Why this ride
973 km from Baldwin Harbor to Fordham, about 15 h 12 of riding. On the way it passes Carmel Hamlet, near Kiryas Joel and Emerson Hill. The climbs: near Bradley Gardens, Scenic stretch in Eatontown and Ocean Grove.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Shawangunk Ridge and Minnewaska + Poconos River Road
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 973 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 15 h 12
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Fuel stop near Baldwin Harbor
Planning note
Shawangunk Ridge and Minnewaska is where the day begins. Next is New York / Hudson Valley rides return.
2. Carmel Hamlet, on the way back
Carmel Hamlet is the county seat of Putnam County, New York, a small town set around the shore of Lake Gleneida, about an hour north of Manhattan in hilly, wooded country. The old county courthouse, with its white columns, faces the lake, and nearby stands a bronze statue of a young woman on horseback: Sybil Ludington, who in 1777, at the age of sixteen, rode through the night to rally her father's militia after the British burned the town of Danbury in Connecticut. Her ride covered some forty miles over rough country roads, and local people are proud of her.
Read the complete Carmel Hamlet, on the way back write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
New York / Hudson Valley rides return comes up 59 km in. Next is Food stop near Kiryas Joel.
3. Food stop near Kiryas Joel
The village of Kiryas Joel, in Orange County north-west of New York City, is one of the most distinctive communities in the United States, founded in the 1970s by Satmar Hasidic Jews and still almost entirely Hasidic today. It is a densely built, fast-growing village where Yiddish is widely spoken, shops close for the Sabbath and the rhythm of life follows religious tradition. Visitors passing through should be respectful and dress modestly if stopping.
Read the complete Food stop near Kiryas Joel write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
A break here. Next is Photo stop near Bradley Gardens.
4. Photo stop near Bradley Gardens
Planning note
The high point of this section. Next is Shawangunk Ridge and Minnewaska checkpoint 8.
5. Emerson Hill
Most visitors to New York never see Staten Island except from the deck of the free ferry, which is a pity, because its interior holds something unexpected: a ridge of steep, wooded hills running through the middle of the island. Emerson Hill is one of them, a quiet residential enclave of winding lanes and large old houses among the trees, next to Grymes Hill, where Wagner College stands. The ridge is made of serpentinite, a greenish rock rare on the East Coast, and further south it rises to Todt Hill, the highest natural point on the Atlantic seaboard south of Maine.
Read the complete Emerson Hill write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Finish at Shawangunk Ridge and Minnewaska checkpoint 8. That is the ride. Next is Scenic stretch in Eatontown.
6. Scenic stretch in Eatontown
Planning note
Scenic stretch in Eatontown is the summit of this stretch. Next is Shawangunk Ridge and Minnewaska high point.
7. Ocean Grove
Ocean Grove is one of the oddest and most charming towns on the Jersey Shore. It was founded in 1869 as a Methodist camp meeting resort, a place where families came for a summer of sea air and religious revival, and it still has the feel of a Victorian time capsule: streets of gingerbread-trimmed houses with deep porches, and in the middle of town the Great Auditorium, a vast wooden hall that holds thousands of people and a famous pipe organ. Around it, in summer, stand the canvas tents of the camp meeting, small wooden cabins with canvas fronts that families have rented for generations.
Read the complete Ocean Grove write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
You top out here; the road stops climbing. Next is Back to Shawangunk Ridge.
8. Back to Shawangunk Ridge
Salt air and gulls, not ridges: this finish sits at Point Lookout, on the western tip of the Long Beach barrier island on Long Island's south shore. The ride's name points at the Shawangunk cliffs two hours north, where climbers hang on pale quartz conglomerate above forest, so the contrast is sharp. Here the land is a sandbar a few metres above the tide, with Jones Inlet on one side, the open Atlantic on the other, and the neighbouring communities of Lido Beach and Baldwin Harbor tucked into the bay behind.
Read the complete Shawangunk Ridge write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Finish at Back to Shawangunk Ridge. That is the ride. Next is Poconos River Road.
9. Fuel stop in Fordham
Planning note
Next is Poconos River Road photo pull-off.
10. Highlands
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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Poconos River Road photo pull-off comes up 533 km in. Next is Scenic stretch near Eltingville.
11. Scenic stretch near Eltingville
Planning note
592 km in you reach Scenic stretch near Eltingville.
12. Sayreville, on the way back
Sayreville was built on clay. For more than a century the pits along the Raritan river supplied brick works that sent millions of bricks up the river and across the bay to build New York, and the town's lakes and ponds are mostly old clay pits filled with water. Later it became a gunpowder and chemical town, and later still the hometown of Jon Bon Jovi, which is the fact most visitors already know.
Read the complete Sayreville, on the way back write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
New York / Hudson Valley rides return, late in the day. Next is Food stop near Pompton Lakes.
13. Food stop near Pompton Lakes
Planning note
Food at 710 km, roughly 13 hours into the riding. Next is High point in Fair Lawn.
14. High point in Fair Lawn
Planning note
High point in Fair Lawn comes up 770 km in. Next is Poconos River Road checkpoint 8.
15. Near East Rutherford
The Hackensack Meadowlands were once written off as a wasteland of marsh, dumps and smouldering garbage, the place where gangsters supposedly disposed of their problems. Today they are something unexpected: a recovering wetland, full of herons, egrets and ospreys, wrapped around a stadium that holds more than eighty thousand people. This finish lies at the edge of that landscape, near East Rutherford, Carlstadt and Moonachie.
Read the complete Near East Rutherford write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 888 km. Next is back to Poconos River Road.
16. back to Poconos River Road
Fordham is the Bronx at its most characteristic, a dense, cheerful neighbourhood of apartment buildings, shops and street life around Fordham Road and the Grand Concourse. Fordham University was founded here in 1841, when the area was still countryside, and has been run by Jesuits since 1846, and the campus, with its Gothic stone halls and tree-lined lawns, is a surprising pocket of calm in a very busy borough. Edgar Allan Poe lived in a small cottage nearby in the late 1840s and wrote some of his last poems there, and the cottage still stands in a little park.
Read the complete Poconos River Road write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back to Poconos River Road closes the day.
Leg by leg
Fuel stop near Baldwin Harbor to Carmel Hamlet, on the way back
Fuel stop near Baldwin Harbor → Carmel Hamlet, on the way back is 117 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Food stop near Kiryas Joel to Photo stop near Bradley Gardens
Food stop near Kiryas Joel → Photo stop near Bradley Gardens is 131 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Photo stop near Bradley Gardens to Emerson Hill
Photo stop near Bradley Gardens → Emerson Hill is 71 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Scenic stretch in Eatontown to Ocean Grove
Scenic stretch in Eatontown → Ocean Grove is 12 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Back to Shawangunk Ridge to Fuel stop in Fordham
Back to Shawangunk Ridge → Fuel stop in Fordham is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuel stop in Fordham to Highlands
Fuel stop in Fordham → Highlands is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Scenic stretch near Eltingville to Sayreville, on the way back
Scenic stretch near Eltingville → Sayreville, on the way back is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Food stop near Pompton Lakes to High point in Fair Lawn
Food stop near Pompton Lakes → High point in Fair Lawn is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
High point in Fair Lawn to Near East Rutherford
High point in Fair Lawn → Near East Rutherford is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.