Last weekend I ended up in Millerton, a quaint town in the northeastern corner of Dutchess County. It's on the Harlem Valley Rail Trail route and it was nice to see a number of bikers eating a local restaurants at lunch.
The Harlem Valley Rail Trail runs through town, which connects Wassaic from the south, through Millerton towards Hillsdale. Fun fact, if you are coming from NYC you can take the Metro North to the end of the line in Wassaic and bike to Millerton for a day trip (it's about an hour ride). The goal is to eventually connect all the way up to Chatham in Columbia County.
The trail entrances in Millerton were worth a few photos because of their design. The divider between north and south had some nicely landscaped medians. Furthermore, the curb around the divider was gently sloped to prevent your pedals from hitting a sharp curb. Details like this are important and when done wrong can cause major safety issues.
I also noticed a some other good elements of this trail head which were bike friendly, and some that not very bike friendly. One nice element was a sign advertising a nearby tapas bar. Another was a bike rack. While a bike rack is better than no rack, the ones where you put the wheel through can damage your front tire and are generally not very theft-proof. Here is a guide of what racks are best to install.
That being said, some elements of this crosswalk seemed strange for a cyclist. In below photo, you will see what is called a "Rapid Rectangular Flashing Beacon" aka RRFB. It is a push button activated flashing sign that alerts drivers when wants to cross the street. When you press the button, the rectangular lights up top start flashing to alert drivers a cyclist or pedestrian is crossing the street. I found the location of this somewhat confusing. You would want to press the button as you are biking on the right hand side of the photo, not cross over to the opposite direction of the bike lane to press button to to get the lights flashing.
Push buttons, aka "beg" buttons because should be placed at the spot at which someone would want to cross, not on the opposite side...Oh well. Except for that it seemed like a decent treatment. Small details are important.
Even on the Federal Highway Administration's RRFB Info Sheet shows an RRFB on the right side of a trail crossing, not the left.
After nerding out on rail trail entrance, I ate lunch at Oakhurst Diner, which like many in the Hudson Valley (e.g. West Taghkanic Diner) has been hipsterfied. I got some excellent chicken tacos and I saw many others had ordered the Vietnamese Pho Beef Soup, which smelled appetizing, and probably tasty after a long bike ride.
Also right next to the rail trail is Harney and Sons, a well-known tea purveyor in Dutchess County. Their shop has a cafe attached and people were eating attractive salads and sandwiches. I got a $7 matcha lemonade, which was expensive, but very good.
Overall Millerton was worth exploring!
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