At the start of May, Spring is just arriving on the Catskill Plateau. Join Lichen Bike Tours on this early-season cycling and wilderness camping adventure.
This trip is 4 days and 3 nights, 200 miles, and 15,000+ ft of climbing with 2 sections of hike-a-bike through high passes in the Catskill Mountains.
Each night of camping is in wild forest without any toilets or water facilities.
This is a self-supported bikepacking trip, which means that riders are responsible for carrying their shelter, sleep, and cook systems.
Ride as a group with a sweep so that nobody will be dropped. The route has designated re-group spots so that it doesn’t get too spread out.
This route is strenuous, but also carefully designed to be ridable. There are zero days of 5000 ft+ climbing, and just two days of 4000 ft+ climbing.
Each day has at least one stop in a town for food and groceries.
The Hike-a-Bike section in Sundown Wild Forest is not steep and could be ridden. The Hike-a-Bike section in Halcott Mountain Wild Forest is steep, but on wide former doubletrack, and therefore persistence is enough to hike your bike through the pass.