Originally Posted by
Dahon.Steve
I'll try to take pictures next time around. I hope this explains and makes it easier but please be VERY CAREFUL about walking down those stairs. They are dangerous and you are actually safer in some respects going down the ramp providing there there's little traffic.
Let me try again. When going from Jersey City to Newark, you'll cross the Hackensack river and on to the Passaic. Once you cross over the second bridge but before you hit the ramp to Doremus avenue, start looking over to your right because the stairs are there! They are covered in dirt about 30-50 feet before you reach the ramp. Go slowly next time. They are there.
OK, I will look closely next time. But going down the ramp onto Doremus Ave. in the same direction as traffic has seemed doable both times that I have attempted it. I am more interested about coming east. For that I'd need to know where the stairs hit the street on Doremus.
Originally Posted by
Dahon.Steve
Believe it or not, there is a dirt path to the West Side of the bridge but it's very steep.
Here's where I apologise again for being dense: "West side" of the bridge? What do you mean by that? Do you mean the
westbound (north) side, i.e., the Kearny-to-Newark side, the side we are talking about, the side with the stairs that I haven't found?
Originally Posted by
Dahon.Steve
I can not recommend trying to carry a bicycle up that path but it does appear that dock workers have and did use it to get on the West Side of the bridge. There are no steps and it would be a difficult climb on a bicycle. I might be crazy to climb up that hill because the view from the west side looks real interesting!!! The West Side is also dirtier and there's a section where the sidewalk and the highway are just a few feet apart with no protection. Not cool.
What's so crazy is that there is a BUS STOP on the west side of the bridge so people are using it!
OK, from this bit, it appears that it is not the westbound side that you are talking about; but, rather the other side -- the eastbound (south) side, the Newark-to-Kearny side. (Once again: please forgive my lack of comprehension! I thank you for going over this. I just really want to nail it down.)
Originally Posted by
Dahon.Steve
I'm impressed you went all the way to Seaside heights from New York!
Hehe, thanks! I'm impressed, too! The toughest part, mentally, was the beginning. The whole thing seemed terribly daunting at first. For example, after I had done 30 or 35 miles, it was almost chilling to realise that I still hadn't really made a dent!
I found that the trip was actually more challenging mentally than physically. (Though I was more laden than usual, due to the need to carry changes of clothes and other supplies. So my bags (plural) were heavier than the one bag I usually carry. This eventually gave me a bit of pain in my shoulder and back.)
But my perception finally adjusted at some point. I can remember looking at my watch and noting that 5 hours had passed. What seemed to me like only a few minutes later, I looked at the watch again, and saw that 6 hours had elapsed. After that, I was in the mental "zone"; it got easier mentally, and the hours began to tick off rather quickly.
Originally Posted by
Dahon.Steve
I would have avoided all the highways and took city streets.
I did do that! I avoided all of the highway-like stretches of 35, and anything crazy like Route 9. The other "highways" (27, 36, and 71) were all city streets.
Here is the route:
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/119464677
(Though the bit heading towards the bridge in Jersey City is not what I intended to mark on the map, and not what I actually did. The site MapMyRide.com went a little nuts on me there. The route I intended to mark, and in fact rode, was a right off of Summit Ave. onto Communipaw Ave., and then Communipaw straight to the end of Lincoln Park, where I just went up onto the sidewalk over the bridge.)
Originally Posted by
Dahon.Steve
Each year I take the train to Long Branch and ride all the way to BayHead visiting each beach. You should see Asbury Park today! It is changing fast and will be totally different 20 years from now. Just five years ago it was a total dump!!
I was really impressed with Asbury Park! I stopped there to make a call -- it was the only place on the way down where I found a pay phone. (No, I do not have a cell phone.) I love cities more than anything else; and Asbury Park felt like a real city. It felt like a Hudson County-type of place.
Anyway, I am back home now, and feeling pretty good about the whole thing. It's amazing how little sleep I got when I was down there, only about 5 hours each on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. I was just so psyched about being there.
On Wednesday I rode all around the area, going over the Rt. 37 bridge to Toms River, then back to Seaside and up the peninsula to Lavallette (where I went to the library to write my previous post in this thread), and back down; a total of about 20 miles. On Thursday I rode the 10 miles to Bay Head, where I caught the train to Newark and then the PATH to downtown Manhattan, and I rode the 10 miles home. (I didn't ride today; today I am just savouring the whole thing. I'm sure I'll do plenty of riding tomorrow in Manhattan, when they open up Park Ave. again for "Summer Streets".)