Rail Biking Through Peak Fall Colors in Upstate New York 🍂

Rail Biking Through Peak Fall Colors in Upstate New York 🍂

After a week of chasing cozy little trains through New England, steam, mountains, and uh more pumpkin spice than I’d like to admit, we crossed into New York for something completely different. This time, we’re still riding the rails, just not on a train. Welcome to Revolution Rail, the world’s most scenic leg day. We hopped back in our car and started heading west, which meant crossing back through Vermont first. And honestly, it would have been rude not to stop. We made a little detour to Mont Pelia, Vermont’s tiny capital, one of those postcard perfect towns that looked like it was built for autumn. We kept driving west, chasing the sunset. Somewhere near the border, the road opened up and we crossed this massive bridge. The sky turning into orange and pink, the hills reflected on the river below. It felt so cinematic, like the perfect little moment between states. And then just as the sun dipped behind the hills, we passed the New York sign. New York, a new state, new adventures, but same two dogs in a rental car. lonely. That night, we checked into the sweetest little alpine style lodge. Wooden beams, cozy fireplace, and the smell of wood smoke in the air. It’s definitely built for winter ski trips, but it was just as magical in autumn. [Music] Morning Our [Music] destination, a little town called North Creek. Tucked into the foothills of the Adirond Deac Mountains. It’s quiet, surrounded by forest, and feels like one of those places that really comes alive in fall. You can smell old wood smoke in the air and every porch is lined with pumpkins. Many, many pumpkins. This is where Revolution Rail runs one of its most scenic routes along an old section of historic railroad track that once carried passengers into the mountains for skiing and hiking. Today, those same tracks carry people like us on four-w wheeled pedal bikes. When we first saw the rail bikes lined up at the station, I could not stop laughing. They look like someone welded together a kayak and a go-kart and said, “Yep, that’ll do.” They look pretty great. Lidic and I are hopping on a twoperson bike. You can, however, book one for four people. So, that would be really, really fun. And really cool as well. I love how they’ve got little baskets right in between you at the back here. That’s going to make things so much easier. We’ve got all of our filming equipment, our tripods, our camera gear, our sun cream, and whatnot. That’s very handy. It’s not like your regular bike where you’re sitting up and your legs are below you. You’re kind of at the same level as your legs. Your legs are out in front. That’s going to be fun to get used to. Each one sits on the train tracks and you literally pedal it like a tandem bike. Your own little humanpowered rail car. We signed in, had our safety briefing, and we were told we’d be riding around 7 miles round trip through the forest, bridges, and riverside views. This is so fun. Oh my gosh. This is one of my favorite things I’ve ever done already. Do I say that about everything? Yes. Yes, you do. The first few minutes were surprisingly easy. Gentle peddling, crisp air, and that satisfying click clack sound of the wheels on the track. Then came the scenery. The trees opened up to reveal golden hills in that kind of autumn color that looks like it’s been edited, but it isn’t. Except for a little bit of color grading here for your eyeballs. [Music] What the heck are we doing right now? This is so cool, you guys. This is so cool. This is like combining all of my favorite things. Beautiful nature, especially fall foliage. I’m obsessed with fall colors. They are just amazing. In fact, our wedding was in the spring in in springtime in Sweden. However, I chose all autumn fall colors. Number two, we’re doing a workout. Like, you know, I’m breathing a bit heavier now. My heart rate has increased. My legs are feeling a bit tingly. The quads are a bit on fire. So, yes, I would say this is a great workout as well. Oh, no. No. No. That was an invitation to speed up. That was not an invitation to speed up. Oh my gosh. Slow it down. Slow it down again. The third thing, trains. Trains. Trains. Trains. Even if there is no train involved today, there is a train track. Is there something that you love about this so far? Yeah, just the outdoor outdoors. At one point, we pedled out over this huge bridge high above the Hudson River, and everything just went still for a second. It was one of those views that just make you go quiet, mostly because you’re too scared to drop your phone. But uh I kept trying to film pedal not ve over the rails which is pretty much impossible but honestly this should count as an extreme sport although although a scenic one. At the turnaround point everyone hops off for a short break while the guide split the rail bikes around. We stood there surrounded by trees, sipping some water and having a snack, pretending we weren’t quite as sweaty as we were just past the train station. That was the terminus of the line in 1870. And for about 50 years, that’s about as far as you could go on the train. And that served most people’s purposes at the time. Following the Civil War in this country, a lot more people began to move to the Aderondax to participate in the various businesses and companies and different parts of the economy that were starting to become much more lively up here. And as you can imagine, in a mountainous area, you would find things like mining operations. In this area around North Creek and North River, there were dozens of garnet mines in the 1870s. And they were all mining garnet to be used as an abrasive to be broken up into tiny little bit and to be used as sandpaper. Now, Lig is jijing around with his drone. And I am the piddler. And I must say, it’s actually pretty easy to do on your own as well. Like, it’s not that much of a tough workout. Maybe it’s tough if you do two of these in a row for 4 hours. Just for your reference, today here in North Creek is around 12° C. That’s about the high today. So, it’s it’s not warm by any means. We did get chatting to a local and they said that literally overnight from September, as soon as it switches to October, the weather drops about 10°. They said