I was fortunate to have my son Josh accompany me for this segment of my pilgrimage from Shaker Hts., Ohio to New Brunswick, NJ. On Thursday, 09/02/2010 Zieva and I drove from Detroit to Hazleton, PA and Josh came in a rental car from New York. We spent the night and then all drove to White Haven where Zieva spent the morning working on her book at a coffee shop and Josh and I started our ride. Her plan was to meet us for lunch and then continue to our destination for the day.
We started riding along the east bank of the Lehigh River and soon entered Hickory Run State Park and steep hills (up to 14% grades) that led down to hemlock lined streams and up to pine forests.
After coming out of Hickory Run we followed country roads up and down smaller hills. We followed Pennsylvania Bike Route V which is a cross state bicycle route roughly paralleling Interstate 80. The road surfaces weren't great (especially the two miles of fresh chip seal), but each turn was well marked and we had very good maps of the route.
We decided to eat lunch in Kunkletown, a metropolis consisting of two seedy bars and a small store, and got there at the same time Zieva did. After lunch we climbed out of a valley and over a mountain to the beautiful Cherry Valley Road.
About 3:00 PM we arrived in Delaware Water Gap, PA and Zieva called to tell us that the truck-stop motel we had reserved was a dump and she was also in Delaware Water Gap looking for a better alternative -- she was a block away from us. We found that Delaware Water Gap is a jazz Mecca and almost stayed at an inn which was the hub of jazz in the town. However, it was early and the room smelled musty, so we continued on through the Water Gap, and across the Delaware River into New Jersey.
We followed US46 (which is a 2-lane moderately busy road in this part of New Jersey) for about 7 miles and found a fruit stand selling fresh New Jersey peaches. We both came to the same conclusion, Peach Stop. The peaches were delicious and fueled us for our ride up Ramseyburg Rd. and over a mountain into charming Hope, NJ where we spent the night at the Inn at Millrace Pond.
The next day was bright and sunny and we began our ride by climbing over another mountain from which we got views of Hope, NJ and the Delaware Water Gap.
After descending the mountain, we rejoined US46 and took it southwest to Hackettstown, NJ where we got some more NJ peaches and then some chocolate at a chocolate shop. From there we went south over Schooley's Mountain (it was pretty steep, but looked much worse going from south to north) to Chester, NJ.
I had been concerned about finding a route to New Brunswick since it is in a densely populated part of New Jersey. I wrote to the president of the Rutgers Cycling Club to ask for help planning our route. Nick Apostolopoulos, president of the Club, wrote back and gave us a beautiful route through horse farms, estates and residential neighborhoods from Chester to New Brunswick which we (mostly) followed. Near the end of the trip, in Bound Brook, NJ, we crossed the Raritan too early, but decided to follow the Delaware-Raritan Canal towpath. the path was crushed stone and easy riding with the river on one side and the canal on the other, but there were several rock-paved spillways that were something of a challenge, especially the last one that was water and algae covered and slippery.
We arrived at Rutgers about 3:00 and I was surprised about how much of the stuff I remembered from 50 years ago was still there.
My freshman dorm and a new clock:
The old steel mill that the US was supposed to send to the Soviet Union just as WW II ended, which was a temporary building 50 years ago:
Willie the Silent
and Old Queens
We ended the day by riding to Highland Park, NJ (about 2 miles from Rutgers) to see our goddaughter, Miriam (Marcy Baskin) Rabin. Zieva met us there and we all caught up after not seeing one another for a number of years.