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”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”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.?
Continue reading “Tour de Pines 2021, day 4: I’m in love with Belleplain State Forest”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.
Continue reading “Tour de Pines 2021, day 3: The hunt for the Jersey Devil”A tale of immigrant New Jersey deep in the Pine Barrens.
We aborted this bike ride after nearly 5 miles (I’ll spare you the explanation, but all is fine — we’ll find another day to ride the 52 miles, maybe a bit less, and finally see Chatsworth, the heart of the Pine Barrens).
On the other hand, I had time to explore historic Whitesbog Village, once New Jersey’s largest cranberry farm and a place where they apparently treated their workers better than the rest. It also was home to Elizabeth Coleman White, who developed the blueberry cultivar we eat today.
Continue reading “Tour de Pines 2021, day 2: Historic Whitesbog Village plus Potato the baby pig”We biked nearly 50 miles in southern Burlington County.
This is my third year exploring New Jersey’s giant Pine Barrens ecosystem and preserved open space, thanks to the Tour de Pines bike rides organized by the Pinelands Preservation Alliance. It’s back as group rides this year, though over four days instead of the five pre-COVID.
Continue reading “Tour de Pines 2021, day 1: Cranberries and ice cream sandwiches”I dreaded seeing the damage from Henri and Ida. What a mess.
The remnants of Hurricanes Henri and Ida walloped New Jersey in August and September, and the D&R Canal towpath was smack in the path of both. The Millstone River flooded, Canal Road flooded, all kinds of major roads flooded … it was not pretty.
I dreaded seeing the damage to the canal towpath (also part of the East Coast Greenway).
We finally biked the section from Trenton to Princeton after Sunday’s big rally for the Essex-Hudson Greenway. Here’s what we found:
Continue reading “Hurricanes Henri and Ida ripped up the D&R Canal towpath”When you can’t get to the lavender fields in Provence, you can bike to these outside Princeton.
The lavender plant at my house spills over almost the entire width of the front walkway — a challenge for those put off by the many bees foraging for nectar. But how do I prune it? And what clever things can I do with the stems?
That’s made me curious about a lavender farm between Princeton and Hopewell with 15 varieties. Easy enough to bike there, I thought. Much of it is already the route we take when we want to punish ourselves with hill climbs in the Sourlands. And much closer than the lavender fields in Provence.
Continue reading “A lavender farm in New Jersey? You can bike to 2 near Princeton”
