Outdoor Bike Trips In Every Direction from New York City
You can basically go three ways to get out of New York City, and in every direction, you can find outdoor adventure. Hey, guess what? It’s spring! This is when you throw your bike on a train or in the back of a car, pack yourself a lunch and get the heck out of dodge. Winter is sort of, kind of over! April is here! Let us go outside together. I have some hot tips for you and your bike.
Fire Island: Let us do the obvious disclaimer. Many of you are confused and think that Fire Island is all-gay. That is incorrect: there are two gay towns on the island, and the other 18 or so towns on the 31-mile island are for the most part very very straight! You will know that if you have ever been to Ocean Beach (reachable by ferry from Bay Shore, Long Island), which is very… post-college fun times, let’s say. The awesome thing about Fire Island is that most people do not really travel between towns there!
The best bike ride on Fire Island goes from the lighthouse to the forest beyond Point of Woods — that is, from west to east. You can get on the island at Robert Moses State Park!
The island is very bike-friendly on the western end, but after you pass through towns like Ocean Beach (which has a bike shop by the way, if you need air!), it thins. Then you hit Point o’ Woods, which is the land that time forgot, and is also called Point o’ Whites. (Note: You may have to get through a locked fence to get in! You can also go to the beach.) If their general store downtown is open, you will find snacks and also there is an ice cream parlor. After Point o’ Woods (which really is magnificent! It is a wondrous monoculture, a remnant of the era of “Mad Men”) come a quite impressive nature preserve. There are two loops: one paved, that leads all the way to Cherry Grove (WHICH IS GAY! And which also does not allow biking), and one that is a boardwalk in the forest, designed for hiking, which you can riskily ride on. At your own risk!
The best part of biking on Fire Island? You cannot possibly get lost! The island is like a sliver.
Ringwood State Park has a great trail, but sad times: Ringwood Manor, the crazy awesome house on the property, has been closed to the public since a burglary. (The grounds have reopened since.) But you can still visit the still cool if less-interesting Skylands Manor, if you like to see how rich people used to live! And who doesn’t? And the mountain bike loop is 7.5 miles of “difficult”-grade biking. Fun!
Or? Can you resist something called the Cheesequake State Park? It’s the Prince song he forgot to write. There’s good biking and decent fishing, in a six acre lake — and a crabbing bridge, which is called the Crabbing Bridge, which, rad.
Someday, the Jersey section of the Appalachian Trail (which, overall, is the country’s “longest marked footpath”!will have biking — but for now, it’s all hiking, if you dare.
Upstate
The Harlem Valley Rail Trail is still under expansion, but much of it is up and running: it’s currently fifteen miles through Dutchess and Columbia counties, and I suggest starting at the south — that’s got the Wassaic Metro North station — and going up to Chatham or Ghent for lunch, then looping back. (Note! If you go up to Old Chatham, you can visit the home of the world’s best yogurt! It’s worth it! There are sheep and cats everywhere, and it’s in the middle of nowhere!) Also: That top half of the trail is still “in development,” which means that at some points you may want to have big thick tires and/or take to local roads! Fun. Outdoor fun!
The Borscht Belt: There’s a great biking trip to be constructed on the south side of the Catskills. All these towns, from Liberty to Monticello and so on, are at the edge of vast forests with fabulous roads. And also it’s probably still hamantash season, and the bakeries up there are incredible!
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