This is the day we started seeing lots of people – and boats – along the Erie Canal.
This is the day we really started seeing people on the Erie Canal trail — walking, biking, even some who, like us, had gear and probably also are end-to-enders.
And then the boats. The canal is still in use for pleasure!
Continue reading “Erie Canal bike ride day 3: Rochester to Seneca Falls”Today we coped with rain and grime. The best part of the day, though, came at the end.
This is not a photo Brian should see. He’s the guy who gives me grief over how filthy my bike gets.
Continue reading “Erie Canal bike ride day 2: A wet day from Medina to Rochester”It was shaping up to be a perfect day. Until a piece of metal broke.
It was shaping up to be a perfect day: sunny, warm enough for a sleeveless bike jersey, chocolate cake for breakfast… because why not?
Continue reading “Erie Canal bike ride: A crisis on our first day along the way from Buffalo to Medina”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.
Continue reading “Erie Canal bike ride: Exploring Buffalo”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.
Continue reading “The D&R Canal towpath from Princeton to partway to Trenton”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.
Continue reading “I’m planning a bike ride on the Erie Canal — your must-sees?”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.
Continue reading “New Brunswick to Princeton on the D&R Canal + East Coast Greenway”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).
Continue reading “A loop through the Assunpink wildlife refuge”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).
Continue reading “A new bike crossing over the Delaware River”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.
Continue reading “Biking in the Brandywine Valley: Hills, headwinds and Hurricane Ida’s wrath”
Exploring by bicycle 