Reading the Moon Books guide book The Hudson Valley and the Catskills by Nikki Goth Ioki, I stumbled upon the Harlem Valley Rail Trail. Paralleling the New York-Conneticut border, the Trail follows an old railroad line that originated out of Harlem, New York. Riding my Gary Fisher hybrid with a trunk bag, we parked in the Harlem Valley Rail Trail Association‘s parking lot in Millerton and headed south towards Wasaaic.
The trail begins in my most beloved way: Cool, shady trees criss-crossing a babbling rocky creek lined with gorgeous homes.
Later there are moss-covered “cliffs” where rocks were dynamited to make room for the railroad. It is truly beautiful and so unique, how the layers of rock are visible.
Eventually pastoral greenery sandwiches you through green farmlands and forested hillsides. There were lots of honeysuckle, which at the time was all berries, but I imagined it to be a glorious perfumery in the spring.
Just over the hill is Connecticut.
There are lots of plaques and benches to inform you about the different former railroad stations. Copeland Station is well-developed with a large parking lot, signs, and a wheel-chair accessible porta-potty.
The trail meets up with Wasaaic Station at about mile 11. Contrary to what you might expect at a train station, there are no amenities. There was an operational pop machine (coin-operated) but no drinking fountains nor restrooms. Just a train platform. We noticed that a new bridge and trail extended past the train station that had not been noted anywhere (not even on Google maps yet!) so we continued on it for a bit before realizing it probably connects the town of Wasaaic to the train station. It was a lovely, cedar-smelling bridge.
Leaving this segment of trail for another time, we headed back. The scenery seemed more green.
Ending our ride, the milepost marker for the parking lot at the Harlem Valley Rail Trail Association is 92.5.
I noticed that active construction was taking place north of Millerton, so I’m hopeful that the segment south of Taconic State Park will soon be connected to this segment. If so, that will be a stellar ride. Don’t forget that the short trail on the New York side for Bish Bash Falls is at Taconic State Park.
Technical Notes: 22 miles round trip on a well-maintained asphalt trail. Despite a weekday during the pandemic, the trail was fairly busy with cyclists touring (with panniers), joggers, and pedestrians. Besides Copeland Station and a couple of other spots, there are not facilities directly on the trail. No bike maintenance kiosks. We didn’t investigate offerings in other towns, but it didn’t appear promising. Fairly flat, no elevation gain. Shaded for the most part. Street crossings have stop signs, but no flashing warning signals. We ate at Irving Farms coffee shop in Millerton which could have been great but they messed up Michael’s turkey sandwich by leaving off the turkey.
Notes from the Trail 