Manhattan to Piermont + Nyack Trip Reports

KenR, April 2009: Sharon and I rode the whole route, including the "river road" thru Palisides park, on our tandem on a weekday afternoon. The "river" road was prettier than we remembered -- and some its hill-climbs are as serious as we remembered.

We saw what liked like a potential bike path / sidewalk connection from the GWB west end of the GWB going south (alongside Hudson Terrace) to the start of the "river" road -- but a sign said it wasn't open yet, and we didn't notice anything saying it was intended as a bike path.

Sometimes I've thought it might make sense to do the southern half of the route in the opposite direction (save the "river road" for the end instead of at the beginning) - but this time I noticed that some markers for a big annual bicycling event did it in the sequence and direction given on our cue sheet.

KenR, 2008:  Several times each year, Sharon and I ride our tandem on "Variation B" of the route - (not doing the "river road"). I can't call it one of the "great" rides of the Hudson valley. But we actually ride it more than any other, I think because the riding is interesting enough (with rolling hills and some curves), the scenery is pretty enough, vehicle traffic managable enough -- and it's convenient enough for us to drive to and park along it.

KenR, June 2001:  Sharon and I rode our tandem from GWB to Nyack one cloudy morning.  The section of Henry Hudson Dr that goes right under the GWB was still bumpy, but it got better after Palisades Ave came down to join it.  Rt 9W had been newly paved north from where we entered, and it was fun to cruise along to the New York state border.  Then we could see that Rt 9W was closed at the Sparkill bridge just after our route exited to go to Piermont.  On our way from Piermont to Nyack, we saw three bicyclists stopped by police and getting a traffic ticket (I'd guess it was for not riding in single file).  

Then we continued past Nyack to the dirt path by the river in Nyack Beach State Park.  The damage from the hurricane back in 1999 has been fully repaired (at least out to just before it climbs up into the woods), and it was pleasant to ride there.  On our way back we found that the section of Rt 9W further south, where we had not ridden in the morning, was not freshly paved.  It was still in basically good condition, but we had bad luck hitting a crack and got a snakebite flat tire.  We had lots of offers of help from passing cyclists.  And that's one of the things that makes this such a fine ride on a weekend -- all the other riders you see out there.