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The New York City Inline Skating Guide
Where to Skate: Westchester
The following description of the Kensico Dam Plaza and the Bronx
River Parkway is by Lise Broer and originally appeared in the October
1995 issue of the New York City edition of
MetroSports magazine.
If Central Park is the social center of the skating scene in
New York City, then the Kensico Dam at Valhalla is Westchester
County's Central Park. It was first built as an earthen dam between
1880 and 1885. Stone quarried from nearby Cranberry Lake Park
replaced the earth in 1915 and created a paved plaza. Named
after the great hall in Norse mythology where the souls of heroes
are honored, the plaza has several turn-of-the-century attempts
to invoke Teutonic imagery. The Kensico Dam holds 30,573,000,000
gallons of water in a reservoir covering 13.3 square miles. It
supplies water to New York City and to several Westchester communities.
Local skaters recognize its real value as a skating center.
The plaza is mostly flat and well-paved. The t-shaped circuit
varies the scenery and keeps the skate interesting. This is a good
place to learn how to skate. Although there is no official direction
of travel, most skaters follow a counterclockwise path.
Some of the local skaters maintain a slalom course at the western
edge of the loop by the dam. While this course has only 20 cones
and a slight grade, cones are spaced at standard 6 foot competition
width. Slalom skaters accelerate along the dam and make a right
turn to enter the course for high speed "ballistic" runs. As with
other slalom sites, keeping the course clear is a constant concern.
Here the main danger is from novice skaters who stray close to the
cones as they do a loop.
Near the center of the plaza away from the loop is an area favored
for roller hockey. The rough quality of the concrete here creates
a great grip, but is notorious as an eater of wheels. Wear pads
to play here. It isn't any easier on the skin.
Fitness skaters may be bored by the small size of the plaza.
One way to add a few more kilometers to a workout is to go south
along the Bronx River Pathway. The Pathway is an 807 acre linear
park extending 13.2 miles from the Kensico Dam south to New York
City. It runs parallel to the Bronx River Parkway and the
Metro-North Harlem Line. To reach it from the Dam, exit at the
southeast edge of the plaza and go east. The Pathway picks up across
Broadway.
The pathway portion from the Kensico Dam Plaza south to the
Westchester County Center in White Plains is fair for skating.
This comprises slightly more than half of a 5 mile trail. Several
other portions of the Bronx River Pathway are open to bicycles.
Westchester In-line Skating Association president Eric Paulson
shares a warning. "I would discourage anyone from skating most of it.
The pavement is just too patchy." On Sundays during May, June,
September, and October skaters have an extra treat. The Bronx
River Parkway itself is closed to traffic from the Westchester
County Center in White Plains to Fisher Lane in North White Plains.
While the program is named Bicycle Sundays, the Westchester Parks
Department invites skaters to take advantage too.
Although the above was written in 1995, the Bronx River Parkway
Sunday closings have followed close to the same schedule in subsequent years.
Note, though, that the closing only lasts four hours, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
It's said to be a scenic skate/ride.
There is about a two or three-mile loop at the SUNY Purchase campus, where Purchase St. ends just past Anderson Hill Road. The Mall, a road which bisects the campus, has been recently repaved and is reputed to be a fine place for grinding, bashing, and other aggressive skating.
In Rye, there is a seven-mile flat loop which uses Milton Road and Forest Ave. Auto traffic is supposed to be fairly heavy, though, so be careful.
The North County Trailway is a rails-to-trails project created along the right of way of the former Putnam Line Railroad, which ceased operation in 1962. Westchester County acquired the easement and gradually paved it and created a bike trail about 22 miles long. More info is on the Westchester county website, including a map. Inline skating is expressly permitted on the trail, but you'll have to contend with pedestrians, joggers, cyclists, etc.
The trail was first constructed as three sections, and then the sections were linked up in the late 1990s.
- Section 1, 2.7 miles.
- Runs from Old Saw Mill Road in Eastview (near the Eastview
exit from the Saw Mill River Parkway) to just past the
Westchester County police HQ. The nice thing about this section
is that there are no road crossings to worry about; the bad thing
is that the lack of crossings means that the only place to access
the path is from the starting point. From the start, you can also
link to the Tarrytown-Kensico asphalt path, which is about 1.1
miles long.
- Section 2, 7.4 miles.
- Runs from near the intersection of Routes 117 and 9A in Briarcliff
north to the intersection of Routes 134 and 100 near Kitchawan.
There are plenty of road crossings, which means lots of access
points and also lots of places where you have to be cautious. Also,
part of the northern end is also the shoulder to Route 100, so
you have road crud, dust and exhaust to put up with.
- Section 3, 5 miles.
- Runs from Hanover St. in Yorktown (close to the fire station) north
to where Route 118 crosses the Westchester-Putnam county line
at Baldwin Place.
This section has some pretty nice scenery (excepting a sewage
treatment plant) and probably the best asphalt. There are plenty
of access points and road crossings. The intersection with Route
35 is said to be particularly dangerous.
A good place to park, at least on weekends, if you want to skate
this section of the trail is the lot at the
Jilco Corp. on Mahopac Ave. north of Rte. 35, about halfway up the trail.
So one can skate all the way from Eastview (Pocantico Hills) to Baldwin Place. The trestle bridge between Kitchawan and Yorktown is supposed to be a highlight of the trail.
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