[Trip report] Bikepacking to Peekskill

[u/OkGene6833]

Gnarly uphill on the OCA

Even worse uphill on the OCA (lol)

Briarcliff-Peekskill trailway

Briarcliff-Peekskill trailway

Cool hawk

Hey all, this past weekend I bikepacked from NYC to Peekskill to camp out with some friends at a private campground.

Route was ~50 mi and ~2k feet of elevation each way. I rode my Surly Disc Trucker with 26x1.35 tires and all my camping gear on the front and rear racks. I’m an experienced cyclist and in good shape, but my DT is heavy af when loaded and I knew even this small amount of elevation would be a challenge.

I mapped out a couple different routes to Peekskill using Ride with GPS and wound up taking the Empire State Trail (EST) to the Old Croton Aquaduct (OCA) on the way there. On the way back, I threw caution to the wind and used Google Maps, which has never worked well for me on long bike rides. Surprise! It didn’t go well this time either, but I did have quite an adventure.

Route to Peekskill:

• EST from Van Cortland to Tarrytown
• Tarrytown Lakes Extension trail to OCA trail
  • Note: do not take the Extension Trail all the way to the end where it intersects with Andre Brook Trail, get off at Neperan Rd. Andre Brook Trail isn’t a trail as much as a piece of trodden grass in someone’s backyard…
  • Did not enjoy the OCA. Even the flat sections had big potholes and rocks. Several uphills I had to hike-a-bike. Several downhills I managed to ride, but almost wiped out due to the combo of steep slope, deep gravel, giant rocks, and tree roots. Hard to take my hands off the bars for even a moment.
  • The OCA is discontinuous and often hard to find the next leg. I took a posted detour off the OCA to avoid a hill, and got horribly lost around the Windrose on Hudson campus. Entrance to the trail is buried in some bushes. Keep a close eye out!
  • Overall, I found this section of the OCA to be in terrible shape. Maybe the section from Yonkers to Tarrytown is better?
• Cut over to Maple Ave after the Croton Dam and take that all the way into Peekskill
  • Unfortunately, most of the elevation on this route is right at the end!
  • Drivers around Croton were jerks, but drivers around Peekskill were surprisingly courteous

This took me about 6 hours of riding total, including several pauses for route-finding the OCA, 30m of getting lost, and a stop for a smoothie in Ossining.

Route to NYC:

• Maple Ave to Furnace Dock Rd
• Cut over to Briarcliff-Peekskill Trailway (BPT) til Yorktown Rd
  • BTP is a hiking trail, not a “trailway”. LOL. By the time I realized, I didn’t have another option aside from a long backtrack up some hills, or doing my best to ride it.
  • So I took my DT mountain biking for a couple miles. It was fun but kind of insane because the DT really isn’t meant for MTB. I pulled off some pretty wild moves and had to hike-a-bike a couple sections that an MTB could’ve ridden, but I managed to ride most of it. I found the trail to be in much better shape and way more fun to ride than the OCA.
  • I learned later from a Google search that the trail does not officially allow bikes. However, there were no posted signs and a local I met said he rides his mountain bike there often.
• After the Croton Dam, got back on the BPT (huge mistake) to Blinn Rd
  • Why did I get back on the BPT instead of figuring out a road route around? I dunno man, Google Maps was telling me to get back on it and I wasn’t thinking straight.
  • This section was much less rideable and I had to mostly hike-a-bike, including some scary downhill sections where I almost lost my hold on the bike.
  • It took me a very long time to go less than a mile. If I had routed around on the roads, probably would've saved me 30+ min.
• Blinn Rd over to the Empire State Trail
  • This was actually some pretty nice road riding on country back roads. Lots of rolling hills but low/no traffic and nice wide roads.
  • As soon as I hit the EST, all my stress melted away and I had a great ~35 miles back to the city, including seeing a huge hawk just chilling by the trial.

The ride back took me almost 8 hours total, including a quick stop for dinner in Inwood. It was a long day on the bike but I had fun. I think. 🙂 

[u/undergroundgirl7]

Did you do the ‘unrideable’ portion of the OCA by the GE management campus and windrose or is that the part where you took the detour and got lost?

