Are you ready for a two-day, self-supported bike tour on the most premium back-road dirt and gravel in the entire Genesee Valley? Do you want to sleep in the woods with hungry, lonesome wandering spirits?
Then join us on the Hairy Ladies of Klipknocky Tour – a ride through one of New York’s strangest pockets of folklore. We depart at 10:30am from the Village of Arcport Municipal park.
Day 1: 42.7 miles – 4,325 climb
Day 2: 52.3 miles – 4,399 climb
LINK TO ROUTE: *LINK*
THE LEGEND:
Our tale begins in the late 1800s. A quiet, religious farm family lived near the edge of what is now Klipknocky State Forest. The parents often had to leave their daughters home alone, and every time they did, they gave the same warning:
“If anyone comes to the door, run into the woods and don’t come back until we return!”
One day, the parents left for town and never came home. According to the legend, they were killed – and sometime afterward, the family’s cabin burned. Neighbors assumed the girls had made a fire to keep the cabin warm, and had died in the fire.
But as always, the forest had other ideas.
The following seasons, people living near Klipknocky began noticing strange things: tools missing. Food disappearing. Screams echoing through the trees. And sightings of disheveled, dirty, tattered women slipping between the trunks before you could get a clear look.
The story grew: the daughters had survived by fleeing into the forest as they had been taught. They waited for their parents, year after year, until watching became all they could do. Hunters blamed them for missing gear. Farmers saw shapes moving at the edges of their fields. Snowmobilers swore someone ran along them in the dark. Campers found footprints all around their tents. The official history marker near Canaseraga says the Hairy Women still inhabit the forest, first sighted August 18th, 1926.
THE RIDE:
Our journey begins in Arkport, where we’ll park at the Village Park for safekeeping and resupply at the 7‑11 before rolling out. From there, we climb up into the Canaseraga, Ossian, and Rattlesnake Hill uplands before a harrowing descent down England Hill and back into the Canisteo River valley.
At mile 21, we’ll resupply in Canaseraga — water, lunch, and a moment to breathe — before climbing back into Slader Creek, Klipknocky, Gas Springs, Jersey Hill, and Bully Hill State Forest.
Our lodging for the evening is a lean‑to accessible after a short hike‑a‑bike on the FLT. It overlooks the Canisteo River and sits across from Klipknocky, giving us front‑row seats to whatever the forest decides to share overnight while we fellowship around the campfire.
After waking up, we’ll break camp and descend into Almond for breakfast and resupply before beginning Day 2. Then it’s up Turnpike Road into Turnpike, Palmers Pond, and Phillips Creek State Forests, looping around Plumbottom, past Jersey Hill, and back to Arkport.
Don’t let the mileage and elevation profiles on the tour fool you – this is a challenging ATB tour and I’d recommend not attempting it with anything less than 45mm or 1.75″ tires. The offroad sections vary from pristine dirt forest roads with pine duff shoulders all the way to loose rocky scree from snow mobile trails. Be ready for a mechanical. Travel light. Tell your friends!
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