Beautiful Winter Trail - - - Brian Z does an awesome job of grooming.

I have yet to find a similar trail since I moved to NJ. I am always trying to get back there!

Lovely trail, basically new, along the Ashokan reservoir. Flat with crushed asphalt surface that is well maintained and not particularly crowded. Good parking areas at either end and in the middle. Most of the trail is slightly hidden from the reservoir and travels through dense forest. This is what all rail trails should be. The highlight of my 300 mile Catskill bike trip last summer!

I rode my hybrid bike (no suspension, drop bars, 700c tires) from the trailhead at Simpson to Luciana Park in Lanesboro. I carried two 24oz water bottles, a full gallon of water in a jug, and some tools/spare parts (which were fortunately unnecessary). I tracked the ride with Strava, and all the data presented here is based on information recorded there. Before reading the rest, let me say that this is the first trail I've completed, and I plan on trying to do it again next year (unless I get too busy trying other trails)

I did the ride from south to north because the trail is a really nice crushed gravel from Simpson to Ararat. This section of the trail is 18.6 miles long and mostly uphill (starting at 1146' above sea level at Simpson, and peaking at 2057' in Ararat). All in all, I barely noticed the uphill climb for most of the length of the ride. There are some nice spots to stop and take pictures, including a few bodies of water, some bridges, and there is the sandwich shop in Union Dale that's got really good food.

North of Ararat, the trail is much rougher, and much easier to deal with going downhill (Luciana Park is 919' above sea level, 19.8 miles north of the trail's high point). There are sections that have been greatly improved from loggers leveling the trail to get their equipment through, but there were also spots I had to get off my bike and walk.

I think the northern half of the trail has much more to offer as far as the scenery goes. Especially between Ararat and Starrucca, and of course the Starrucca Viaduct (at Luciana Park) is worth seeing at least once. Hopefully the northern half of the trial is upgraded sooner rather than later.

Overall, the trip took me 5+1/2 hours, including about an hours worth of breaks spread throughout (including a meal break in Union Dale). I did end up drinking a little over a gallon of water over the course of the ride. Due to the lack of suspension or padding, my wrists were fairly sore by the end of the ride.

Smooth trails all around. Mostly shaded area. Highly recommend any skaters to trail skate here.

We have been riding this trail for about the past 10 years. Our first time out, we started out at the Hialeah trailhead. Will not do that again. Only for the younger, more adventurous mountain biker, not older geezers like my buddy and myself. Now, we start at the trailhead near Bushkill. We bike out 12 to 15 miles and come back. Nice views of the Delaware. Trail is pretty well-maintained. No skinny tires recommended for this trail. Also not recommended for riders looking for a "smooth" ride.

This is not really a one long trail but a series of segmented trails. While the beginning of each segment is marked with an "OCA" post, at the end of most segments there is no indication about where to find the next thread of the trail. Often you have to go through busy suburban streets to make the connection, some of which are quite dangerous. Other reviews recommended using GPS on your phone, but Google maps only indicates where the various trail segments are and it is difficult to find out how they connect. My friend & I attempted to do the northern half of the trail from Tarrytown up to the Old Croton reservoir. When you get to the Clearview School in Scarborough, you have to ride on a very busy Rt. 9, which has no shoulder, until you can take up the trail on Scarborough Rd. When we got to Ossining, the trail ended with no indication how to continue, so we again had to ride on Rt. 9. Then my friend hit a broken drainage grate on the side of the street, which was covered with leaves so that she could not see the gap in the pavement. It threw her head-first onto the asphalt. She was knocked out for several minutes, had a concussion, was bleeding profusely and nearly broke her neck. I called an EMT which took her to a hospital, where she stayed for two days and had stitches to her face and several tests. She was lucky she was not paralyzed (thanks to wearing a helmet). Exercise GREAT caution if you take the Ossining part of the trail. Some of the other segments are O.K. but some of them are just like riding through peoples' backyards.

Renovation wrapped in early November. The revamped and now paved Jones Point path is great, used it today. Quiet, scenic, and much gentler than the steep up and downs on the parallel segment of 202/9w. This makes the 9w corridor my favorite way to bike to Bear Mountain overall now. It's that good.

Very nice!