chipg5

Has anyone here done this route, or parts of it?

https://www.state.nj.us/transportatio...ntcapemay6.pdf

I'm planning a trip this coming summer and was thinking about doing this ride to get down to the Delaware shore from Cape May via ferry, but I don't know any of the areas it goes through.

Thanks!

jerseyJim

Wow Thanks for posting this! I would like to hear from anyone who has camped or has camping site info for anywhere along or near this route. Public private or stealth.

indyfabz

The file is too large to look at on this computer.

Another option is the leave from High point, ride to Port Jervis and take River Rd. from U.S. 6 into NJ (becomes CR 521 in NJ) to Old Mine Rd. then ride that and NPS Rd. 615 through the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation area to Delaware Water Gap, PA. From there, ride down along the river, cross back into NJ at Belvidere and continue down river on the NJ side. You can pick up the D&R canal path all the way to Trenton. Or at Lambertville, NJ, you can cross back into PA and ride to Philly and then on to the Jersey Shore.

It would take longer, but the ride through the DWGNRA is really nice. You might even see a bear or two. So is the ride south along the river from Delaware Water Gap, PA. There is nice campinng along the river near the south end of Old Mine Rd. at Worthington State Forest. There is a private campground in Portland, PA (never stayed there) and another one (expensive and on the river) south of Portland called Driftstone on the Delaware. There is another private camprgound on the PA side of the river not too far from Milford, NJ. Owner is nice and gave me a cyclist discount. The camground at Bull's Island (a state park) a little north of Stockton, NJ may or may not be open next summer.

You can do High Point to Philly (obviously no camping, but there is a hostel or two) in three days. From Philly you can ride to Belleplain State Forest in Woodbine, NJ for camping (therer is a swimming lake there) in one day or forge on to Cape May. If you don't want to ride through Camden, NJ, you can take a short 25 min. train ride that will take you past the bad areas. Bikes allowed 24/7 and there are elevators at certain stations. It how I go when I ride to the south Jersey shore.

I can give you route specifics if you are interested.

jerseyJim

That's great advice Indy I appreciate it. I rode out to the Gap at Frenchtown last summer and then up to Belvidere along the river. If you are ever riding through Belvidere and you need some grub try Thisilldous. They had some pretty awesome southern style BBQ with a variety of homemade sauces. Camped at Spruce Run in Clinton and Stevens by Hackettstown. Stevens has brand new spotless shower facilities. I wouldn't mind going that way again it was a very nice ride.

indyfabz

I have yet to eat there. Only been to Scoogie's and Uncle Buck's. Camped at Spruce Run last Easter weekend. Heard loons at night and saw them the next morning. When I rode from Port Jervis to Philly in May I dropped my P&S camera off the bridge to Belvidere. It now sleeps with the fishes.

Planning to ride to my 30th high school reunion in western MA in June. Hoping to go that way and camp at the Lakota Wolf Preserve in Blairstown.

The guy who owns Dog Wood Haven campground across the river from Milford, NJ is very nice. He offered me a beer and gave me a cyclist discount.

chipg5

Thanks! I'd actually planned to go along the river but really wanted to avoid the whole Philly area, then stumbled upon this state bike route so thought I'd check it out. I don't know New Jersey at all, but maybe will check to see if there's a way to easily cut over from DWG to the route.

indyfabz

I looked at the High Point to Cape May route. I am not a big fan of some of those roads, including SR 50. That can be very busy depending on the time of day and time of year. U.S. 206 can also have a lot of traffic in places.

Getting through Philly is not bad if you do it on a weekend. Adventure Cycling incorporated my route suggestion between New Hope and the Schuykill River Trail into its Atlantic Coast route. Once you get to the trail you can can ride nearly car-free into the center of town. There is only about one mile of street riding to the Art Museum. When I ride to the shore, I take the PATCO train to Woodcrest Station in Cherry Hill and then go from there. The route depends on which shore town I am riding to.

In October I did an overnight to Belleplain State Forest in Woodbine. It's actually a nice place to camp in the off-season. The center of Woodbine, which is a few miles from the campground, is sort of a dump and has few services. There is, however, a pizza/pasta place and a small market. The latter was closed for a while and recently reopened. Haven't been inside the new version. Further east on CR 550 is a nice sit-down place and a liquor store.

