Way too late, I called in hopes of getting October reservations at River Hill. It looked perfect...a lovely house overlooking the Hudson River. There are only three guest rooms and they were full...I left my name in case there was a cancellation, and we made a reservation at a chain hotel...rooms were scarce for the leaf peeper season.

The day before we were to leave for New York, the innkeeper at River Hill called to say that she had had a cancellation for Friday and Saturday night and ask if we were still interested. We quickly cancelled our other reservation and reserved four nights at River Hill...a win/win for both of us and the beginning of a great weekend in the Hudson Valley.

We went to bike on rail trails and to ride across the 'Walkway Across the Hudson.' River Hill was well located for our plans. Breakfasts were very good and hearty enough to get us to lunchtime on our rides and River Hill was a welcome place to come home to after riding. The rooms are lovely; two with river views, looking northeast across the Hudson River. Those rooms share a bathroom, which worked okay for us. The thrid room, with pretty views out the back, but not of the river, is a very nice room and has its own bathroom.

There are not a lot of restaurants nearby; the house is in the very small town of Milton, and after a long day of riding, we weren't feeling adventurous about going in search of restaurants, so we ate twice at each of the two restaurants that were closeby; both very nice and very different.

The bike trails we rode were wonderful...but staying at River Hill transformed it from a biking weekend in New York, to a Hudson Valley experience that will be my favorite memory of autumn 2011.