The High Point Carriage Road at Minnewaska

In the last days of August, the High Point Carriage Road, a historic 2.8-mile piece of the Minnewaska State Park’s carriage road network, officially re-opened to the public. On September 1, my friend Brian and I set out to explore the new road on bicycles.

Smiley Carriage Road
Smiley Carriage Road

We started at the Minnewaska parking area and rode on the Upper Awosting Carriage Road to Lake Awosting. From Awosting, the Smiley Carriage Road would connect us with the new High Point road. Although I’m a frequent visitor to Minnewaska, this was my first cycling trip on the full length of the Smiley Carriageway that was restored a few years ago.

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Tappan Zee GWB Bike Path Loop

Exploration and adventure are a necessity to living a happy a fulfilling life. Finding ways to inject that adventure into the daily grind can be tough and now with the snow gone I admit I’ve been feeling a bit of the post winter blues.

Tappan Zee Bridge Bike Path

I ride my bike a lot, it’s a big part of maintaining my sanity and fitness throughout the warmer months, that said I’ve been void of the motivation for rides on familiar mountain bike trails and the usual road loops have been lackluster. So, I got my ass in gear for a bit of exploration right out my front door.

Heading north from New Jersey it’s a quick 30 minutes up the Old Erie Rail Trail to the Tappan Zee bike path.

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Sterling Forest’s New Augusta Mine Trail

Over the last few years, it’s been interesting and enlightening to learn about people throughout the New York/New Jersey region who are constructing new mountain bike trails. Too often, we tend to take for granted that trails exist and don’t consider the amount of forethought, time, effort, and resources it takes to design and build them.

Sterling Forest Augusta Mine Trail

It’s been especially exciting to note the increase in mountain biking terrain along the state line, where riders at Ringwood State Park and Sterling Forest have been the happy recipients of excellent new trails. My friend Jason is a big fan of both and invites me along a few times a year.

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