Just a few days before the trip I had read that the Old Putnam Trail had been paved through Van Cortlandt Park up to the South County Trailway. That section had been an unpleasant experience back in 2016 when Sue and I had ridden this route, and since then I had been riding up along the bike lane on Broadway to a wickedly steep climb over to meet the Trailway. The new connection was smooth and flat, saving our legs for the rest of the trip.
I knew that the Trailway had been resurfaced since my last visit, and it was wonderful! I told my friend Lee about the many sinkholes and tree root cracks/bumps that used to mark this path, and the four-inch thick asphalt ribbon that weaved up through Yonkers up to Elmsford was quite an improvement.
A previous trip through here was in the reverse direction, so I apologized that I missed the new(er) connection to the North County Trailway, but I knew exactly where I was going and used the same detour Sue and I had used through the village to meet what was the original trailhead at the NCT's southern end.
We had a little "butt break" at the trail lot in Pleasantville, then rode down the winding Sleepy Hollow Road to meet the quirky trailhead for the Old Croton Aqueduct State Historic Park behind Sleepy Hollow High School. I love that their mascot is The Horsemen - check out the cool gameday photo:
We had to take a bit of a detour around Lyndhurst Mansion on Jay Gould's estate, as there was a craft fair taking place, but we easily found our way back to the OCA. The trees along the trail were not yet full of leaves, so we were afforded fantastic views of the Hudson River and the rocky Palisade on the Jersey side. At Dobbs Ferry we stopped to talk to Eddy, the resident historian at the Keeper's House.
Eddy was thrilled to hear where we were from, and was intrigued by the route we were pedaling from Ft. Lee and back. He said he loved the Philadelphia area, and I told him we were about a 1/2-hour northwest of the city, along the Schuylkill River. I quickly corrected myself, saying that phrase was repetitive, since Schuylkill means "hidden river", and he loved that fact, since New York has the Fishkill, Peekskill, Catskill, etc.
Before allowing us to get back underway, he insisted on taking our photo, as he said we "looked so badass". Maybe it's because I'm not a cell phone user and don't have that desire to take a picture of everything, but it didn't even occur to me to give him an email address or anything to share his pic.
From his bike Lee did snap this going-away shot of me climbing up away from our crossing of the High Bridge:
Regrettably, I've had so much repair and tune-up work this spring that I haven't had much time to devote to my own projects. I did squeeze in some time to finish off the Pogliaghi build, and it is now included, along with its specs, on my For Sale page. I'll say goodbye with some photographs of that bike:
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