it happens just like clockwork. We were just in Connecticut in the last episode and it was really warm there. We were both really shocked at how warm and summery the weather was here. Since we’ve come up a little bit more north, and especially since we entered New York State, it has gotten significantly colder, for sure. There’s something just kind of special about the mix of effort and stillness. You’re working for the views, but in the quietest, most peaceful way. No engines, no crowds, just the sound of pedals and wind and the occasional leaf smacking you in the face. North Creek is one of those little towns that looks like it was built specifically for a four movie montage. There’s one main street lined with shops, an old school pub diner situation, and about three little coffee spots that smell like cinnamon. We grabbed lunch at a tiny cafe where the specialty was sandwiches. And this is where we decided to go for our pumpkin spice latte of the trip. After lunch and a short debate over whether our legs could handle round two, we headed back to the station for the South River Run. So, we’re running a little bit overtime, I think, with the North River experience. Um, so we had to rush lunch a little bit. Delicious, though. We got a goats cheese vegetable hot toasted sandwich. Yummy, but expensive. It was 35 US for two sandwiches and an oat milk latte. Every now and then, I try to break like this, but that doesn’t work. You actually have a break here. Do you want to demonstrate the breakage, Lvig? Yeah, you don’t just go break, you know. It’s a slightly longer, more open route that follows the Hudson River downstream. And honestly, the scenery was next level. Right away, you hit this stretch where the tracks run parallel to the river with the golden leaves reflecting off the water. The light was doing that perfect 1:00 p.m. thing, you know, soft, glowing, and completely impossible to film without yelling, “Wow!” like every 2 minutes. Sorry if I if I gave you a fright just then. On the road again. Seeing places that I’ never been. On the road again. [Laughter] I don’t have a singing voice. I don’t know the lyrics. And I’ve got a cold. Wow. Under a bridge we go. Right now we’re on the South River run. I do think that there’s about four tours on each run every day. And in fact, that’s what the guides said in our last one that they did this four times a day from May through to October. So they work for 6 months a year. I asked one of the guides what he did in the winter time then to fill out his time. Did he have another job? And he says he just he’s pretty much retired, semi-retired, and just does a lot of snowmmoiling up here actually. So apparently snowmmoiling is a pretty big thing up here in upstate New York. So uh by the way, Lvig’s basically counting down the hours until we can go to the Cheesecake Factory. Once we set off after this tour, he said it’s a 1 and 1/2 hour drive until we are reaching the Cheesecake Factory. So the North River run, what we just did, I think was 7 mi, and this one is a hefty 8 mi. Oh, there’s some really cool little chairs up there. Oh, wow. Look at that. the bridge over there. There were so many funny little things that kept happening. My hair whipping me in the eyeball, that leaf that somehow gets stuck to your lens for for a full minute, and literally going into many daydreams as we went along, and somehow between the awkward moments and the stunning views, it kind of hit me. This is what I love most about travel. It’s not just about the scenic shots, but the weird funny in between bits that make the story ours. If you do come and do this yourself, maybe do both cuz the North River run was beautiful because of the bridge. The bridge was the coolest part. Like going over that definitely was a highlight, but I think the track along this South River run is actually prettier. It could have something to do with the time of day that we’ve done this, but this is like right alongside the river the whole way. I’m sure the other one was too, but you couldn’t really see it. Like there was a quite a dense amount of trees and bush between you and the river. This one you’re like literally right next to the river, so it’s very pretty, very open, very fresh. And if you’ve got the time, I would recommend doing what we did. Do 1 in the morning, have a nice little lunch break walking around North Creek. Maybe give yourself a little bit longer than we did. We only gave ourselves 1 hour. Maybe give yourself a little bit of time. Walk around. There are some cute little like an art gallery. There is some little vintage stores. There’s a glass blowing studio. There’s lots of fun things you can do in town. It’s such a quaint little town. It’s really small. And then jump on the South River Run later or vice versa. Highly recommend. What a cool day out. And do it in the fall. On the way back, we we didn’t talk too much. Just the steady rhythm of pedling, the smell of pine, and the gentle crunch of leaves as they drifted onto the tracks. The late afternoon sun started turning and everything was gold again. And it felt like the whole forest was glowing like it was in our last episode in New England. Oh, that late afternoon sunshine in fall is the best. When we rolled back into the station, everyone was smiling. That quiet postad adventure smile. Tired, happy, and already planning snacks. Our our choice of snack, however, was none other than the Cheesecake Factory. That was a very successful day and I couldn’t recommend that highly enough. But most important, we need to refuel and eat at the Cheesecake Factory. I don’t know why, but I’m just obsessed with their very extensive menu. [Music] Two rail rides, one cozy mountain town, and about 2,000 calories later, this might have been the most unexpectedly fun day of the whole trip. It was equal parts workout and therapy session with bonus foliage. For all of the train lovers out there, yes, trains are still very much present in this series. They this this one just looked a little bit different today. Next stop, we’re heading south again. Back to the big trains. I’m a little bit bit gobsmacked. If you haven’t seen the first episode, you definitely should because we travel around New England experiencing three of the most scenic trains it has to offer. Okay. See you.

