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: 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.
A proper escape from New York with roads worth waking up for. 696 km round from Rumson - plan on about 11 h 05 of riding. It goes by way of in Saint James, Scenic stretch near Suffern and Hardwick. near North Castle is the high point. The line favours views over speed.
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.
Next is Food stop in Saint James.
Food stop in Saint James is where this day stops to eat. Next is High point near North Castle.
This is where the road stops climbing. Next is Scenic stretch near Suffern.
Suffern guards the Ramapo Pass, the narrow gap where the Ramapo River cuts through the Highlands at the New York and New Jersey border. During the Revolution, this gap was a vital route between the Hudson and the colonies to the south, and Continental troops were stationed here to keep it open; Washington himself passed through more than once. Today, the pass carries the New York Thruway, Route 17 and a railway, all squeezed into the valley, and Suffern is a busy small village at its mouth.
Read the complete Scenic stretch near Suffern write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Scenic stretch near Suffern, about halfway. Next is New York / Hudson Valley rides return.
Up here in Warren County, in the northwestern corner of New Jersey, the long, straight crest of the Kittatinny Ridge runs along the horizon, and beyond it lies the Delaware River and the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Hardwick is a rural township of farms, forest and small lakes in the valley just east of the ridge, and it feels a world away from the crowded state most people imagine.
Read the complete Near Hardwick, 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 sits at 296 km, about halfway. Next is Photo stop near Bloomingdale.
The long, wooded ridge of Sourland Mountain rises out of the farmland of Somerset County here, a lump of hard volcanic rock that resisted erosion while the softer land around it was worn away. The Sourlands are not high, but they are wild for New Jersey, with boulder fields, streams and forests, and they make a welcome change from the flat suburbs further east. It was on this ridge that Charles Lindbergh built his house, and from which his baby son was kidnapped in 1932, a crime that gripped the nation.
Read the complete Photo stop near Bloomingdale write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Photo stop near Bloomingdale comes up about 514 km into the recorded legs. Next is Montauk Long Island End Run checkpoint 8.
Edgewater is a thin ribbon of a town squeezed between the Hudson River and the foot of the Palisades, the dark basalt cliffs that line the New Jersey side of the river opposite Manhattan. Across the water, so close it almost looks touchable, lies the Upper West Side, with Riverside Park, the tower of Riverside Church and Grant's Tomb visible above the trees.
Read the complete Edgewater write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Montauk Long Island End Run checkpoint 8 closes the day. Next is Back to Montauk Long.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Highlands write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Back to Montauk Long. That is the ride.
Food stop in Saint James → High point near North Castle is the logistics leg. Watch junctions, villages and speed changes, then let the roadbook do its job: move you out of the clutter without spending your best attention too early.
This High point near North Castle → Scenic stretch near Suffern 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.
Scenic stretch near Suffern → Near Hardwick, on the way back is the technical section. Hairpins, gradients and mixed traffic can stack up quickly; use low drama inputs, stay wide of centre lines and expect buses or riders appearing exactly where optimism says they will not.
Photo stop near Bloomingdale → Edgewater can flow quickly, but only if you keep village limits and junction sightlines sacred. Fast connectors are where rides get untidy when fatigue creeps in.