This Department is conducted in the interest of Bicyclers, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject. Our maps and tours contain much valuable data kindly supplied from the official maps and road-books of the League of American Wheelmen. Recognizing the value of the work being done by the L. A. W., the Editor will be pleased to furnish subscribers with membership blanks and information so far as possible.
Copyright, 1895, by Harper & Brothers.
The course this week to be described is the third stage from New York to Albany on a reasonably slow plan of movement. The first two trips, which have already been described in the Round Table, are from New York to Tarrytown, and from Tarrytown to Poughkeepsie. The third stage then continues from Poughkeepsie to Hudson, a distance of somewhat over forty miles. Starting from the Nelson House, at Poughkeepsie, at the top of the hill running up from the river, the rider runs out of Poughkeepsie on the Albany Post Road to Albany, following the telegraph wires six miles to Hyde Park. From this point the run up to Blue Stores, altogether twenty-six or twenty-seven miles, the road cannot be mistaken, and over these twenty-seven miles it is as fine a stretch of bicycling journey as one could well desire. There are almost no hills, with the exception of a small stretch, which is rolling country and not difficult. The Madeline House at Red Hook is a good resting-place, and the rider on the journey passes through Staatsburg, Rhinebeck, Red Hook, Upper Red Hook, Cleremont, and thence, after a two-mile run, enters Blue Stores. From this point on to Hudson, a distance of eleven or twelve miles, there are more hills, though no very bad ones, and the road is not so good. It is six and three-quarter miles to McKinstryville. On leaving Blue Stores the rider should keep to the left around the hotel, and the road is then direct to McKinstryville. The road-bed is of clay, and is rather poor, though it improves as you approach McKinstryville. Out of McKinstryville the road runs direct to Hudson, about five miles away. It is sandy, with occasional bits of loam, and is by no means as good riding as from Poughkeepsie to Blue Stores.
It will be noticed by looking at the map that the best bicycle route, which is, of course, the Albany Post Road, keeps on the higher ground, somewhat back from the river, after leaving Staatsburg. This is the road that is, on the whole, wiser for the wheelman to take. It is, however, possible, and to one who is anxious to see the country and the places of historic interest, it would perhaps be more pleasant to turn to the left about two and a half to three miles out of Staatsburg, and run down to the river on the road marked as a fair bicycle road. This route can be followed without description by carefully studying the map. It keeps the Hudson in view most of the time, passes through Rhinecliffe, Barrytown, Annandale, Tivoli, East Camp, Germantown, North Germantown, Burden, Catskill Station, and runs into Hudson near the two best hotels in the town—the Worth House and the Hotel Lincoln. Furthermore, if the rider is making a trip to Albany by much slower stages, and thus giving himself time to make somewhat extended detours, he can stop along this road at Rhinecliffe, at Tivoli, and at Catskill Station, and make short trips across the river and into the country on the other side. Indeed, if the time is at his disposal, this is much the most interesting method to follow, and any wheelman who plans to take the Albany trip is vigorously urged to make it a matter of a week rather than of two or three days. There are good hotels at Tivoli; the Blue Stores Hotel at Blue Stores is a reasonably comfortable stopping-place. The points of especial interest along the way are Vassar College (1); Hudson River State Hospital (2); St. Stephens College (3); North Bay, where the first steamboat was built by Fulton and Livingston (4); New York State Reformatory for Women (5).
Note.—Map of New York city asphalted streets in No. 809. Map of route from New York to Tarrytown in No. 810. New York to Stamford, Connecticut, in No. 811. New York to Staten Island in No. 812. New Jersey from Hoboken to Pine Brook in No. 813. Brooklyn in No. 814. Brooklyn to Babylon in No. 815. Brooklyn to Northport in No. 816. Tarrytown to Poughkeepsie in No. 817.
