Empire State Trail
Canada Border to New York City
Tour Highlights
The Essentials
Duration: 11 Days / 10 Nights
Terrain: Bike Trails & Rural Roads
Difficulty: Moderate
Hills:: Easy to Challenging
Total Miles: 420
Avg. Daily Miles: 40 - 55
Meals: 11 Breakfasts
Full Tour (Price Per Person):
Double Occ. $2589
Single Occ. $3389
1/2 Tour:
Double Occ. $1989
Single Occ. $2489
2021 Dates: Sept. 16 - 26 *** Tour is limited to participants for this inaugural tour!
The Empire State Trail is comprised of three separate trail systems, the Erie Canalway Trail which is the East-West spine of this system, and the Hudson Valley Greenway Trail and Champlain Valley Trail which together run from New York City to the Canada Border forming the full north-south axis. Unlike the Erie which is nearly all flat cycling on designated bike trails, the North-South Axis is hilly and is 60% on road cycling. This is a challenging ride, but those willing to tackle it are rewarded with the outstanding scenery of NY’s Northeast kingdom and remarkable experiences like incredible Ausable Chasm, historic Fort Ticonderoga and world famous New York City. Are you up for it?
Half Tour: Don't have time to ride the full tour? Join us for a 1/2 ride and choose to ride either the NORTH half: Rouses Point to Albany (5 Days / 4 Nights); or the NORTH half: Albany New York city (7 Days / 6 Nights).
Getting Here: Tour originates in Plattsburgh, NY. Free round trip shuttle available from Albany, or fly into Plattsburgh and out from NYC. There is no return shuttle to Plattsburgh.
Elevation Profile (see full itinerary for hill and elevation details)
2:00 PM - Pick up and Shuttle from Albany to Plattsburgh
7:00 PM - Trip orientation
Day 2 : Rousses Point to Ausable Chasm
Cycling: 40 Miles – On Road
This ride begins at beautiful Rouses Point Station which now serves as a visitor’s center. Enjoy great cycling with easy to moderate hills until we make our approach to Ausable Chasm where you can take an awesome adventure hike across several rope bridges, and a easy, but still thrilling, rafting adventure through the chasm!
Day 3: Ausable to Ticonderoga
Cycling: 55 Miles – On Road
With an early start, and the gumption to knock out 55 challenging miles, gives us the possibility of leaving enough time to visit historic Fort Ticonderoga, which played a significant role in the Revolutionary War.
Day 4: Ticonderoga to Fort Edward
Cycling: 55 Miles :: 43 Road / 12 Trail
Today’s ride is a no-brainer. It’s on the bikes for 55 miles of scenic cycling through this beautiful section of the northern kingdom of NY, including 12 miles on the Champlain Trail.
Day 5: Fort Edward to Albany
Cycling: 53 Miles :: 41 Road / 12 Trail
Today’s ride takes us to charming Waterford where we’ll get our first sampling of the famous canal systems which served not only to the prosperity of NY, but to the entire United States. From there we head to historic Albany where we make our stop for the night.
Cycling: 40 Miles :: 7 Road / 33 Trail
It’s all exploration today as the entire section has been under construction with an expected completion for 2021! If we’re lucky, we’ll be some of the very first cyclist to ride this new 40 mile section of the Albany-Hudson Electric Trail!
Day 7: Hudson to New Paltz
Cycling: 53 Miles :: 38 Road / 15 Trail
More beautiful cycling on rural roads today as we explore this area before hopping on the Wallkill Rail Trail to finish out the last 15 miles into New Paltz, our stop for the evening.
Day 8: New Platz to Brewster
Cycling: 54 Miles :: 7 Road / 47 Trail
Today our first 22 miles are on the Hudson and the Duchess rail trails, where we'll cycle the cool Walkway over the Hudson Bridge, then it’s on to the Maybrook Rail Trail which has a planned opening for 2021, which takes us just shy of Brewster for our evening stop.
Day 9: Brewster to Yonkers
Cycling: 45 Miles :: 5 Road / 40 Trails
With the exception of just a few miles we’re all on trail today, as we make our way to Yonkers along the North and South Country Trails and the Putnam Trailway, getting a few moderate climbs along the way.
Day 10: Yonkers to Battery Park Manhattan
Cycling: 25 Miles :: 5 Road / 20 Trail
It’s the home stretch as we knock out our last 25 miles which delivers us to Manhattan and famous Battery Park with spectacular scenery, easy access to the city and the option to take the ferry to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.
9:00 AM - Return Shuttle to Albany or departure to your home-bound destinations.
