bike ride – Page 13 – Exploring by bicycle

Erie Canal bike ride: Exploring Buffalo

So much to see in Buffalo! Spend a day here before heading out on the Erie Canal trail.

We took a day at the start of this week-long bike ride along the Erie Canal to get a feel for Buffalo: the wealth from a century ago when industrialists were building their mansions along Delaware Avenue with the profits from their grain silos, from when the Pan-American Exhibition that showed off the promises of the new century was marred by a presidential assassination, and when Art Deco became the fashion.

Actually, there wasn’t enough time to see everything.

So if you have to pick one thing, my recommendation is Buffalo River History Tours and its boat and walking tour of Silo City, an abandoned collection of grain elevators stretching up to 10 stories tall as well as a couple of adjacent buildings that are slowly being turned into housing.

The D&R Canal towpath from Princeton to partway to Trenton

Here’s the state of the D&R Canal towpath from Washington Road to the Lawrence Hopewell Trail.

At the beginning of May, we checked out the state of the D&R Canal towpath from New Brunwick to Princeton. For Memorial Day, we pushed further south.

I’m planning a bike ride on the Erie Canal — your must-sees?

Four people, four bikes but no mules, going the other way instead of from Albany to Buffalo.

Four people, four bikes but no mules — it’s going to be an adventure going the other way instead of Albany to Buffalo. But west to east is considered the better option. Downhill? Plus we don’t have to time the train at the end.

We’re heading out in early June. This is the plan.

New Brunswick to Princeton on the D&R Canal + East Coast Greenway

Eight months after the one-two punch from Henri and Ida in late August and early September of 2021, it was time to check out how much repair work had been done.

The D&R Canal towpath was a mess after the one-two punch from Henri and Ida in late August and early September of 2021. Eight months later, it was time to check out how much repair work had been done and how rideable the route is.

So we hopped New Jersey Transit to New Brunswick to find out.

A loop through the Assunpink wildlife refuge

This bike ride, at close to 30 miles, goes from West Windsor through the Assunpink Wildlife Management Area and back via Hightstown.

I discovered the Assunpink area thanks to NJDOT’s High Point to Cape May route and have done many variations of a loop through it since then.

This one, at close to 30 miles, starts and ends by the West Windsor Senior Center (more parking than the nearby library and about a mile from the Princeton Junction train station).

A new bike crossing over the Delaware River

The bike-ped path on the new Scudders Falls Bridge is finally open.

There’s now one more way for bicyclists (and walkers and runners) to cross between New Jersey and Pennsylvania — using the new 0.7-mile bike-ped path along the new $534 million (or is it $570 million? After once being projected to cost “just” $310 million?) Scudders Falls Bridge project on I-295.

It opened about a week ago so of course we had to check it out. And it’s great, with long ramps on both ends up to bridge height about 23 feet above the river from the D&R Canal towpath on the Jersey side and the Delaware Canal towpath (part of the D&L Trail) on the PA side as well as a few bump-outs so you can pull over and stare northward (or downward).

Biking in the Brandywine Valley: Hills, headwinds and Hurricane Ida’s wrath

Wow what hills. And what gorgeous scenery. Two days of bicycling in the Brandywine Valley southwest of Philadelphia.

Wow, what hills. Not really long, and only a brief moment of 12% grade. But non-stop. Even when the route looked flat on a map, it was still small ups and downs throughout our Brandywine Valley routes. Tour de Pines this was not! Perhaps my hardest two days of riding this year?

We pulled our routes for two days off Ride With GPS, so you really never know what you are going to get. These were fabulous — nearly 44 miles from Chadds Ford north, then west, then back through Kennett Square, the mushroom capital, and skirting south back to Chadds Ford on day 1, and straight out of our hotel — the Inn at Mendenhall — north past Longwood Gardens, then looping south into Delaware and then back north to the hotel for 34 miles and change on day 2. Parts followed Pennsylvania Bike Route L (a north-south route from near Binghampton, N.Y., to Delaware) and Delaware Bike Route 1, another north-south route.

I’ve found another 5-star trail on the East Coast Greenway — this time in D.C.

There’s a fantastic newish trail that takes you into Washington, D.C.

Back when I biked from Annapolis to Alexandria, Virginia, along the East Coast Greenway in 2014, the route to Washington, D.C., relied on the Northwest Branch Trail. Today there’s another option, and I think it’s even better.

This is the Anacostia River Trail, which runs along the eastern side of the Anacostia River, which feeds into the Potomac River, and crosses back into D.C. nearish to the Capitol. There’s more on the western side (some still under construction) that goes past the old (soon to be demolished?) RFK Stadium and near the pro baseball and soccer stadiums.

Tour de Pines 2021, day 4: I’m in love with Belleplain State Forest

We venture even further south in New Jersey to a rare area where people are relatively scarce.

The final ride of the 2021 edition of Tour de Pines may be my favorite yet: so much time bicycling on quiet roads plus my first time in gorgeous Belleplain State Forest. Who would have expected all this in the most densely populated (and can I say most congested?) state in the U.S.?

Tour de Pines 2021, day 3: The hunt for the Jersey Devil

We looked hard. What we found instead.

Oh I looked for the Jersey Devil on this 51-mile ride on the Tour de Pines, particularly around Leeds Point, the eastern-most part of our route and its alleged birthplace.

No luck.

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