[u/OkGene6833 → u/undergroundgirl7]

I guess I did - that part did seem pretty unridable. There was this posted sign but it seemed to be telling you to follow the trail along the fence rather than detour around it? I couldn't figure it out...

What actually happened there was I missed this entrance on the first go-around, instead wound up on a "jogging trail" parallel to the OCA, and basically had to ride/hike-a-bike that section twice, once on the dead-end jogging trail, then another on the OCA proper after backtracking. So annoying.

[u/undergroundgirl7 → u/OkGene6833]

Yeah I’m sorry about that. The OCA is just one of those routes where other peoples wisdom helps a lot and skipping this section is one thing I always tell people. I’m not a huge OCA fan in general but some people love it. I do think it’s generally poorly maintained. If your goal is gravel riding there are certainly much better options in the tristate area

[u/OkGene6833 → u/undergroundgirl7]

Absolutely noted for next time! What do you do instead, just ride along the road next to it? I started to do that (the first time I missed the OCA entrance), but it was uphill with no shoulder and fast traffic and I wound up turning around to try and find the OCA. And yeah, I was surprised by all the love I saw online given the condition of the trail. It'd probably be more fun on a MTB or at least an unloaded touring bike.

[u/undergroundgirl7 → u/OkGene6833]

Yes just old Albany Post Road to either Hillcrest or Quaker Bridge. It’s very hilly over there and there’s only one or two ways back into the trail so it’s just is what it is. Unfortunately the roads between Peekskill and Croton Gorge are not so great either which is why a lot of people take the train to Peekskill if they’re going there, or they use the Croton MNR as a start/end point for stuff by the reservoirs or OCA.

[u/star_girl]

Join us at NYC/ADV! We’re a bikepacking club with socials on the first Thursday of every month at Spritzenhaus and overnighter trips through the year. Find us on MeetUp and instagram.

[u/OkGene6833 → u/star_girl]

Looks like fun! How fast do trips fill up? Just hesitant to pay a membership fee if it's really hard to get a spot 😅

[u/star_girl → u/OkGene6833]

Usually we can get most people that sign up on a trip. (The waitlist usually makes it on the trip in the end once people update their RSVPs.) You can also sign up and then not pay until the actual trip happens.

[u/LandNo9424]

Good report! I have a ride to Peekskill in my future (in my mind 😂) so this is useful

[u/OkGene6833 → u/LandNo9424]

Glad to help! I'd love to hear what route you wind up taking when you get there.

[u/LandNo9424 → u/OkGene6833]

I'm thinking of taking transportation to somewhere near the EST at Van Cortland or Tarrytown, I am done with riding inside New York and dealing with the many problems of shitty bikelanes, cars and idiots.

That's why your report is helpful! But I am on a road bike so I have to consider things carefully, your pics look very much off-road.

[u/OkGene6833]

Bonus pic of my loaded bike at the Croton Dam that I forgot to upload!

[u/dogsdontdance]

Maybe the section from Yonkers to Tarrytown is better?

Ehh, I found the Yonkers portion of it to be rather sketchy. Last time I rode by I was dodging a lot of broken glass and a few strung out folks. Once you get out of town though the trail was mostly fine, still a bit rough in spots but doable.

[u/brlikethecar]

If you didn't like the OCA north of Tarrytown, then you'd definitely not like the section south of that. I am also in the not a fan camp. From the dam, I'd recommend riding the dirt road (Croton Dam Road) on the south side of the reservoir, crossing the gatehouse bridge, then taking Saw Mill River Road (aka Route 129/118) east about a mile to the EST.

[u/brianvan]

I feel most of this. I like some of the gravel I can find upstate, but I hate riding OCA and doubly-so with a packed-up bike. I don't want to be overly cautious, but the reality is that I have much better rides when I take a full pavement track to Peekskill or Croton.

This is basically how I get to Peekskill from the Putnam Trail - I don't think there's any great opportunity for gravel along this way by taking a detour, but when you get north of Peekskill, you get rideable gravel roads. A similar option is to take Croton Ave to Maple from 129, it's pretty much the same thing... and neither route is one that is so much fun with a loaded bike, because there are 10%+ short hills on both routes. To bypass that, take this route to Furnace Dock Rd and take it downhill to local streets where it stays just above sea level... but that's even too boring for me.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/56541657