. 113 cubic inches of V twin fury hanging with the, what, 180,000 ci 12 cylinder whatever the heck is in those things.
In any event, Saturday was the long day. On the bike from about 11, detour up to the Hawks Nest, then well West trying to avoid the bleh route we took up and home around 8 hours later saddle sore and happy.
Good trip.
This was one of our destinations - very cool town!