Poughkeepsie NY – Southeast MA
May 29, 2023
(~257 miles)

We were up at 06:00 today, our last morning at the AirBnB.  We leisurely drank our coffee while packing up and rearranging the furniture back into its proper place. Today’s plan is to mosey back home, taking the scenic route along part of the NER Dutchess Housatonic Valley Ride and thence across northern Connecticut on back roads.

Route 9 was quiet this early on a holiday Monday after rolling just before 08:00, but we weren’t on it very long. We turned left onto small back roads to finally leave Poughkeepsie behind us for this trip. We rode by a small airport and cruised east one last time across the rural countryside of Dutchess County, drinking in the quiet rolling roads and bucolic landscape.  We recognized several places from our ride two days prior, passing through Beekman and Pawling and then linking up with the NER route to cross into Connecticut. See ya New York!

Just a couple miles past the state line in Sherman, we were pulling up to park in the near-empty lot of American Pie Company to get some breakfast. We arrived about 10 minutes before they opened at 09:00, so we just hung out for some downtime in the warm morning sun until the doors were unlocked for us.

I tried their breakfast burrito this time around, with home fries and spiced apples. It was hearty yet healthy-tasting, not too heavy, and it was delish. Char got the potato pancakes again and enjoyed it thoroughly. They really do a great breakfast here, and a visit wouldn’t be complete without splurging for a slice of their delicious pie for dessert! This time I tried the peach-raspberry flavor and it was scrumptious.

Bellies full, we emerged back outside into the beautifully crisp morning air. The temperatures were forecast to be milder today than the last few, only reaching into the 70s. This made for a much more comfortable riding day, as we mounted up and continued on our route up over Towner Hill, winding down into the Housatonic Valley.

After a quick jog on US 7, we crossed the river via Boardman Rd and ran some  quiet local roads to skirt busy New Milford. We zipped north away from town on the fun and rural Merryall Road for a few miles, passing several nice farms. Then we hit the little circuit up and around Iron Mountain Preserve, stopping for a quick photo of the countryside from elevation.

The route circled west and then east on CT 341 and back to join US 7. We spotted the lot for Kent Falls State Park and decided to pull in to check it out. It seems to be a pretty popular picnic spot, but it was still early in the day and not extremely crowded yet.

We used the facilities, then walked a few hundred yards through a small covered footbridge and up the paved path for a close-up look at the cascades. This is a really beautiful little park and waterfall! However, more cars started showing up, loaded with people, kids, canopies, and cookout supplies for their holiday picnics, so we didn’t dawdle.

Completing our break, we continued north on route 7 to Cornwall Bridge, where we turned east on CT 4 for an out-and-back to Mohawk Mountain. We zipped up the narrow and curvy access road to the summit area to take in the views for a few minutes. There were a few cars and another bike up there, and some people were enjoying the holiday weather with a small cookout.

We retraced our path back down to Cornwall Bridge and continued following US 7 north to West Cornwall. We bypassed the lovely covered bridge there and instead banked left to climb sharply up the bluffs on West Cornwall Rd, away from the river.  Another semi-circle to the west, as we wandered through the outskirts of Sharon and looped north back to 7.

At this point we broke from the NER route to head towards home more directly. We rode up 7 to North Canaan, then US 44 and CT 182 east for many miles. We cut down East River Road in Barkhamsted, a fun little BONE road wedged tightly between Peoples State Forest and the Farmington River West Branch. Emerging on CT 218, we rode a mile and pulled into one of the lots at Saville Dam on the Barkhamsted Reservoir. This is a popular spot for motorcyclists taking a break and getting photos. There were quite a few groups of riders here today.

After gawking at a few of the rarer motorcycle models we’ve seen come in for a landing, we geared back up. We continued in an easterly direction through Hartland , then over through Suffield on back roads, crossing the Connecticut River and I-91 in Enfield. To avoid the congested commercial areas along CT 190, we jogged south a bit on back roads to Ellington, including a stretch of gravel, then CT 140 to Stafford Springs.

From there it was easy cruising on through the remainder of Connecticut on the curvier sections of route 190 and 197. Then our familiar feeder route across northern Rhode Island and back home. Finished off our long weekend with some home cooking and a cold IPA!

This had been a great relaxing getaway for us, making the best out of a cancelled rally calendar slot. The trip logistics were super-easy with all the daily rides already mapped out for us on the New England Riders site. There was a minimum of planning and research for us to do in the busy days leading up to the journey (though I always manage to find something to tweak anyways).

We only rode half of the NER routes listed for this area, and there is plenty more to explore beyond those, include lots of hiking opportunities and other cool/historic attractions. Looking forward to future opportunities to enjoy and explore this Hudson Valley region.

 

Thanks again to Ed Conde for curating and providing these (and hundreds more) wonderful riding routes for free to all. Also, much thanks and credit to Charlotte,  for all the photos she manages to take from the pillion seat – they really help these journal entries come back to life and stay vivid in our memory.