Boris
Well-known member
First off, what exactly are Berks anyway? And why go there? And on What?
I've gone riding in this area a few times in the past. Mostly a long day trip, or part of a trip through. I vaguely understand this area as an area of western Massachusetts, and it's always been a nice ride.
The Berks actually seem to extend down into northwestern Connecticut, as well as north into Vermont.
My fiancee and I were looking to do a trip with a couple overnights. This would be her first multi-day trip as the passenger, and some of her longest days on the bike. The format would be a little bit different than trips I usually take. To make sure we had a place to stay that we knew ahead of time, we ended up booking a hotel for two nights, and planned our ride around being there. The NY Metro Dirt TOR was also up in this area, and had been for a while, so we decided it would be a good opportunity to grab that.
And the ride of choice was the passenger-friendly but also back-road friendly ST1300
This report is missing lots of road pictures, but I want to record this trip for myself anyway.
Day 1
Half day of work wrapped up, we headed out on some local roads, trying to avoid highways as much as we could
I am forever grateful for the roads that I have accessible close to me. We started by winding through the roads around the reservoirs local to us, but this time was different because we didn't have a "turn around" point hanging over our heads. We rolled north along the classic roads, heading towards Harriman. I expected any roads to be open at this point, and we easily scooted through there and across Bear Mountain bridge.
This was my first time with both a loaded bike and the passenger. Slow-speed maneuverability was a bit more of a challenge, and I had to be more careful on the really tight roads, but generally the ST1300 handled it well.
We finally made it out to Peekskill, where we had to stop for gas. Unfortunately this is the only gas station shot I got on this trip. The rest of them didn't feel depressing enough.
From this point, we were winging it a little. The goal for dinner was Kent, CT. A wonderful area that I've been to before. I knew (hoped) we would be able to get a good meal there. It's also the entry point to one of my favorite roads, US Rt 7 through CT. But first we had to get there. By this point it was the evening commute, and I'm not familiar with this area of NY during the commute. We started out on Rt 6, which ended up being a drag on a touring bike. Single lane traffic, hitting every light. Sweating from multiple sources. Not my favorite. At some point I saw a road that looked somewhat passable on the GPS, and turned Right towards Croton Falls Reservoir. Finally some nice riding. The road opened up, and we were finally able to carry some speed.
By this point dinner was our target, so I didn't stop at the dam or really anywhere else until we got to Kent.
I always get a little bit of culture shock when I leave the super populated areas I'm used to. It was a beautiful spring Friday at 5:30PM, and several restaurants were closed. I guess it's still technically before the tourist season. That's OK because the Kingsley tavern was open.
I'd stopped here before, so I knew we would be in for a good meal.
Tuna Tostadas
Burger from the farm that owns the restaurant. I'll take it.
The meatloaf was amazing.
And chocolate cake #1
We started up US 7. The stretch north of Kent (actually north of New Milford, CT) is one of my favorite roads in the area. It's especially good for sport touring, and it's beautiful. There are plenty of nice roads off of it as well in western CT, but we had no time for that now. We didn't have as many stops or road shots on this trip, so you'll just have to take my word for it. It was getting dark, and we had to boogie.
We did stop for a few minutes at Cornwall covered bridge, to enjoy the general scenery.
The week was starting to catch up with us, and it was getting darker and colder. We made our way the rest of the way north to the hotel for the night.
I've gone riding in this area a few times in the past. Mostly a long day trip, or part of a trip through. I vaguely understand this area as an area of western Massachusetts, and it's always been a nice ride.
The Berks actually seem to extend down into northwestern Connecticut, as well as north into Vermont.
My fiancee and I were looking to do a trip with a couple overnights. This would be her first multi-day trip as the passenger, and some of her longest days on the bike. The format would be a little bit different than trips I usually take. To make sure we had a place to stay that we knew ahead of time, we ended up booking a hotel for two nights, and planned our ride around being there. The NY Metro Dirt TOR was also up in this area, and had been for a while, so we decided it would be a good opportunity to grab that.
And the ride of choice was the passenger-friendly but also back-road friendly ST1300
This report is missing lots of road pictures, but I want to record this trip for myself anyway.
Day 1
Half day of work wrapped up, we headed out on some local roads, trying to avoid highways as much as we could
I am forever grateful for the roads that I have accessible close to me. We started by winding through the roads around the reservoirs local to us, but this time was different because we didn't have a "turn around" point hanging over our heads. We rolled north along the classic roads, heading towards Harriman. I expected any roads to be open at this point, and we easily scooted through there and across Bear Mountain bridge.
This was my first time with both a loaded bike and the passenger. Slow-speed maneuverability was a bit more of a challenge, and I had to be more careful on the really tight roads, but generally the ST1300 handled it well.
We finally made it out to Peekskill, where we had to stop for gas. Unfortunately this is the only gas station shot I got on this trip. The rest of them didn't feel depressing enough.
From this point, we were winging it a little. The goal for dinner was Kent, CT. A wonderful area that I've been to before. I knew (hoped) we would be able to get a good meal there. It's also the entry point to one of my favorite roads, US Rt 7 through CT. But first we had to get there. By this point it was the evening commute, and I'm not familiar with this area of NY during the commute. We started out on Rt 6, which ended up being a drag on a touring bike. Single lane traffic, hitting every light. Sweating from multiple sources. Not my favorite. At some point I saw a road that looked somewhat passable on the GPS, and turned Right towards Croton Falls Reservoir. Finally some nice riding. The road opened up, and we were finally able to carry some speed.
By this point dinner was our target, so I didn't stop at the dam or really anywhere else until we got to Kent.
I always get a little bit of culture shock when I leave the super populated areas I'm used to. It was a beautiful spring Friday at 5:30PM, and several restaurants were closed. I guess it's still technically before the tourist season. That's OK because the Kingsley tavern was open.
I'd stopped here before, so I knew we would be in for a good meal.
Tuna Tostadas
Burger from the farm that owns the restaurant. I'll take it.
The meatloaf was amazing.
And chocolate cake #1
We started up US 7. The stretch north of Kent (actually north of New Milford, CT) is one of my favorite roads in the area. It's especially good for sport touring, and it's beautiful. There are plenty of nice roads off of it as well in western CT, but we had no time for that now. We didn't have as many stops or road shots on this trip, so you'll just have to take my word for it. It was getting dark, and we had to boogie.
We did stop for a few minutes at Cornwall covered bridge, to enjoy the general scenery.
The week was starting to catch up with us, and it was getting darker and colder. We made our way the rest of the way north to the hotel for the night.