NJ to MA

[jimnich64]

I'm planning a trip from northern NJ to Greenfield, MA (relatives there). My idea was to cycle either over the Bear Mountain Bridge and west through Westchester, or over the GWB and north through the Bronx into Westchester. My ultimate aim is to get over to the Connecticut River area and cycle north from there.

Any advice on getting across Westchester and western CT towards Hartford? What is CT route 6 like to cycle on?

Alternate possibility is to continue up Route 9 and cross the Hudson at Newburgh. Perhaps that might be better?

Thanks for any advice,

Jim

 

[Ken Roberts]

What I've actually done before is across GWB, then follow streets on New York City bicycle map to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, then ride the "Old Put" rail trail (with some necessary diversions onto the roads) up thru Westchester county to Carmel in Putnam county. Then on roads to Brewster and north thru eastern Dutchess county thru Pawling - Wassaic - Millerton (near the MA-CT-NY corner).

Pretty farmland north of Pawling. There's three different ways to cross the ridge from Dutchess into CT. Generally I think riding in the Harlem valley of eastern Dutchess county is prettier than CT, so I would tend to go further north in NY before turning east.​

Alternate possibility is to continue up Route 9 and cross the Hudson at Newburgh.

Between Bear Mt + Newburgh. the Storm King Mt Hwy section of Rt 218 is spectacular.

(If you live in NJ and haven't been up to ride that yet, that merits a separate trip of its own -- no need to add it to this MA route.)​

But I've never heard of a good route for crossing southern Dutchess county from the Newburgh-Beacon bridge to CT.

CT route 6

Don't know anything about it, but there is a Connecticut state bicycle map on the web which labels different roads based on suitability for bicycling.

Ken