Winter Ride to It’s Coffee via the Bear Mountain Bridge

The Ride

Every time I get a chance to ride the new F900GS, I’m ecstatic.  I’ve been very impressed by the bike & while it is down on capacity vs my last GS, the lower weight actually makes the bike feel more agile in the twisties.

Today was no different with my anticipation for the day’s ride.  However, it was a bit chillier & the first bit of winter riding with this particular bike.  As I plugged in It’s Coffee in Stony Point, NY, it was around 35F.  With the Beeline compass indicating 19.9 miles in a straight line to my destination on the other side of the Hudson River, I was clearly going to have more distance to cross over the river.

Given the location of Stony Point, I had two options for a river crossing: I could head south to take the Tappan Zee Bridge between Tarrytown and Nyack, or I could head north to the Bear Mountain Bridge.  Between the two, I’ll choose the Bear Mountain Bridge every day and twice on Sunday.  It’s a lot more fun to follow those roads to get there than the more densely populated parts of Westchester County if I took the Tappan Zee.  I plugged in the Bear Mountain bridge as a waypoint in the Beeline, and the compass now pointed slightly more north with less distance.  See our article on discovering new roads with Beeline.

I headed north on Route 121 out of my starting point in Cross River & then as the arrow urged me to head west, I switched to Route 138, crossing the Muscoot Reservoir and Interstate 684 before the road ended at Route 100.  Faced with a road heading only north or south, I headed north for about a mile and then made a left near the Elephant Hotel in Somers, passing Bobo’s Cafe, which we’ve reviewed in an earlier trip.

Past Lincolndale, I had to get onto Route 6 to head West.  It’s not the most scenic, and the multi-lane road isn’t all that fun to ride either, so I took Strawberry Road to get onto some side roads that could be more fun as I wound my way to the river.

A few back roads led me to Route 6/202, which leads up to the Bear Mountain Bridge.  This is a popular road for local motorcyclists, passing Camp Smith at river level and then beginning the climb up the hills on this side of the river, winding back and forth as it approaches the eastern terminus of the Bear Mountain Bridge.

Once across the bridge over the Hudson River, I turned left, passing the Bear Mountain Inn on my right and continuing along Route 9W.  As the road passes Iona Island, it turns and climbs one of the hills on the western side of the Hudson River, then descends into Tomkins Cove and finally into Stony Point.

I missed the entrance of It’s Coffee as the sign was so small I didn’t notice it at first, so I had to make a quick U-turn.  Once there, I found some parking in the back and shut the bike down & walked toward the entrance.

Rever had recorded my actual distance as 39.1 or about a 2X detour index. Anytime there is a river crossing, the detour index typically increases significantly relative to the Beeline straight-line distance. See the route below.

The Coffee Shop

In Rockland County, Stony Point gets its name from an outcropping into the Hudson that has a lighthouse to guide ships away from danger.  Washington used a ferry to cross the Hudson during the war & a great battle was fought here to secure the area.  It was viewed as strategic, along with West Point, to control the communication between colonies.

With a population of about 14,000 today, Stony Point has a typical small-town feel.  9W is a major north-south thoroughfare with several strip malls on either side.  Inside one of them, on the western side of the street, is It’s Coffee.  Deep, rich varnished wood provides the bar to sit at, supported by pipes.  Lots of wood on the stools and the shelves holding the bags of beans for purchase.

I looked over the menu & found nisi shot, espresso, latte, cappuccino, nacchiato, americano, and drip coffee.  Most of these can also be had iced. There are plenty of bags of coffee beans on both walls that you can bring home.

I chose a cappuccino, which was served in a paper cup, which makes sense with the limited seating in the place.  It’s more of a take-out vibe, which is unfortunate, as the rich wood tones could suggest a more homey feeling.

It was a solid, good coffee & I picked up a bag of beans to try some more at home.  With so many great roads in the area and Harriman State Park’s many motorcycle roads a few miles north, it’s a great option to grab a pick-me-up either before or after a bit of riding.