CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Cooler air, forest bends and a mountain-town lunch window. 121 km round from Kingston - plan on about 2 h 20 of riding. The stops in between: Kaaterskill high road and Phoenicia. Hunter mountain edge is the high point. It is a high-mountain day.
Kingston has a good claim to be the first capital of New York State. The legislature met here in 1777, when the state's first constitution was adopted, and in October of that year British troops sailed up the Hudson and burned most of the town. The Stockade District, a neighbourhood of old stone houses, has been rebuilt on the same streets, and a number of the buildings date from the Dutch period of the 1600s. It is the kind of place where history sits on every corner, and the cafés and restaurants have taken advantage.
Read the complete Kingston return fuel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Next is Kaaterskill high road.
The Catskills were not always a weekend escape from New York City. In the early nineteenth century, they were the wild backdrop for American landscape painting, and the painters of the Hudson River School, led by Thomas Cole, came here to capture the cliffs, clouds and waterfalls. Kaaterskill Falls, a two-tier cascade of about 260 feet near the top of the clove, was one of their favourite subjects, and it is among the tallest falls in the state. The area also gave Washington Irving his Rip Van Winkle, the man who slept for twenty years on a mountain, and local lore insists that the legend is rooted in these hills.
Read the complete Kaaterskill high road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kaaterskill high road comes up about 40 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hunter mountain edge.
Hunter Mountain is the second highest peak in the Catskills, at about 1,230 metres, and it dominates the skyline for miles around. In winter it is a ski resort, with trails cut into the slopes, and in summer its fire tower on the summit offers a wide view across the range. The mountain stands at the edge of the Catskill escarpment, where the high plateau drops sharply to the Hudson valley, and the road that skirts it follows this edge for much of its length.
Read the complete Hunter mountain edge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 57 km into the recorded legs you reach Hunter mountain edge. Next is Phoenicia food stop.
Phoenicia is a small hamlet in the Esopus valley, a few streets of wooden buildings along the creek with mountains on every side. It has the relaxed feel of a place that welcomes hikers, tubers and weekend visitors from the city without losing its character. The Esopus Creek, which runs through the village, is a popular spot for tubing in summer, when people float down the shallow rapids in inner tubes, and for fly fishing in cooler months. The surrounding hills are part of the Catskill Park, a vast area of protected forest.
Read the complete Phoenicia food stop write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Somewhere to get off the bike, about 79 km into the recorded legs. Next is Back to Kingston.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kingston return fuel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Back to Kingston. That is the ride.
This Kaaterskill high road → Hunter mountain edge stretch is for rhythm and scenery. Keep your head up, let the view breathe, and resist turning every open bend into a target. Stop once properly rather than half-stopping everywhere.
Hunter mountain edge → Phoenicia food stop is the reward section in New York. Look through the bends, use legal pull-offs for photos and keep a little margin for tractors, cyclists and damp shade. The best ride here is smooth, not noisy.