Originally Posted by
Russ Roth
how much does it avoid actual roads? From what I can tell I've ridden sections around briercliff heading north but we've skipped out on other areas south for fear of traffic especially due to kids and not really knowing how interconnected these trails are.
If you rode north from Briarcliff you likely soon encountered what is normally the only road section of the entire trail, the few miles on the shoulder of route 100 between there and Millwood.
The one thing to keep in mind on the South County is that from around Barney Street at the northern end of Yonkers through Ardsley to the south side of Elmsford it is intermittently pretty bumpy, though Woodland's Lake is in there and rather nice. The connector through Elmsford built around three years ago eliminated the road gap there (still a sidewalk dogleg from the river up to the intersection and back to legally cross) and after another half mile you reach what they repaved last summer so it's then a very smooth ride up past the Briarcliff library to where you'd get on the route 100 shoulder.
Then again from Millwood you are normally off roads all the way to the new end a mile from the train in Brewster. Except that they might be finishing the last sections of re-paving, and immediately north of the bridge at Kitchawan they decided to stop letting a single lane over the old Sandy washout section and fenced it off, which means a quarter mile on the shoulder of the road until you can climb a short steep hill at Birdsall and rejoin the trail.
I think some of the nice rides would be between Elmsford and Briarcliff (maybe park at Eastview or Rt 117 and ride in both directions), possibly venturing down to Woodland's lake, that as a round trip would hit your distance. Or between Millwood and the parking lot just north of the Kitchawan bridge. Or (if you check the paving status) between Yorktown Heights and somewhere in Putnam county, maybe lake Gleneida before you descend the big hill...
Duchess county trail is also worth doing as you can combine it with the Walkway over the Hudson and get into the 30 mile round trip range.
Re. Tibbets, I've ridden in that way while looking for alternatives to Caryl Ave, the park loop itself is momentarily fun but you ride down a long hill to get into the park, and then you have to climb sharply to get from the park up to the trail.