Grand Tour of Columbia County Trip Reports 

KenR: May 2009:

Sharon and I rode the route on a weekend day. Better than ever. Seemed like more cows than usual, even saw some big pigs. A couple of the little food places in some villages were gone, but still more than enough places to eat. 

KenR, August 2008:

Sharon and I rode the route with several variations on a weekend day, and it was great for us. We've been doing more bicycling in nice riding areas in Europe, but Columbia county seems as wonderful as ever -- better riding than lots of places in Europe.

Road surfaces were mostly very good. Some roads had been repaved -- including Old Forge Rd which had previously been dirt.

Some of the villages have gotten much nicer since when we first started riding this route, so I'm going to create a new version of the route with a new map which visits more of their streets.

Terry, July 2007: 

Thanks for posting the GREAT q sheet for Columbia County. It's the best ride around! I rode it this weekend. Happy to report there are no changes. The bridge on wire road is fine, shoulders are still as noted on the q sheet. Here's another bike shop: Bill's Bike Shop Ghent on left after mile 46.5 518 392 2692 Would recommend Jimapco map of Columbia County www.jimapco.com for your ride. It's easy to carry and has every road on your q sheet.

For those without a car, your ride is accessible by train via the Wassaic line (Runs from Grand Central to Wassaic see MetroNorth Train schedule). Here's a q sheet to get to mile 68.9 Copake where you can start the Grand Tour:

0 Wassaic Train Station. Get on HV Rail Trail to Millerton10.710.7 Arrive in Millerton on S. Center St0.210.9R44 Main Street0.311.2LN Maple becomes Rudd Pond Road then CR 622.814BRonto Boston Corners CR 633.917.9BRUpper Mountain Rd1.919.8Ronto 220.320.1RWeed Mine Rd (or stay on 22 if not paved)2.522.6BLat T to stay on Weed Mine0.423GFCross 220.523.5QLCounty Rte 7A pick up Q sheet for Grand Tour0.2

Ken Roberts, June 2005:

Sharon and I rode this route on a weekend day and had a great time. We noticed that several towns have additional food opportunities. We tried visiting Chatham, and we want to include it again next time we do this route, even if we're yet not sure what roads are good for getting there.

Ken Roberts, August 2001:  

Sharon and I rode this route with several variations years ago in our early explorations of Columbia County, and we have wonderful memories of it -- but that was before we were writing trip reports.  Since then we've been focusing more on creating shorter routes which more people can enjoy -- so we have no recent trip reports to put here.