Day thirteen, the catskills, upstate NY.

Stunning weather today with early morning temps mid twenties to a high of a bout 32 late afternoon. Has to be another one of our top riding days doing a circuit of Catskills Park, New York States primo tourist area and the spot they go for skiing in the winter.

I have to say, if any out of State ( or kiwi) riders are following this blog and are passing through NY state with a day up their sleeves, the ride we are posting today is a must do, this is a very picturesque and relaxing ride in some real cool country.

From last nights stay at Albany we had about 50 kms of interstate to get down to the Catskills, then pretty much headed west on Route 23A to enter Catskills Park on the well used “Mountain Cloves scenic byway” behind lots of cars and a bus. Initially we thought, oh no, Sunday drivers, this is the worst day to hit the Catskills, so we stopped at Tannersville for a caffeine injection to boost the tolerances for Sunday drivers. That pic of us parked in the village is Tannersville, a wee town with lots of Character. Marie’s head swelled as we cruised through Hunter, the next village and past Hunter Mountain, coincidently where they invented the snow making machine. Hunter Mountain is a glorified hill from Kiwi standards but man, it had some insane looking steep ski runs, not for the faint hearted I would think.

Once we were west of Tannersville, traffic seemed to disappear. We have noticed the USA folk love going out for brunch Saturday and Sunday so Tannersville must be their destination and that’s where the traffic ended. Awesome.

We followed the 23A as far west as Lexington, traffic down to nothing now so all good, then we took the 42 south over Deep Notch and down to Shandaken. Turned right briefly on on 28W, then very careful to catch the next road as it is not well sign posted and could be mistaken for a minor side road. Hung a left just past Big Indian onto Oliverei road, or Route 47 south. This is a narrower road closed in by trees and what an awesome motorcycle road, couple of pics of the 47 south posted below.

This has to be my pic of the better gently weaving motorcycle roads in the Catskills and although the speed limit is a bit lower, you can,t ride any quicker than the speed limit, more bikes than cars on this road, so the locals must also rate it as a good ride. It covers some 33 kilometers of superb riding from Big Indian through to Claryville.

From Claryville, we rode through to Grahamsville and just east of Grahamsville, hung a left on the 55A, Sundown road. This has to be the second best motorcycle road in the Catskills. narrower still than the Oliverei Road and a much rougher road surface, but through some gorgeous country with all the Carparks and hiking trails chocker full of cars, so again, popular with the locals. That pic of us stopping for lunch on the side of the road is somewhere in the middle of the Sundown Road.

Sundown road covers another 37 kms of slow but outstanding riding from Grahamsville through to West Shogan/Boiceville and is a must do ride in the Catskills.

At Boiceville , we took the 28 through to Phoenicia. Phoenicia is a cute as village but was packed to the gunnels with cars and motorcycles so we didn’t, bother stopping, took the 214 North over Stony Clove Notch and down the other side back to the 28, through Hunter and Tannersville where we had started off. A short ride down the interstate to Kingston was followed by a brief check in at the Rodeway Inn. This brief visit has now, coupled with some recent experiences at other Rodeway Inns, resulted in a team decision that Rodeway Inns are dead to us for the next 180 plus room nights remaining on the trip……

We repacked and moved down the road to something a tad more acceptable. I don,t know what type of people own these Rodeway Inns, the reception staff and managers are usually very obliging and nice to deal with and often embarrassed at what they are checking us in to, the owners are clearly absentee and just rape cash from these motels and put nothing back into maintenance and improvements. The state of the buildings must be an embarrassment to the Choice Hotel chain in many cases. When we go back to reception less than impressed with what we have been checked into, it is met with resignation, like it happens frequently. Some of the owners need to lift their game, don’t know how they survive. Three years ago on the West coast/ Rockies trip, we did not encounter the same problem with Rodeway Inns, maybe it’s an East Coast, West coast thing? Dunno.

Having had that bleet, moving right along to fellow riders, we met some US riders doing a bit of a roadie staying at the same hotel as us. Very interesting to talk to and these guys are looking at their next adventure being an off road east to west across some of the US and were asking about the Beemers and Triumphs. Horse got in first and tried to talk up the Triumph of course, actually for the off road trip they are talking about, the 800 Triumph or BMW would be better than the big bikes more than likely. Good value getting some good ride tips from these guys. We also met a couple and another Triumph rider down at the Kingston Plaza when we were stocking up on rehydration material. Chatting to them for ages, again great to catch up on the motorcycling exploits and local ride tips from local residents. We continue to enjoy chatting to local motorcycle enthusiasts.

Moving to the other coast, Mark and Tracey have been hitting the tourist spots in San Fran and met some fellow motorcycle tourers at Pier 39. Now these guys were touring from Mexico to Alaska. Horse is waaaaaay to late trying to talk up the Triumph 800 XCA with these savvy, well researched, astute, sharp as a tack, riders. I have posted a pic Mark sent me of the bikes they have chosen for this epic adventure they are in the middle of. All I can see are BMW’s in that photo, goes without saying………… not sure if there were any other makes out of shot somewhere, Mark would have been completely unbiased in his photo shoot I am confident, so if there was another brand somewhere stage left, I am sure he would have taken a supplementary photo? Eh Mark? I must admit though, there seem to be a lot more GS’s in the western states than over here on the East coast, she’s Harley country over here through and through. The Harley’s are great for the US economy though, there is a Harley shop in every town, no idea why the economy needs so many Harley shops? Is it for servicing needs, oil leaks, new belts? Not sure? Maybe I will need to research this and post the result of my research on a blog further down the track? Now there’s a project to keep me occupied on the odd day off.

Eggs over easy for breakfast in the morning.