START/FINISH: The Unisphere, Flushing Meadows - Corona Park
DIFFICULTY: Easy to moderate. There’s one good hill from College Point Boulevard to Main Street. And make the left turn from Main Street to Dahlia Avenue with care.
This is a short (5.6 miles / 9.0 kilometers) add-on to a ride to Flushing Meadows, to delightful Kissena Park. This is part of a green belt that starts at Flushing Meadows - Corona Park and runs through to the Vanderbilt bike trail (which I’ll include in a future post) and Alley Pond Park. Kissena Lake is a real gem.
Go through Flushing Meadows - Corona Park past the elevated Van Wyck Expressway, and cross College Point Boulevard, going up the hill past Main Street. You’ll be on Booth Memorial Avenue, bordering Kissena Park, and turning left onto Kissena Boulevard, Right on Rose Avenue and an immediate right onto the park trail, which you can take to the lake. Take a break here and enjoy. Go north and west, exiting onto Oak Avenue. From there follow the turn sheet.
On the return trip, be careful on the one block of busy Main Street you’ll be on, making a left turn onto Dahlia Avenue. At College Point Boulevard turn left and then a quick right into the park; you’ll pass a soccer field on the left.
Turn sheet at https://goo.gl/maps/rBtqDdsc8sJTzxvt8
Some points of interest along the way:
Kissena Velodrome. Off Booth Memorial Avenue, east of Kissena Boulevard. Built as part of New York’s failed bid for the 1940 Olympics that never took place, it is New York City’s only velodrome. Going around those banked curves at speed is a thrill.
Kissena Lake. I happened upon this riding back toward Brooklyn some years ago. It’s a beautiful oasis right in the middle of a residential part of Queens.
Queens Botanical Garden, entrance on Crommelin Street.
USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center: Louis Armstrong Stadium (built for the 1964-1965 World’s Fair) and Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Map courtesy Google Maps