kaos joe

I'm glad you survived.
I got this pic of your woodchuck's high altitude cousin in full charge in the Wind River Range. It was a close call. He almost got hold of that bag of goldfish in the foreground.

UniChris

Google translate renders "You kids get off my lawn!"

dendawg

We did our first ride up there Tuesday and parked at the Stormville parking. We noticed a bar and restaurant right off the trail just before Hopewell Junction. There are restrooms and I suppose fountains there. At Hopewell it becomes the Dutchess County trail.There are port-a-potties at all the parking areas. Fountains and restrooms and open and working at both sides of the bridge. Mosquitos were in plentiful supply. :-)
On our return east the trail marking got a little confusing past Hopewell and I went the wrong way twice, but that was easy to tell once I quickly wound up on a local street.

arbee

Yesterday, I biked from Brewster to Poughkeepsie. (Metro-North north to Brewster / south from Poughkeepsie) Some remarks about other comments in this thread.

In Brewster, just south of where the access path meets North Main St, Kobacker's Market IGA is larger than a deli / smaller than a supermarket.

Northbound from Brewster, approaching Holmes, if you leave the trail at Holmes Road (where the Pawling trailhead is sited) and continue north on NY292, Armando's Market & Deli is very adequate; actually, it's a bit better than that. I didn't think to ask about a public washroom; proof is left to the student. Continue north on NY292, left (west) on Beaver Brook Rd, and you'll rejoin the trail at a grade crossing. This detour is about a mile and adds virtually nothing to overall distance.

Worth a comment: these grade crossings at Holmes are the exception, not the rule. On this trail, many of the road crossings are bridges — either the trail bridges the road or the road bridges the trail.

If you're pacing yourself, Holmes (actually, slightly north of Holmes) is where this trail crests at a bit under 750'. Brewster's elevation is a bit less than 450' while Hopewell Junction is about 250'. The trail's grade between Poughquag (NNW of Whaley Lake) and Stormville (east of Hopewell Junction) exceeds 1.3%, unremarkable for an ordinary ride, but extreme for a rail right-of-way.

There are no benches for al fresco dining between Brewster and Hopewell Junction. Instead, at random intervals, frequently at pleasant spots to pause and contemplate the view, there are large quarried stone blocks. They don't look inviting, but I found them surprisingly comfortable to sit on, and they're invulnerable to vandalism.

Others have noted: there's apparently commerce north of the trail in both Green Haven and Stormville.

Shelter / tree canopy / trail maintenance: because of the width of the right-of-way, accommodating 2 tracks between Brewster and Beacon and 3 tracks between Hopewell Junction and Poughkeepsie, yep, lots of trees were felled. Further, between Brewster and Towners, the right-of-way crosses wetlands: massive engineering for the right-of-way, and not much anchorage for trees, then or now. Between Towners and Holmes, there were a number of downed trees. What would have blocked the trail had been cleared; some of what blocked the track was still there. I'm sure when rail service was active, particularly while telegraph and telephone wires paralleled the track, anticipating and preempting stuff like this was a major part of maintaining the right-of-way. Looking forward, unknown to me: who has ongoing responsibility for this work?

More about maintaining the right-of-way: my totally uniformed eyes suggest the track south of the junction with the Harlem Line (north of NY312) could sustain rail activity; elsewhere, not a chance. "Not a chance": there are spots where one of the rails has been displaced.

I last biked the Hopewell Junction — Poughkeepsie segment when only a tease of the trail north of Hopewell Junction existed. What was missing then: all the bridges that are there now including the major spans at Wappinger Creek / Manchester Road. I noticed yesterday that the tree canopy is much more extensive. Indeed, it's really a green tunnel. Mid-day under a summer sun, you'll be exposed, but that's an extreme.

Wildlife: not much worth a comment. I saw no whales in Whaley Lake. I skirted a substantial black rat snake (almost the width of the trail) that was crossing northbound as I approached Hopewell Junction.

Papa Tom

Thanks for this, arbee. I am heading out this weekend (10/16) on what might be my last overnight bike trip of the season and I was considering Hopewell to New Paltz as one of the possibilities. I have ridden all the sections of the Empire State Trailway south of Brewster and also much of the Dutchess and Hudson Valley Rail Trails that flank the Walkway Over The Hudson, but I wanted to add this piece to my "Been There" list anyway. It seems, from yours and other descriptions, that I won't be missing much if I choose my alternate ride instead and save this for a time I am already up that way.

I think it was the line about the snake that talked me out of it.

bktourer1

Has the Maybury trail been extended yet towards Danbury? Looking to ride from Danbury to Poughkeepsie in the Spring and then head North from there.

Steve B.

Was up here today in a car, travelling on Rt 6 from Brewster to Danbury. In general there seems to be a paved path alongside an existing railroad track heading east from Brewster. There is zero signage of any access to a bike trail from Brewster to the Ct/NY state line, which is as far as the trail was paved as far as I could see. In Conn., there is no trail and no sign of any construction for a trail, just a single train track along this stretch. So the answer as of Jan 2023 is there is no trail to Danbury at this time. FWIW, the online map Gaia GPS shows the "Maybrook Trail" as existing to the NY/CT border and stopping there.