Day 3 - 4 Borough Bike Tour, Miles and Miles of Bicycle Trails

We had a great experience today cycling through Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx. ( Sorry, Staten Island.  I know you're the one that always gets left out! ) The day started out cloudy but dry.  The roads from Middle Village to the Brooklyn Bridge were quite bike friendly.  We rode mostly on Bleecker (quiet, very few cars) and DeKalb (busier but with a well marked bike lane).  I think one of the things I like about cycling in the city is that it seems clearly understood that cyclists have a right to share the road with cars.  Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge on bicycle is a neat experience that I highly recommend.

Michael and I were joined today by our friend Dan Dunmire who will be with us until Roscoe.  Here are Dan and Michael on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Once in Manhattan, we crossed town (not a long way when you're that far downtown) and picked up the Hudson River Greenway.  We only rode it for a little way before stopping in the village to meet my cousin Eileen for coffee.  Some good coffee and muffins to get us ready for the rest of the day.  Here are Eileen and her son William outside the coffee shop.

We went our separate ways after that.  I headed straight up to Riverdale in the Bronx to visit my inlaws while Michael and Dan each went to visit friends in Manhattan.  We met up in the Bronx in the early afternoon to continue on our way.  We didn't do it together but we all followed the Hudson River Greenway trail for almost the full length of Manhattan.  It ends a little bit north of the George Washington Bridge and on street bike lanes take you the rest of the way to the Broadway bridge into the Bronx.

In the Bronx, we only rode a short way on city streets before picking up the Putnam Valley Trail in Van Cortlandt Park.  Here are Michael and Dan cycling on Broadway near 230th Street in the Bronx.



From Van Cortlandt Park, we followed the Putnam Trail to the South County Trail to the North County Trail.  It's rather astounding but, with just a handful breaks of not more than a mile or so, we followed cycling trails all the way from the Bronx to Yorktown Heights, some thirty miles to the north.  If you add on the miles ridden on the Hudson River Greenway trail, we rode over 40 miles on cycling trails today.  And the trails are in very good shape for the most part.  We left the trails at Yorktown Heights to head to Peekskill.  Unfortunately, it was around 5:30 by that time and storm clouds were rolling in.  We took shelter at a gas station/7-11 until the rain, thunder, and lightning had passed and then rode the remaining 4 miles to our hotel in Peekskill.

I clocked 68 miles for today's ride.

3 days down, 209 miles covered.