As a general rule, when riding to the Jersey shore during the summer, it's best to get an early start, especially Friday thru Sunday.

As noted, another option would be to come down along the river and take the D&R canal path to Trenton. Maybe you could get back on the route from there. I ride in Hunterdon and Warren Counties several times a year. Heading east from the river can involve some serious climbing, especially if you don't know the flatter roads to take.

jerseyJim

Hey Chip I am definitely going to do this ride in the spring and I think I will start as indy suggests. I probably will cut east around Lambertvlle and head through Princeton and pick up the route there. Or if you wanted to head west from Frenchtown you could pick up the route around Manville. Frenchtown, Lambertville, (and New Hope on the other side of the river) and Princeton are all nice areas to linger.

indyfabz

Just remembered that I have a nice route from L'Ville to Somerville, which is right next to Bound Brook, which I think is on the High Point-Cape May route. It's part of the route the BCP uses for its annual New Hope to Brooklyn ride. About 33 miles to Somerville. Not overly hilly. Sort of out of way though since it takes you northeast just to have to come south again.

chipg5

Thanks guys, very helpful. At this point I'm planning to go down along the river to Lambertville then cutting over to Princeton to hook up with the High Pt Cape May route.

Any thoughts about decent bike routes to get between those two points (Lambertville and Princeton)?

indyfabz, thanks for the suggestion. Looking at the routes though that would add 30+ miles; if there's no decent Lville Pton route (meaning for me a route that's not got a lot of traffic and/or decent shoulders, I don't mind climbing) I would consider it, but I'm on a bit of a deadline to be getting down to Norfolk, VA (my final destination).

Thanks!

groth

Well, you can ride the tow paths of the D&R feeder canal and canal from Lambertville to Princeton. Flat! However, the paving is fine gravel so you might like that. If you are interested, the part through Trenton is not well marked so take a GPS or print out a section of Google maps. (I tested this route several months ago and lucky for me I thought to take a printout.)

How are you coming south along the river? If you are taking Rt. 29 from Frenchtown, it loses the shoulders at Prallsville Mills about 3-1/2 miles north of Lambertville. I sometimes continue on to Lambertville on Rt. 29, but pretty much only on Sundays when there are no trucks. Otherwise I get on the tow path.

If you want to take roads from Lambertville to Princeton, I'm afraid you're stuck with no shoulders on a lot of the two lane roads and some of them will have high traffic during rush hour. Here's a route on ridewithgps. (There's some glitch on Rosedale Road that I can't seem to make go away.) Once you hit Elm Ridge you're on my commute route and you'll understand why I only commute when I can do so in the daylight at non-rush hour times. The road going out of Lambertville is steep but leads to a good view when you go around the cemetery. Also there are steep parts on Pleasant Valley Road and it was badly chip sealed a bit over a year ago.

You can avoid the steepest parts of Pleasant Valley Road by turning left on Pleasant Valley - Harbourton Rd and taking 579 back to the original route. There's no real way to avoid the steep climb out of Lambertville unless you go parallel to the river (tow path or Rt. 29).

- Ed

rhm

I just looked at a lot of that map, from the beginning through to about Egg Harbor City.

I have ridden a lot of those roads, as well as a lot of the roads that go parallel to them, and in many cases I'm kinda scratching my head thinking, why go that way? North of Princeton, for example, River Road on the east side of the canal is, in my opinion, a much nicer road than the one on the other side of the canal. And again, between Brown's Mills and Chatsworth, there are some beautiful and very quiet paved roads through the pine woods, but this route puts you on relatively boring and heavily trafficked roads.

I suspect this brochure, being a State of NJ publication, sticks to state maintained roads even where locally maintained roads might be nicer. That's my guess, anyway.

There's a cycling club in Princeton that does an annual "longest day" ride, on or about June 21, on which you ride that whole thing, from High Point to Cape May, in one day. Pretty brutal! I've never done it, but I downloaded their cue sheet and have ridden many sections of that route. It is a better route than the one in this brochure.

chipg5

Thanks Ed, sounds like the tow path is the way to go, will definitely bring a print out, I checked it out on the satellite view and it does look tricky in Trenton. I'll probably be on my road bike with 23's but I've ridden on towpaths with fine gravel before without a problem. And yeah I plan to be coming down 29 from Frenchtown, and probably not on Sunday, so will def'ly switch over to the tow path at that point.

chipg5

I think you're right rhm about the official route. I found the Longest Day ride cue sheet online, thanks a lot for the tip, I'll definitely follow that instead of the official route, it seems a bit shorter too.

