Believe it or not, I found trails to ride my mountain bike on in New York City! On Manhattan Island no less! And yes, I did ride the bike a few times between Wisconsin and New York. Let me explain…
Driving from Chicagoland to State College, Pennsylvania. I decided not to stop for the sights instead opting to drive into the next few states and get away from the city traffic.
We’re looking at eleven hours of road time to State College, and that’s with an overnight stop in Sylvania, Ohio to see my pal Kevin. We even went for a quick ride through his neighborhood!
Driving on to State College, I was impressed with the beauty of the farmland, the rolling hills, small towns, and winding rivers. So much vegetation!
State College is the home of Penn State. It also hosts Galbraith Gap – a trail system that I spent almost no time on because it was dumping rain all day and it was STILL super warm and humid!
Driving on to New York City. This was a three-night stop on the trip and probably the biggest event on my journey. You see, Billy Joel was playing his very last show of his residency at Madison Square Garden. My Brother and friends met me in town to see the show! This was nothing short of incredible.
Yeah, I cried a little.
We enjoyed the town’s nightlife, grabbed some New York bagels (they were fine, Iguess), and I was able to grab a rental commuter and ride around town a bit. America has some big cities, but none of them can hold a candle to New York.
On our last day I packed up and pulled my bike out of the 4Runner. I rode a few blocks to Highbridge Park, at the north end of the city, near the George Washington Bridge.
This place has a small but pronounced trail system that winds over the ridges and under the trees. It’s not the cleanest place I have ever ridden, but I was expecting a lot less than what it delivered. This place was pretty cool.
