CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenery first, traffic last, with checkpoints that make sense on a bike. A 492 km loop that starts and ends near Pelham Manor, about 7 h 50 of riding. It goes by way of West Milford, in Mendham, near Lincroft and Fort Hamilton. Highlands is the high point. Long stretches are under trees.
Next is New York / Hudson Valley rides return.
Most people never imagine New Jersey like this: big hills, dense hardwood forest, granite ridges and deep, clear lakes, with barely a house in sight. The northern part of the state, along the border with New York, is the New Jersey Highlands, an old chain of rounded mountains, and this spot near West Milford, Ringwood and Greenwood Lake lies right in the middle of them. Black bears live here, and so do rattlesnakes, and much of the land is protected forest and state park.
Read the complete Near West Milford, on the way back write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
New York / Hudson Valley rides return comes up 48 km in. Next is Food stop in Mendham.
The winter of 1779 to 1780 was one of the harshest on record, and the Continental Army spent it in huts at Jockey Hollow, a few miles east of Mendham, short of food, clothing and pay. Soldiers froze, starved and deserted, and some mutinied, yet the army survived. The site is now part of Morristown National Historical Park, with reconstructed huts, an old farmhouse and quiet woodland trails, and it is a moving place to stop.
Read the complete Food stop in Mendham write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
A break here. Next is Photo stop near Lincroft.
Photo stop near Lincroft, about halfway. Next is Catskills High Peaks Sweep checkpoint 8.
The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge leaps across the entrance to New York Harbor between Brooklyn and Staten Island, and this ride's start and finish sit at its foot, near Fort Hamilton on the Brooklyn side and Fort Wadsworth across the water. When it opened in 1964, the bridge had the longest suspension span in the world, and it is still one of the most impressive structures in the city, especially at dawn or dusk, when its towers catch the light. Every November the New York City Marathon begins on it.
Read the complete Near Fort Hamilton write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Catskills High Peaks Sweep checkpoint 8. That is the ride. Next is Catskills High Peaks Sweep high point.
High ground is rare on the Jersey Shore, which is what makes Highlands special. The little town sits where the Shrewsbury River meets Sandy Hook Bay, at the foot of a steep wooded bluff, the Navesink Highlands, which rises abruptly from the water in one of the few real hills along the Atlantic coast south of New England. Down below are marinas, clam bars and a bridge over to the barrier beach; up above are old houses and the twin brownstone towers of the Navesink lighthouse.
Read the complete Highlands write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Catskills High Peaks Sweep high point is the summit of this stretch. Next is Scenic stretch in Rockville Centre.
288 km in you reach Scenic stretch in Rockville Centre. Next is Back to Catskills.
City Island is the quirkiest part, a mile-and-a-half-long island with a single main street, a shipbuilding history and a fleet of small boats bobbing in its harbours.
Read the complete Catskills write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Back to Catskills. That is the ride.
Treat Food stop in Mendham → Photo stop near Lincroft as bend craft. Brake early, look high through the turn, and keep throttle changes gentle. It is more satisfying to link ten clean bends than rescue one silly one.
Photo stop near Lincroft → Near Fort Hamilton is shade riding: beautiful, cooler and sometimes slick. Expect damp patches, leaves, gravel and wildlife where the trees meet the road.