Riding south from East Syracuse to Port Jervis NY
Starting off from Old Collamer Road South in East Syracuse, where there is an abundance of reasonably priced motels and restaurants, we headed south along our diligently planned route to Port Jervis, NY.
Little did we know that there was no way on earth that you can plan a route on your computer, download it to your GPS, and have the GPS follow that route exactly. My wife calls GPS' MOHO (Mind of her own) and after this trip, the description is à propos. The original plan was to ride to Cazenovia then take a number of State and County roads in a relatively straight route to Port Jervis. |
The ride to Cazenovia was direct and easy. However, once we got to Cazenovia, the GPS showed its propensity for not following directions. Detours, road realignments and just a change in choice, drove our GPS' nuts. No matter what choices we made, we could not get either GPS to follow pre-planned routes, or even plan solely for tertiary roads.
I reality, if you have the time, it doesn't matter what roads you take in this part of New York State, as long as you're on a County or State road and not a highway or Interstate, you're going to have fun.
The vast majority of roads are in good shape and a lot had been recently resurfaced. None of the roads were straight, flat and boring and none had the arbitrarily low speed limits like you find on almost all of the roads in Ontario.
What we ended up doing was picking a small town on our map of New York that was in the general direction we wanted to go, and along that route, we would pick a road that looked inviting, and drove down it. We then used our GPS' to get is back on track.
D&D Diner Sherburne
Food is very important on any trip and I have a thing for local fare from Mom and Pop operations. I find that small independent operations genrally give you the best food, atmosphere and price.
The D&D Diner in Sherburne didn't disappoint. Everything was as hoped, great food, great service and above all...Great Price!
The D&D Diner in Sherburne didn't disappoint. Everything was as hoped, great food, great service and above all...Great Price!
Cooperstown Airport
If you are into motorcycle camping, you may want to take advantage of the camping available at the Copperstown Airport on Route 166. This is a quaint little private airfield that offers full service camping.
The final route we took looked very similar to the route shown on Google Maps to the right.
The one part of the route the was a bit of a mess was when we went south down CR 6 (Spruceton Rd.) from SR 42. Our trusty GPS' show this road as a through road. But, within 20 minutes we found the road went from a decent 2 lane paved road to a mud packed mule trail. Al, my riding partner, was always concerned about vehicles/trucks, coming around blind curves on the wrong side of the road. Here, it came to a reality and I just missed a head-on with a delivery truck. I've posted the video on Youtube. |
The one part of the route I absolutely recommend is Reservoir Road through Ashokan Reservoir near West Hurley NY. Cutting its way through a tunnel of trees, Reservoir Road is smooth and the scenery is breath taking. There is no need to push the envelope to enjoy a ride here. A relaxing speed will give you plenty of enjoyment for well over an hour without exhausting the rider.
Once at Port Jervis you find a quaint and quiet former railroad town bordering on the Hudson River and Pennsylvania.