Old Hights brewery is just off Main Street in Hightstown, N.J.
We heard about a new micro (nano?) brewery not far away… so we had another destination for a bike ride.
Old Hights Brewing Co. is just off Main Street in Hightstown. So after a 36-mile ride into the Sourlands and a bit of chilling at home the other weekend, we found the energy for a fast-paced 7.5 miles to pick up a four-pack.
Here’s what we learned:
Continue reading “We bike to yet another New Jersey brewery… and there is socially distanced outdoor seating”I thought this new section of the Lawrence Hopewell Trail was just one bridge over the Stony Brook. It’s much more than that.
There’s no quirky story behind this ride, just a fresh milestone for one of New Jersey’s best trails.
I thought this new section of the Lawrence Hopewell Trail that gets users off Old Mill Road was all about one bridge over the Stony Brook. When we rode it, I discovered that it’s several bridges with one big steel bridge as the centerpiece.
And by bypassing the equestrian center and master gardeners’ site in Mercer Meadows park, I’d estimate it lops a mile off the route.
Continue reading “The newest section of the Lawrence Hopewell Trail actually shortens this awesome loop ride”We head to Manalapan and a supermarket full of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian temptations.
We were like kids in a candy store, oohing and aahing over all our options.
Only instead of a candy store, we were eyeing the incredible range of hot and cold foods, the salads and the dumplings at a Russian supermarket less than 20 miles from our house. In this age of coronavirus, essentially unable to leave the U.S. and even facing a two-week quarantine when coming back from most states, this bike ride gave us a brief feeling of being somewhere unfamiliar. And doesn’t everyone check out supermarkets in a foreign country?
And yes, we heard Russian spoken. No idea what this sign says. Is it about store hours and senior shopping hours? Wear a mask?
Continue reading “Manti and samsa and caviar, oh my! Yet another foodie bike ride in New Jersey”We’re still trying to figure out how to cook with all those peppers.
Time for a new destination.
We settled on Evergreen Farm in Hamilton. A neighbor had suggested it in the spring as a possible place to buy shishito pepper seedlings. We never made it then, but we wanted a flat ride today. Just under 30 miles sounded perfect given the heat.
Besides, maybe we’d come home with mysterious fruits and vegetables.
Continue reading “How we ended up with 3+ pounds of chili peppers: A bike ride to a Korean farm in New Jersey”A new section of the Delaware River Heritage Trail will take you to Roebling .. almost.
The goal: biking to the Roebling Museum from our house.
The museum celebrates the company that built the Brooklyn Bridge, which opened 137 years ago to the day of our ride. I admit, I only learned that after we got home, but still, pretty cool. (And yes, the museum is closed because of coronavirus but it was the turn-around point for a ride a couple of years ago. Then we could say we’d ridden all the way to Riverside, about 5 1/2 miles from the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge into Philadelphia)
The more immediate reason is that a new section of the Delaware River Heritage Trail is under construction and will push the route south to Roebling (and eventually all the way to Camden and the Ben Franklin Bridge to the heart of Philadelphia). Right now it’s the alt route for the East Coast Greenway between Trenton and Philadelphia — we’ll see which route gets finished first.
So I wanted a look.
We used an app called Komoot to map out our route. Enter start point, enter end point and it maps out a bike route for you. Think Google Maps, and easier for mapping than Ride With GPS. And it was super easy to tinker with (for example, it kept us on Old Trenton Road toward Mercer County Community College longer than I’d like, rather than having us turn left at a traffic light onto Robbinsville-Edinburgh Road and then right onto Line Road, where there’s no through traffic for motorized vehicles at the West Windsor-Hamilton line but is open to bikes.) It was going to be about 21 miles each way.
The new trail didn’t show up, but hey, it’s not quite finished. We heard it was rideable anyway… Add on a few miles for that — maybe 25 miles each way?
But first we had to get through Hamilton, Mercer County’s largest city. I had to wonder if officials there have heard of bike lanes …
Traffic was light, but I credit the coronavirus for that. Otherwise we were biking on a road that crossed one major retail strip and crossed roads that led to other big retail centers. We crossed Interstate 195 and then US 130 a couple of times. I’d be happy to weave through residential neighborhoods, but not to get dumped out on an even busier road. (If I ever try this during normal traffic, I’m avoiding Hamilton and adding on a few miles via Allentown.)
Then we got to Bordentown, home to a signer of the Declaration of Independence (Francis Hopkinson), Napoleon’s oldest brother and once the king of Spain and Naples (Joseph Bonaparte), the founder of the American Red Cross (Clara Barton) and the man who proclaimed “Give me liberty, or give me death” just before the start of the American Revolution (Patrick Henry). We missed his statue by a couple of blocks. I know Bordentown better for its restaurants, but sign me up for a walking tour of this tiny town!
