Anyone planning a trip to the popular Doodletown and Iona Island sites (Bear Mountain State Park) on Sunday, May 15, 2016 may want to reschedule for some other day. The Campagnolo Gran Frodo bike race is scheduled for that day. We just spoke to the Palisades Interstate Park Police and the Bear Mountain Administration staff, who confirmed that Route 9W in that area will be completely closed from Sunday morning (12 AM) to 1:00 PM Sunday afternoon, thereby blocking access to both Doodletown and Iona Island. It also appears that part of Seven Lakes Drive will also be closed thereby blocking entrance to the small parking area that allows access to Doodletown via Lemmon Road (we did not confirm this with Park staff, but is indicated by the race map). Definitely poor planning on someone's part! This race started several years ago and has been growing in popularity ever since (https://gfny.com/). It seems unlikely that birders and hikers can do little to change the closure for this year, but maybe we can lobby for input regarding future races.
Alan Wells Rockland Co. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
