Find the top rated bike trails in Windham, whether you're looking for an easy short bike trail or a long bike trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a bike trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
Sunny and warm July Sunday. Started from the handy parking spaces across from the Wurtsboro firehouse (corner of Pine St. and Canal St.) The informational signs in the little park back toward Sullivan St. are worth checking out before heading north on the trail.
The trail is really nice in that beginning stretch: some gravel, mown grass, hard dirt. Easy on a hybrid or mountain bike ... probably too rough for a road bike. Riding along the long-forgotten, but still totally visible, D&H canal is very pleasant. Some lengths of the canal itself are totally dry and filled with mature trees; other lengths have water. (We didn't stop to read them, but there is fun signage along the way that tells a narrative story about the area.) Mixture of shady tree coverage and open skies. Very, very nice!
BUT THEN! Big surprise. As the towpath crosses McDonald Rd and continues north, which is maybe only 1 mile from the start, the bike path is fully flooded by water and completely unpassable. This is due to a total blockage of water in the canal by a massive beaver dam. (This is right where a home, yard, and outbuildings are visible on the satellite view. And, yes, there are some scary dogs on long ropes ... that come lunging.) The beaver dam is interesting to see, but there is no way to continue on the towpath at that point.
It turns out that the Mamakating O&W rail trail also has an entrance right on McDonald Rd. We chose to ride that back to Wurtsboro. There is a supposed continuation of Mamakating that heads northeast (the satellite view shows it), and it might be possible to jump back onto the D&H trail on the other side of the beaver dam blockage. But the official listing for Mamakating shows that this length is not developed ... so we decided not to chance it.
The Mamakating trail back to Wurtsboro is a straight shot ... no problems. That unintended shorter loop was maybe 3 miles total. But worth it!!
Great ride through the shawingunk mountains ! Trail was great bikes were awesome ! What a beautiful day !!
Rough in spots but really nice ride !!! Would do it again ! Tough around the steep hill x2 , Tressel bridge !!! But nice scenery and cool breeze Pat and Kevin B
Throughly enjoyed the trail end of the trail needs some work otherwise an awesome ride !!!
Section from New Paltz (and maybe a mile or two below, I haven’t checked) to a mile or so north of the Rosendale Trestle is superb. Just after the Women’s Studio Workshop is an interesting historical furnace chimney. But then the trail comes apart - chunky gravel and hills I wouldn’t want to come down, leading to Williams Lake (saw lots of landscaping going on but no one using that end of it recreationally). I returned to the Women’s Studiovia the road.
Beautiful trail. Well maintained. Headed west from Henrietta first, a little secluded. Only went about 2 miles then headed east to lock 33. Felt safer going east. Full of exercise traffic… love to see that!
I rode the entire 24.7 mile southern portion of the Harlem Valley Rail Trail on a beautiful fall day. The HVRT offers everything you could want from a trail experience: a fully paved surface, mostly flat, beautiful scenery (especially in the Fall) and a perfect mid-point trailhead to grab a bite to eat.
I don't recall seeing any water fountains along the trail although the trailhead in Millerton offers many options for places to eat or resupply. The HVRT offers a myriad of scenery changes from farmland, quiet streams, distant hills to quaint towns. I have ridden many paved rail trails in the past and the HVRT is one of the best with almost no surface imperfections for the entire distance. There are many trailheads along the entire trail giving many distance options. All this adds up to a perfect trail in my opinion!
Map is 6 months out of date
Started 3 miles south of New Paltz & ride all the way to Kingston , plenty of places to eat & drink in New Paltz after that there is a farm brewery on your right going north & a little health food eatery in the middle of nowhere by a campsite on the left going north after that you come to get Rosendsle trestle , the mining caves ( you can feel the cold air mass as you ride by ) Once you get to Kingston you pedal via rroad to the town
Trail is all gravel so be careful ! It starts in the center of town in New Paltz goes into a field of green & a view of a mountain it’s ok but I would not do again .
Went from the Thuway area in Poughkeepsie over the walkway and ride to Hopewell junction .Nice trail well groomed , paved not much to look at but very cool what the volunteers did to the RR depot , signal house and pavilion, the depot museum was great . Went to Daddy O’s restaurant on the trail , good food . The NY empire trail continues along live tracks goes I believe quite far .
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