WHAT?
It’s a campout in our yard just outside the northwest corner of Catskill Park, about a three-hour drive from NYC.
Bring your friends and bicycles and get as much good riding in these bucolic foothills as you can.
The main event will be group rides Saturday and Sunday, with many challenging OR casual route suggestions available. We’ll bonfire and potluck grill Saturday night, probably a DIY taco bar so plan to bring your favorite tortilla filler. On Sunday everyone is invited to ride to a barbecue at our friends’ farmhouse a couple towns over, but no obligation. If you’re able to ride Monday as well before heading home, I usually suggest some routes that start from the Downsville Covered Bridge.
WHEN?
It takes place over the weekend preceding Memorial Day toward the end of every May since 2018, guests are welcome Friday evening May 23 through Monday afternoon May 26 this year.
WHERE?
Our yard is 19 acres on a hillside up a hollow between the villages of Walton and Hamden, close to dead center for Delaware County NY. There are plenty of flat areas for tents, hammocks, or vans. I’m working on a map of campsite suggestions for our property, but please respect that the main house will be accessible for family only. There are two barn structures available as shelter in case of bad weather. Potable filtered well water, a portajohn, a garage fridge, and a grill will be available to all.
ROUTE DESCRIPTIONS
Classic Memorial Day Weekend 40/50/60-mile Routes
(Walton / Trout Creek / Masonville)
This is the loop through the northwest corner of the county that we’ve ridden for this event the last three years. The middle third includes some snowmobile, horse, and powerline trails, gravel state forest logging roads, and old red dirt stonewalled farm roads. The paved sections are all pretty great as well. I consider it a well-curated circuit of seldom trafficked roads (especially by cyclists) with great scenery, ambitious climbing and descending, and solid shorter “bailout” options. If this is your first year attending and you are an experienced self-supporting rider with beefy tires looking for a big day on a variety of surfaces, I highly recommend this option.
The drawbacks on this route include a near total lack of cell phone coverage for most of the day (save an offline map of the area on your device, in addition to the route GPS files). There are also no amenities or conveniences, no aid or refill stations, no bike shops, not much civilization at all between farms and forests. Pack a lunch or pick up something to carry in Walton at the beginning of the day, and bringing a water filter is a good idea as well.
ALSO: for each of the last two years on this route there has been one day-ruining injury on the same loose gravel downhill section called Mormon Hollow State Land Spur in Steam Mill State Forest. Just beyond the intersection where the 40mi route option splits away, it is a fast and winding 220ft descent over a half mile around -12% grade at the steepest, with ruts and large stones to look out for as well. Control your speed and never hesitate to dismount and walk through any section that feels uncomfortable.
The overlay on this site shows the options to cut 20 or 30 miles off the 60-mile route, but if those don’t work out Hwy 206 is the ultimate bailout: frequent car traffic and a few big hills still, but a wide graded shoulder that leads directly toward cell coverage and to the hospital and urgent care clinic in Walton Village.
All-Terrain-Bicycle Routes (Bear Spring Mountain)
Due to the challenges and remoteness of the Classic MDW route, I wanted to offer an alternative that stays closer to home base with more cell phone coverage but still includes as much fun hard stuff as possible. At the top of the ridge just above John Lockwood Rd sits over 7000 acres of Bear Spring Mountain Wildlife Management Area and Campground. From the park entrances on Hwy 206, there are several trail options, some great gravel descents, a couple large ponds suitable for swimming if there’s enough sun, and a fun bar and restaurant on the far side called Rainbow Lodge.
To get up to Bear Spring Mtn park, the ATB route begins with a monster climb on Colchester Mtn Rd, about 950 vertical feet on increasingly steep pavement over 2.5 miles, to an intersection with gravel Wood Lane at the top. From there another 150ft of unpaved climbing passes the dead end of Wood Lane onto a wide grassy trail across a private parcel’s easement into Bear Spring, and over the ridge to the main park entrance on Hwy 206.
Family Rides (River Road and Restaurants)
The ATB route suggestions all pass Rainbow Lodge bar and restaurant later in the day, where there’s a long food menu and short draft list as well as great scenery across an 8-acre pond with a dock and a fish food dispenser. If timing and coordination worked out right, riders on the 25-mile family ride straight to Rainbow and back could potentially rendezvous there with other routes coming off the mountain.
I initially put this family ride idea together for Easy Uncle Jay and his daughter Orly. It passes by Bridge St in Walton village about four miles from Lockwood Rd, where several more restaurant and shopping options can be found as well as a nice gravel loop around a riverfront park with a pedestrian covered bridge, boat launch, and picnic tables. West from Walton a quiet road follows along the river basin until it ends at an intersection with Highway 10. That’s followed by two and a quarter miles on the highway shoulder, but it’s a quiet section of 10 as well. The route is fully paved but there are some opportunities on the Rainbow Lodge side to check out a section of the Finger Lakes Trail on the old railbed, and an abandoned road from Rock Rift, one of several towns flooded for the Cannonsville Reservoir.
Also listed among the more casual ride suggestions is a 13-mile ride to Hamden and back, to visit the General Store in the afternoon or the bar and restaurant at the Inn in the evening. There’s a historic covered bridge in the hamlet that’s still active for cars, and a nice riverfront park spans both sides of it. A casual 30-mile route suggestion takes you further across the Hamden Bridge and out Back River Rd to the village of Delhi before returning, with many more opportunities there to eat, drink, and shop.
A real gem in Delaware County is the 26-mile unpaved Catskill Scenic Trail along the old Ulster & Delaware railbed, through a half dozen quaint villages. But with the western terminus about 23 miles from Lockwood Rd, it’s not very feasible to include in a casual bike-only day ride. If one were to drive to the trailhead in Bloomville though, you’d be able to stop along the way for a meal in Hamden or Delhi. You won’t need GPS on the rail trail, but I included a route link just to illustrate that a trip from Bloomville to Stamford and back is about 12.5 miles in each direction, with the elevation gain so gradual that won’t notice climbing it but you’ll feel like you’re really cruising on the return.
Soon, I’ll add more descriptions of ride options for the weekend: to our friends’ BBQ on Sunday in Delhi, the Monday bonus ride ideas from the Downsville Covered Bridge parking lot, and perhaps an overnight option to bike-camp between here and the Hudson Valley.