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Originally Posted by vreihen16
Lost a very good riding friend on that road (NY-218/Eagle's Nest) in the early 1990's. Understeered into the rock wall barrier on his bike, flew over it, then fell down about 800 feet of cliff to the railroad tracks next to the river where they found him dead. (I wasn't riding with him that day.) I knew his parents and two siblings on a first name basis, and hung up my motorcycle helmet the day after his funeral for the safety of automotive competition.
Only had one more encounter with doing something stupid on that road about two years ago, when I had hired a stretched limo for a trip to NYC and stopped in Cornwall to pick up some friends. The friend gave the limo driver directions to Rt. 218, and I wasn't paying attention until it was too late to turn around. He thought that it would be funny to see a stretched limo on 218, and it is a wonder that we didn't have an accident since the driver needed to cross the left shoulder to clear the inside apex cliffs on the right side of a few blind corners.
BMW used to use that stretch of road for TV commercials back in the day, but they haven't shot anything there recently that I've noticed.
A slightly better stretch of similar road is Hawk's Nest on NY-97 north out of Port Jervis on the other side of our county. Same type of cliff road and scenery, but it seems to have a few extra feet of runoff and is slightly more forgiving.....
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That is a horrific story, so sorry. Have you kept in touch with us family after all these years? I too lost a friend who was on a bike but on a different road in OC, can’t remember. Coming around a curve and had to swerve to avoid hitting a deer, hit a guardrail and died on the spot due to blunt head force trauma, even though he had full gear. I think of him at least once a day. Knew him for maybe two years but was a great guy.
Next time I’ll be in upstate NY (sometime this summer), I’ll check out Port Jervis. Maybe we’ll meet up for a little ride somewhere.
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Originally Posted by Maynard
Lots of great roads in NY, but I was disappointed by 218 (it got a great write-up in R&T as one of the top ten roads ever'). Great if I were alone, but it's about a lane and a half wide, and with everything from packs of sport bikes to moving vans - kind of felt like the local version of the Tail of the Dragon tourist conga line, even though I went at about 10am. One of my southern NY favorites is Rte 55, not far from that stretch of 97.
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It’s best to go early in the morning on a weekend as that is what I used to do. This shot was taken circa 2011 in the afternoon and it wasn’t that bad for me. TSP (Taconic State Pkwy) and The Palisades Pkwy are also my favorite roads. 9D and 9W also come to mind. Makes me miss my old battlegrounds.