Scenes from a Long Island Motorcycle Ride
Long Island motorcycle rides aren’t expansive sweeping adventures like you might find in the out west. Instead, the Island offers intimate moments to take in along our shores, past North Fork farms, and through wine country.
Long Island Motorcycle – North Fork Farm Country
Here on the Island, we split the land in horizontal half with references to the North Shore and North Fork and to the South Shore and South Fork.
The North Shore and North Fork are where you will generally find the best motorcycle roads on Long Island.
Fields of Gold
Long Island’s North Fork has a rich agricultural history. Today these large tracts of land that start in the town of Riverhead and go east, offer quiet roads with lovely scenery.
After narrowly escaping a run-in with a giant hockey puck on Sunday evening, I took my motorcycles and went east along the North Fork. I like picking my way through the farmland that is nestled between the ocean and the suburban sprawl. There is something calming about the swaths of open space.
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Just the day before my daughter Chloe and I stopped at a field that was positively covered in small yellow flowers. They made an eye-catching contrast with the stormy gray sky.
On Sunday, I decided to go back to see the yellow flowers in the sunshine. But when I returned to the field, they were gone. Nothing but dirt being prepared for planting. The rapeseed flowers were nothing but a memory.
If nothing else, the misadventures was a reminder that is beauty is fleeting. Appreciate it while it’s in front of you because it could all be gone tomorrow.
Though I was disappointed that the flowering field was gone, I was happy to find another sea of rapeseed to stop for. Dawdling on the roadside I watched the cheery stalks gently wave in the wind.
Long Island’s North Quarter Buffalo Farm
My eastern route through Riverhead took me past a bison farm. I can’t resist stopping to look at the shaggy beasts. They seem so out of place and perfectly at home at the same time.
The bison are so laid back in the way they saunter across the grass, sleepy-eyed. I wish I could hop up on one and hug it, running my fingers through its tangled fur.
I love you buffalooooo.
Enjoy the Ride
If you are looking for quiet and less crowded places to ride your motorcycle on Long Island, head out along the North Fork and explore. There are great lunch stop, lovely farm stands and even a buffalo or 200.
Is it a field of rapeseed? Thousands of acres of it are grown in the area where we live in the UK, and at this time of year it’s harvested for oil to use in cooking (and in bio-diesel I think). The pollen can be quite strong if you suffer from hayfever.
Oh, maybe! I just googled it and it very well could be. Thanks!
That must be Ed Tuccio’s herd. He’s a prominent real estate broker out east. I once represented him in a lawsuit and won the case for him. Every year or so, the news media do stories on his bison herd. He and his wife also own restaurants in Riverhead at which you can order bison steaks and burgers.