Schoharie Valley Loop · Gilboa

The Schoharie Valley and the Gilboa reservoir: from Middleburgh you take NY-145 and county roads through the hills, ride NY-990V along the reservoir to Gilboa and come back on NY-30 through Blenheim and the valley to Middleburgh. It's 51 miles of open country, with the Blenheim covered bridge and Mine Kill Falls on the way. NY-990V and the county roads have potholes and cracks, so ride single file in places. Fuel in Middleburgh.

The Schoharie Reservoir, along NY-990V, has been part of New York City's water supply since 1926, when the Gilboa Dam was finished; it provides about 15 to 16 percent of the city's water through the Shandaken Tunnel and the Ashokan Reservoir. The old village of Gilboa was bought out and moved west, and its remains show in droughts. Building the water system in the 1920s uncovered upright fossil stumps from one of Earth's oldest known forests, about 380 million years old, and some are displayed along NY-990V near the dam overlook and outside the Gilboa Museum.

On NY-30 at North Blenheim, the Old Blenheim Bridge, finished in 1855 and one of the longest single-span covered bridges ever built, was swept away by Tropical Storm Irene on August 28, 2011. The replica copies the original design and sits 15 feet higher; it's open to people on foot, with parking off Eastside Rd. A little south, Mine Kill State Park has viewing platforms over Mine Kill Falls with their own lot, and near Middleburgh the flat summit of Vroman's Nose, on the Long Path, is a local landmark.