A Ride to the Orchard

It was the last good ride of the season. At least, that’s everyone’s guess. Creeping in on Halloween, this is the time of year when many New York riders begin to either winterize their bikes or pull out the lined chaps and heated gloves. Woodstock Harley Davidson decided to host a “Two Hour Tour”, a charity ride for Children’s Hospitals in conjunction with the Red Knights. The ride took us from the Woodstock HD dealership on NY-28 through the winding county roads of Ulster for about 40 miles before ending up at Angry Orchard. If you’re someone who loves the twists and turns of country roads, this is one of the best areas to ride. This little tour took us up Mohonk Road to Mountain Rest Road, climbing the steep, serpentine hills through the Mohonk Preserve Area and down towards New Paltz. We took a straight shot along Butterville Road to Albany Post Road, sinking deep into the thickest parts of the flaming autumn reds and oranges, the leaves churning and swirling into pools of floating color behind us.

Of course, the trip there was only half of the “Two Hour Tour”. Coming back, we had a much smaller group, and for the weather, it wasn’t such a bad thing. The rain hit us while we were winding down the mountainside, spitting rooster tails of liquid from our rear tires as we navigated a path back to Woodstock. Thankfully, the rain let up by the time we hit Ellenville, but the decision was made to forego the initially planned route and take a straight shot along 209, just in case we got caught up in another downpour. 

Having ridden through the midwest, the southwest, the far west and just plain out west, I have been thoroughly impressed with the consistency of fun rides that take place on the roads of the east coast. All around the Hudson Valley and heading upstate, the paved pathways in and out of the forested hills seem to have been made with motorcycles in mind. Sure, you can get from point A to point B on a nice and easy straight away, but when you want to have a good time, the lanes are always cleverly hidden just outside of those easy linear pathways, waiting for someone to come through and carve them up with his or her two wheeled dream machine.

I know this isn’t the last ride of the season for me, but that’s only because I’m one of those knuckleheads (see what I did there?) who bought a set of lined chaps instead of a winterization subscription for my bike. However, for those dealership sponsored rides, this was a great way to end the year. The ride was fantastic, the group was great and the views were absolutely gorgeous. While there were enough leaves left on the trees for an appreciably beautiful view, there were enough trees with their summer coats missing to guess that, in another week or two, it’ll be nothing but conifers and skeletal branches waiting to wear their winter whites. For my readers out there, there’s still plenty of two wheeled adventure to get us through.