Why this ride
479 km round from Milford - plan on about 7 h 24 of riding. The stops in between: Branford Center and Bayonne. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Taconic Parkway Backroads · part 2
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 479 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 7 h 24
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Photo stop near Milford
Planning note
Photo stop near Milford is where the day begins. Next is New York / Hudson Valley rides return.
2. Branford Center
The base of the Statue of Liberty is made of pink granite from Stony Creek, a village in Branford, and the quarries on the shore still cut stone today. Off the coast, the Thimble Islands, a scattering of more than a hundred small granite islands, some with a single house perched on the rock, dot the water of Long Island Sound. Boat tours from Stony Creek wind among them in summer, telling tales of pirates, millionaires and General Tom Thumb, the famous circus showman, who is said to have courted a woman on one of the islands.
Read the complete Branford Center 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 about 208 km into the recorded legs. Next is Taconic Parkway Backroads food stop.
3. Milford
Captain Kidd, the pirate, is said to have buried treasure on Charles Island, off the coast of Milford, in 1699, shortly before his arrest and execution. Nobody has found it, but the legend lives on. The island is connected to the mainland at low tide by a sandbar, and you can walk across from Silver Sands State Park. Be careful: the tide comes in fast, and people get stranded every year.
Read the complete Milford 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 Taconic Parkway Backroads checkpoint 8.
4. Near Bayonne
The Kill van Kull is a narrow tidal strait between Bayonne in New Jersey and the North Shore of Staten Island, and it is one of the busiest waterways in the country. Enormous container ships, tankers and tugs squeeze through it on their way to and from the port at Newark and Elizabeth, passing so close to the shore that you feel you could touch them. Above it, the great steel arch of the Bayonne Bridge links the two sides.
Read the complete Near Bayonne write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Taconic Parkway Backroads checkpoint 8 closes the day. Next is Back to Taconic Parkway.
5. Back to Taconic Parkway Backroads
Planning note
Back at Back to Taconic Parkway. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Photo stop near Milford to Branford Center
Photo stop near Milford → Branford Center is 208 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.