This autumn, our Fall by Rail journey took a little detour — across state lines and straight into one of the quirkiest adventures of the whole trip. Still rails… just not a train. 😅

We spent a day rail biking through the Adirondacks — pedalling along historic tracks, crossing huge bridges, leaf-peeping mid-workout, and discovering one of the cutest small towns in all of New York. Equal parts cardio and cosiness.

🍁 This episode includes:
• A sunset drive from Vermont into New York
• Rail biking in Upstate New York alongside peak fall colours
• River views, forest tunnels, and cinematic bridges
• Many leaves, many laughs, and very tired legs

Curious about booking this yourself? Here ya go: https://www.revrail.com/

✨ About the Series:
Fall by Rail is our cosy, awkward travel project across America during peak autumn — trains, tiny towns, and way too much excitement over crunchy leaves.

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🎥 Next up:
Three of the cutest little heritage trains in Pennsylvania — pumpkins, whistles, and an overload of cosy vibes. Stay tuned 🍂🚂

#fallbyrail #newyork #railbiking #fallfoliage #traintravel #adirondacks #chloeandludvig

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Hej hej from the rails (and bikes)! I’m Chloé — a Kiwi travel creator exploring the world one awkward train moment at a time. My husband Ludvig (dry humour, Swedish passport) joins when he can. Together, we seek out the quirkiest journeys, comfiest cabins, and always squeeze in a touch of luxury when we can (okay, that part’s mostly my idea 😅). We’re all about making travel fun, relatable, and a little bit weird — with a side of scenic magic.💛

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