Cheating

There is a 35-mile trail that runs follows the course of the Delaware and Raritan Canal between New Brunswick and Trenton, New Jersey. The historic canal linked the coal fields of eastern Pennsylvania with the New York City markets, a position that kept it in business long after the railroads claimed the business of many other canals.

I have wanted to ride this trail for a while, but with at least 30 miles between me and the Trenton end of the canal, the total distance round trip (150+ miles) was just too great to attempt in a day so I swallowed my pride, woke up early and rode the commuter rail to New Brunswick end of the canal where I started the ride. Technically, this trip was my second one-way ride, New York in 2008 being the first.


Full Screen Version




I rode around New Brunswick, home to Rutgers University for about half-an-hour before connecting with the start of the D&R trail, a leg that began ominously as I slipped while walking a cross a rough spillway and soaked my left foot. Once on the trail surface, the going was very easy along the packed cinder surface.

I made good time to Trenton, but misjudged the distance, which put me off my planned schedule. But, I still had plenty of time left in the day so I headed north along the Feeder Canal as far as Lambertville, NJ where I crossed the Delaware River back in the Pennsylvania at New Hope. After devouring two slices of Pizza, I began the final third of the ride which contained the only hills of the ride. I arrived back at my apartment just after sunset having put 101 more miles on my bike. A respectable accomplishment even if I didn't start and end in the same place.

Statistics
Length: 100.8 miles
Ride Time: 9 hours 25 minutes
Total Time: 11 hours 20 minutes
Avg. Speed: 10.7 MPH
Avg. Cadence: 51 RPM

New Brunswick Terminus - Delaware & Raritan Canal

Rutgers

Spillway on Delaware & Raritan Canal

Kingston Mill

Delaware & Raritan Feeder Canal

Rest of the Pine Barrens

Since deserting my planned Pine Barrens route in order to accomplish a ride to the ocean, I've wanted to return and complete the original circuit. Last Sunday, I took advantage of the nicest biking weather in some time to do just that. Having tackled the harder challenge first, I wasn't worried about this ride.

About the first two-fifths of the ride followed the same route as that mid-July ride, but I did chose a slightly different path here and there. The most notable diversion came about five miles before Chatsworth. I turned off the paved road on to a a sandy dirt track that led in to the bowels of the pine forest. I own a hybrid bike designed to offer some off-road versatility, but this one would have been tough on a full-fledged mountain bike. For me it was at the near edge of possible. In a low gear, riding carefully, I averaged about 6 MPH, faster than walking. My destination was a fire tower about 1.5 miles from the main road. I took my first rest on a high platform overlooking pine forests as far as the eye could see.

Full Screen Version


From the tower, it didn't take long to reach Chatsworth, my departure point a month before, but I still stopped to rest and more importantly eat lunch. This small town was the last place get refreshments for a long time. The 15 mile stretch south of Chatsworth was the hardest part of the ride, but also the most rewarding. Difficult because I rode directly into the wind. Rewarding because I was riding through new—and remote—territory with immense pine forests on either side of me.

Turning west at Green Bank, I began the return ride. A few miles later I stopped a Batsto Historic Site, a preserved iron mill town in the heart of the Pine Barrens. Riding in to the parking lot, I felt a few rain drops. I lost track of time walking around the town and didn't get back on the road until 4:30 PM, somewhat concerned that I might not have enough time to finish the ride.

Crossing Batsto River, I entered Atlantic County New Jersey for the first time in my life and thus completed the state for my extra miler club tracking. With the wind at my back, I expected to realize a faster pace that I did. Worried over the time, I sought a more direct route back and found one in Chew Avenue and Old White Horse Pike. The latter led me to Atco, the last, or I should say first, town that qualifies as a suburb.

At 6:20 PM, I stopped at a convenience store in Berlin to replenish on liquids. I no longer worried about the time of day, but soon encountered another problem. It started to rain. It rained almost all the way back to Philadelphia, not a heavy rain, but a persistent and unwelcome one. At this stage, I could have easily abandoned the ride and taken the PATCO high-speed line to within two blocks of my building, but I pressed forward. My only worry was that due to the weather the bridge authority would have closed the pedestrian walk over the Ben Franklin Bridge. I almost couldn't believe the gate was open when I rode up to it. By now, the rain had stopped and I had a nice ride over the bridge at dusk.

Statistics
Length: 106.8 miles
Ride Time: 9 hours 4 minutes
Total Time: 11 hours 22 minutes
Avg. Speed: 11.7 MPH
Max. Speed: 21.9 MPH
Avg. Cadence: 58 RPM
Max. Elevation: 230 ft.
Total Ascent: 1,900 ft.

Road to Apple Pie Hill Fire Tower

View from Apple Pie Hill Fire Tower

Cranberry Bogs

Batsto Saw Mill

Spring Garden at Dusk

Northern Loop

The thick black dotted line around the Northeast Airport on the Philadelphia Bicycle Map I sometimes use for inspiration indicates a paved off-road recreation trail. Sandwiched between busy roads and the airport, I never gave it much thought. But after sleeping too late to endeavor on my plan for the day, I set my sights on the northeast airport as a back-up goal.

I got started around 10:00 AM. I rode 16 miles though the neighborhoods of Northeast Philadelphia before I reached the airport. The trail was a nice surprise. It was only 4.5 miles, but with few interrupting driveways and very few other users, it was an easy ride. I even got to see a couple of planes land.