Bordentown also is where we picked up the Delaware River Heritage Trail. It does go north toward Trenton — it shows up on Google Maps as the D&R Canal, but I’m told the entrance from Trenton is hard to spot, that it doesn’t connect with the D&R Canal sections further north.
However, we were headed south, through Fieldsboro and to the QuickChek gas station at the corner of US 130 where the new segment of trail begins and lets us avoid this busy highway. Green paint at an intersection for bikes — that’s new for my part of NJ! The trail took us through Crystal Lake Park, onto a quiet road (fresh sidewalk for those who want it), then back to trail and under US 130.
And then …
New Jersey Transit isn’t quite ready for this trail to cross the RiverLine tracks. It has blocked off the next section of already-paved trail with a fence, and we weren’t ready to look for the goat paths to get around it.
More of what we saw at the railroad crossing:
Nor was there an easy way to get onto US 130 at that point and brave two lanes of fast-moving traffic by using the shoulder for a mile or so until we could turn right into Roebling.
So we turned back, just a few miles from our goal. We’ll try again when this section of the Philadelphia region’s Circuit Trails has its ribbon-cutting. (Actually, we didn’t wait for that and biked from Trenton to Camden — here’s how)
A 46-mile day.
A gorgeous day, and a trail has reopened. What more could we want?
The D&R Canal towpath has reopened — yay! And it’s finally sunny and warm! Time for a longish but easy bike ride.
So on Saturday we headed to the blue water tower along the Delaware River in Morrisville, Pa., the same place we met friends last year for a “weird beer” ride to Neshaminy Creek. Only this time we were headed north, chatting with a friend as we went (with social distance, of course) along the Delaware & Lehigh Trail.
Our first stop: this odd historical marker at the edge of Morrisville. It’s taller than me and commemorates the nearby spot where William Penn bought the first section of Pennsylvania.
Continue reading “30 socially distanced miles on the D&L and D&R trails”
WFH = I’m eating too much. I need a bike ride. Where to?
It’s not even been a week of working from home and staying indoors a lot. This is going to be hard. I’m eating too much, even if I (futilely) try to barricade the door to the kitchen. I can always go outside to fight the war against the evil hairy bittercress weed that would take over the yard in a heartbeat, of course. But sometimes you just need a bike ride.
Saturday afternoon was sunny and fairly warm (missed the true hot day on Friday because, you know, work). Where to go?
I’d been getting emails most of the week from Flounder Brewing, that nano brewery we checked out last fall as part of my “weird beer” rides. I couldn’t tell if they were still open and selling crowlers (32-ounce cans), but we figured it was as good a destination as any. 17 miles each way, a mix of trail and road.
Continue reading “Going stir-crazy over coronavirus — so let’s bike to support a small brewery”I found the home of a signer of the Declaration of Independence — but the wrinkle is he didn’t represent New Jersey.
Today was a sunny, unusually warm Presidents Day … so of course I went for a bike ride. The destination: A history talk. Not on George Washington (too obvious!), but on Teddy Roosevelt.
Here’s the history bonus: I stumbled across the home of a signer of the Declaration of Independence — but the wrinkle is he didn’t represent New Jersey. (There are several New Jersey signers around here — John Witherspoon, Richard Stockton and John Hart.) This sign is on Snowden Lane in Princeton, just outside a home on the National Register of Historic Places.
Learn more about Joseph Hewes here and here. And then read more about discovering local history by bike: A weekend bike tour around Princeton NJ: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.
It was 60 degrees in January. We had to go for a bike ride.
When it tops 60 degrees in January, how do you not go for a bike ride? And so we did, riding a loop of nearly 20 miles with the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Robbinsville as our midway destination.
A mandir is a Hindu temple, and this one is immense — I would call it the equivalent of a cathedral. It’s been open for about 5 1/2 years and is part of a five-building complex still under construction. Like a cathedral, you can come in for services, pray on your own or just gawk at marble carvings.
UPDATE: The temple is now finished.
Continue reading “Discovering an elaborate marble-covered Hindu temple in central New Jersey”Tour de Pines is a winner. And a bargain to boot.
I finally discovered New Jersey’s Tour de Pines — five days of bike rides in and around the Pine Barrens.
I always thought the Pine Barrens and its sandy soil was centered around Brendan Bryne State Park and otherwise was home to some cranberry bogs and that mythical creature called the Jersey Devil.
Continue reading “Tour de Pines: New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, plus penny farthings, pizza vs Wawa — and only a bit of weird beer”
Exploring by bicycle 