KenR, October 2007:
On a weekend day with perfect weather, Sharon and I road a loop around Orange county. We rode our usual Poughkeepsie NY to Bethlehem PA route (see 2006 report) in reverse direction from the New Jersey border north to Wallkill NY, and we rode southwest on sections A1 and B1 (with variations) of our June 2007 ride. Total was something like 75 or 90 miles, and hilly.
Lots of pretty farms and pleasant roads -- also new suburban houses (some nicely architected, some not).
future: My wishes for modifications for future rides would be to find one or two fun curvy descents as a reward for the climbing, and one or two more interesting snack stops. Or something more interesting along the Shawangunk Ridge (like the ridge further north) -- but perhaps the best way to make the ridge more interesting is to climb across it instead of riding along its crest.
Perhaps make it into two separate routes:
(a) one focusing more on just the Wallkill River area, including some exploring on the west side of the river around Scotchtown or Middletown (which I know nothing about). Possibly a loop between Wallkill + Unionville might be in the ballpark of 80 miles with +4200 vertical feet of climbing., of between Wallkill NY + Sussex NJ might be in the ballpark of 98 miles with +5300 vertical feet.
(b) The other on the farms and ridge around Otisville and Bloomingburg and Pine Bush with some roads from sections A1 + A1 in the June 2007 report, perhaps crossing the ridge, or perhaps riding south as far as Guymard turnpike (also perhaps for variety including riding along the river section between Walden + Wallkill).
direction: Next time I'd ride it in the opposite direction. I think Goshen to along the Wallkill River to the New Jersey border has prettier views and more fun downhills going south-bound. Along the Shawangunk ridge between Otisville and "Greenville" the climbs + downhills were not as interesting as we'd have wished -- it might feel very different riding in the north-bound direction (which we've never tried).
route notes: We started in Campbell Hall (south of Interstate 84 exit 5), went north along the Wallkill River into Ulster county to the village of Wallkill; then west and southwest thru "Bullville" to Otisville to "Greenville" (near High Point NJ); then southeast to Unionville by the NY/NJ border, and finished by going north roughly along the Wallkill River thru Goshen back to Campbell Hall. Some specifics:
crossing Rt 17 at Brown Rd worked for us (but Tarbell Rd did not)
riding South-bound on Rt 73 + Rt 35 along the ridge got kinda repetitious: the three climbing sections felt similar, and the long view east across the valley didn't seem to change. (? perhaps North-bound would be better ?)
connecting from section C, southwest to Unionville and our 2006 route, we used Minisink Turnpike and Pine Hill Rd, and that worked well for us and was interesting.