Full Screen Version


At the end of that trail, I wasn't yet ready to head back in to town so I struck out in northwesterly direction. On Red Lion Avenue, just before leaving the City, I stomped out a smoldering grass fire started by a discarded cigarette. I continued in that direction until I nearly crossed the Turnpike, which I then roughly paralleled to the Cross County Trail, which as recently extended to Germantown Pike near Plymouth Meeting. The Cross County Trail merges with the Schuylkill River Trail above Conshockon so from that point on it was a familiar ride in to town.

Statistics
Length: 57.6 miles
Ride Time: 5 hours 2 minutes
Total Time: 5 hours 17 minutes
Avg. Speed: 11.7 MPH
Max. Speed: 30.2 MPH
Avg. Cadence: 59 RPM
Total Ascent: 2,250 ft.
Max. Elevation: 398 ft.

Pennsylvania Overlooks - Day 2

I started day two of my Pennsylvania Overlooks trip with breakfast at the Kennedy's. When they left for church, I headed for the Forest Cathedral in Cook Forest State Park. My route took me past Brady's Bend overlook, a large curve in the Allegheny River. Before reaching Forest Cathedral, I made one stop in Cook Forest Park, Seneca Point to climb the old fire tower and see the nearby overlook of the Clarion River.

Brady's Bend

Seneca Point - Cook Forest

Cook Forest is one of the few stands of virgin timber in the state and touted as the best example of old growth forest in the northeast. My three mile hike along the Longfellow, Rhododendron, and Ancient Forest trails took a little less than 1.5 hours. Some of the hemlocks approached 200 feet in height. Their extraordinary height was on best display as the Ancient Forest trail traced the contours in gully along the steep slope.

Forest Cathedral - Cook Forest

My book suggested my next stop, an overlook near Cook Forest called Beartown Rocks. I enjoyed the overlook, but the enormous boulders in vicinity were even more interesting. Some were the size of a small house. The overlook is on one group of such boulders. Several teams were trying to find a geocache, a hobby I've sampled but never really embraced.

Beartown Rocks

I spent most of the rest of the day in the car, but fortunately, I had ample time to avoid freeways in favor of country roads, including Elk Scenic Drive, a very rural stretch of highway in central Pennsylvania. The state's elk herd resides in the surrounding forests and few areas spaced along the road offer the chance to spot them. I stopped at a couple, but--driving mid-day in mid-summer--wasn't surprised not to find any.

I saved the best overlook for last, Hyner View State Park, near Renovo. A six mile detour off PA-120 climbs 1,300 feet above the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. The view directly west (upstream) is very spectacular. In the thick summer haze, the river flowed silver ensconced between ash-grey hills. The state highway, straight as it advanced from, incidentally, South Bend, PA, created a broad arc as it turned south before crossing the river, a nice clean counter-point to nature's asymmetry.

Hyner View

The true home stretch began after Hyner View. A short stint on I-80 was actually a welcome interlude to the twisty two-lane roads I traveled most of the day. Still, I left the interstate behind at Bloomsburg and cut south through Frackville and Reading rather than take the faster, but not that much faster, Northeast Turnpike route back to Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania Overlooks - Day 1

Though I didn't realize how it how come to pass until driving home, the last weekend in July, I took a tour of Pennsylvania overlooks. A few years back I picked up a book listing about fifty such overlooks. Since then I've visited handful in my travels. I didn't intend to structure my recent weekend trip by that book. Rather I sought to use it to fill in my preconceived itinerary: a detour to checkout Raystown Lake overlook (discovered while surfing the web), a hike in Blue Knob State Park (to follow on the heels of my trip to Mount Davis, the state's highest point), an exploration of downtown Pittsburgh (having blown through on the expressway recently), and a stop in Cook Forest State Park (identified in a National Geographic book as one of the state's best). All had mention in the overlooks books.

Full Screen Version



I left from Philadelphia early Saturday morning and drove straight to Raystown Lake. I tried not to rely on the GPS for navigation and ended up on the wrong road, but found my way soon enough to the overlook at the dam that forms the lake, and two others nearby. The third overlook, Hatches, offered the best view of the lake and the many people recreating on it.

Raystown Lake

On my way to Blue Know State Park, I drove through Saxton, Pennsylvania. Our family is good friends with a family of the same name. I took some pictures to include with their Christmas card. At Blue Knob, I got out the car for and hiked 5.5 miles through the woods to the summit. Along the way, I saw bobcat, though it could have been Nittany Lion based on the way it dashed off and hid when it saw my Michigan hat. Pavia Lookout along the Mountain View trail had the best view, though by this point the sky was rather hazy. A ski area occupied the summit itself. It was interesting to see the equipment lazing for the summer.

Blue Knob

From Blue Knob I drove straight to Mount Washington, which overlooks downtown Pittsburgh. I wanted to ride one of the two historic inclines; howiver time didn't permit such an adventure, but the great views up, across, and down the Monongahela were more than enough to make the stop worthwhile. Getting down Mount Washington was a bit challenging, but I found my way and arrived at Terry Kennedy's house shortly after 7:00 PM, just in time for a scrumptious dinner cooked on the grill. Terry is a colleague at work. The Kennedy's let me stay the night in their house for the night. It's not the first time I stayed with them, and as before they provided a most welcome atmosphere. They even let me win Mexican Train.

Mount Washington, Pittsburgh