At this point I'll be following the Delaware from Pt Jervis down to lambertville (here's that part of the route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/1983657), then follow the canal towpath to outside of Princeton, picking up the Longest Day ride route where it crosses the canal path, at Rt 27/Lincoln Highway near Princeton.

Thanks everyone for the input, any other suggestions tips always appreciated. Now I just have to hope for decent weather -- probably doing this late June/early July.

rhm

Cool. How many days to do this? You can camp in my yard, about a mile off the canal, a few miles before Princeton.

How do you feel about riding on sand? The Pinelands are full of a variety of sand roads that are a heck of a lot of fun, though the going can get tough. There are also paved roads, but hard to find. I'll look at ridewithgps sometime before June and suggest a route utilizing some of the nicer roads I've found.

neilfein

Sand also likes to hide in a bike's drivetrain. I lost a rear derailer near Pemberton, in part because of this. Be careful and bring something along to clean your chain and cogs, or at least wipe them down.

groth

One thing I remembered from my test ride is that there was a length of the path that was blocked off by construction fencing between Washington's Crossing & Trenton (don't remember exactly where). Anyway, I went around the fence and there was nobody actually working since it was a Sunday, so I had no real problem. I believe the work was maintenance on the canal itself. This was several months ago, so they might be finished. I checked the park website and they list a small detour in Lambertville that I wasn't aware of (due to Sandy), but not any construction farther south. So maybe it's done. I guess you just need to be aware that there could be closures (just like any road closure) and you might need to be creative - but that's part of the adventure, right?

- Ed

rhm

It's true, sand can be problematic. But if you fear it, you have to stick to paved roads and risk missing out on some of the real fun.

The Pinelands start maybe about 30 miles from my house, so if I do a century or double metric century I can get pretty far into the woods.





The fun begins when the hard packed surface turns to sugar, which happens very quickly:


I've ended up walking a few times! But fortunately I never had to walk very far.

chipg5

Jim if you find a nice on-road Lambertville - Princeton route let me know!

chipg5

Thanks rhm. I'm doing the whole route, from Ithaca to Norfolk, VA (actually to the beginning of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel) probably in 6 days, I'm going to try for 100 miles/day, and travel very light so hotelling it, but thanks for the offer!

Not a big fan of sand. Would love some nice paved roads if you can suggest some that parallel the Longest Day ride (which at that point seems about the same as the NJ bike route).

BTW nice pix!

chipg5

Oh yeah, always adventures! Thanks Ed I'll be sure to see if there's any closures when I get closer to the date (maybe call the canal park office).

jerseyJim

I haven't looked at it too closely yet but heading east on 516 from Lambertville or 546 from Washington's Crossing both look pretty good. You are not going to go through Princeton unless you head east at Lambertville but you get to stay on the D&R pathway longer if you wait to head East till Washington's Crossing. Has anybody camped in Washington's Crossing State Park? Around Assunpink?

rhm

There are lots of nice routes from Lambertville to Princeton. It's all a question of how you feel about hills. I'm talking New Jersey hills, now; nothing to be afraid of. But some people don't like them.

The Delaware River cuts through the last little ridges of the Appalachian system in the miles before Lambertville. At those places, the river is in a fairly deep cut through the hills. Lambertville is right at the beginning of the last of those, which goes more or less to Titusville. So if you head straight from Lambertville toward Princeton, you will have to contend with some hills. They are nice, friendly hills. I like them, Sourland Mountain in particular. If you want to avoid hills, you have to stay in the valley just past Titusville. Then you can turn east and ride through Pennington.

So, before anyone suggests a route, tell us how you feel about hills!

chipg5

Hills are not a problem, my morning commute includes a 500 foot climb over a mile, and I led a club ride in August with 5500 ft climbing over 37 miles. And if these are " nice friendly" hills then definitely no problem!

neilfein

The hills outside Lambertville are definitely not "nice friendly" hills. They're long and steep. And then you round a corner and there are more of them. It's a great area to ride, just be prepared for those hills!