Bear Mountain to Manhattan

Friday morning, after a great night's sleep, I woke up to the sun shining! While taking advantage of the contintental breakfast in the lodge, I realized that everyone besides me in the common room was a West Point grad; I presume they were having a reunion because there were conversations going on around me concerning graduate years, class of whatever, etc. I hadn't realized that West Point was just up the road from here until R had pointed it out across the river the previous day. At any rate, this early morning sunshine was about all we got this last day on the road; there was another thunderstorm rolling in, and it was clouding over by the time we left Bear Mountain for Manhattan.

Just south of Bear Mountain, the route 9 bike signs direct you off the highway (we were on 9W at this point) to a dirt path. We went about 50 feet on it and quickly determined it wasn't passable with our tires. And I have 700x38s. It's dirt and chunky gravel, not very well maintained. So if you're in that area I would recommend staying on the highway.




This last 50 miles of route 9 are a bit hillier than the previous stretches we had been on, but it wasn't that bad. A couple of short climbs and several rollers. At Haverstraw we avoided some of the town congestion by following the signs down to the waterfront, although once the route rejoined the town center we managed to get turned around, just briefly. At one point the route 9 bicycle sign clearly pointed left, but we figured soon enough that we really needed to go right. Good times.

Our half-way point was Nyack, a really charming town right along the west bank of the Hudson River. Past Nyack we came to Piermont, where we stopped for lunch. At this point we were only about 12 miles from the George Washington Bridge, and stopped for a leisurely lunch at a little French bistro called Sidewalk Bistro. The French owner noticed our bikes and invited us to park them in the back garden area, which was very nice. I enjoyed a croque monsieur and a beer for lunch. Fabulous! During lunch we chatted with a fellow bicyclist, also with a loaded touring bike. He was from Montreal and heading down to Brooklyn. We wished him well and then hit the road for the final few miles back to Manhattan.

This portion of the route was gently hilly but mostly very comfortable terrain. Obviously Rachael knows this route well, so she led us through the final twists and turns to reach the south side of the George Washington Bridge, only to find it closed! So then we had to use the north side of the bridge, which involves going up and down about six flights of stairs, which I can tell you is not any fun with a loaded touring bike. Just getting up and down these stairs took us about 20 minutes. Once that little adventure was over, we were just cruising home along the Hudson River greenway. After not too long we saw our Montreal friend sitting on a park bench with a map, trying to figure out how to get to Brooklyn from this point. (I was surprised he had managed to get to the GW bridge and across). Rachael being a kind and generous soul offered to escort Jacques down to the Brooklyn bridge. I headed back to the apartment to begin celebrating the completion of the tour: 308 miles in the saddle!

The real celebration was later that evening, when we headed over to wd-50 for a fabulous dinner. I had the hanger tartare, the wagyu skirt steak, and about 17 desserts. Excellent end to the tour.