North Jersey Trip

Click Here for More Pictures
There are some inviting bicycling trips in the back of Bicycling Magazine, each month, but you don't have to travel far to find a nice bike trip. This past weekend I headed to North Jersey for a weekend to do a couple of rides I have been wanting to do for a while. I did a lot of exploring in North Jersey when I wrote the book but haven't been back up since.

The north west part of New Jersey is very rural and if you don't mind doing some hills there are a lot of nice roads to ride. It's a 2 hour ride for me to get to this area so instead of doing a long day trip I decided to make a weekend of it so I could get a couple of rides in.

I have talked up the trip for a couple of months and had a lot of people interest but when I finally picked a weekend I only got 3 other people to join me (Laura, Cheryl, and Lynne). The plan for the weekend was to drive up early Saturday to Milford PA and ride from there to High Point and back. Sunday we planned to ride around Newton NJ including the famous Shades of Death road. (High Point ridesheet here, Shades of Death ridesheet here)

We got an early start on Saturday morning. Laura, Cheryl and I started out a little after 6am and despite some detours made pretty good time to Milford where we were met by Lynne. We planned to start the ride from Milford Beach but there was a fee to park there so we parked at the Grand Union in the middle of town.

The first part of the ride was relatively flat as we crossed back over the bridge to the Jersey side and headed down Old Mine Road along the Delaware. We continued through Peter's Valley towards Walpack and then had our first real climb through Stokes State forest. Before the climb began we saw a bunch of people standing in the field. We thought they were bird watching but it turns out they were watching butterflies.

The climb through Stokes was long but not too tough and the scenery was nice. We then headed through Layton and some more rolling hills and had a nice rest stop at a deli and bait shop when we crossed Rt 206. A few miles after the stop the real climbing began. Most roads that lead to Highpoint State park are continuous 600 or 700 feet climbs that have a couple of steep spots. The easiest way up is to use Deckertown Rd to Sawmill. You do the same amount of climbing or even a little more but it is a series of climbs that give you some breaks to recover in between.

As we started our climb up Deckertown there was a sign that said the road was closed in 4.5 miles which was exactly how far it was to our turn so I though it might be OK. It turned out there was a bridge that was out about 500 feet before our turn. There was actually a section of bridge missing. If we couldn't cross the bridge there was no way we could make it to High Point.

Even though a section of bridge was missing there were two large cement pipes a few feet below the road so it looked like it was possible to walk across the missing section. After talking about it for a few minutes I decided to give it a try and lowered myself down to the pipes walked across them and jumped up to the road on the other side. We then moved the bikes over the missing section and all made it across to the other side.

We were back on course again and when we make the left turn on to Sawmill there were a couple of Motorcycles that saw us coming over the closed bridge. They asked if they could make it across the bridge like we did. I said that I doubted that they could carry their "bikes" over the missing section like we did. The only way the would get across it was if they jumped it like Evil Kenevil.

We continued slowly climbing and made it to entrance to High Point State Park. The monument was in sight so we continued on to the top. The last quarter mile to the monument is the toughest part. Its very steep with a couple of short section that are around 20% grade but with the monument so close you just suck it up and do it.

It was a little overcast when we got to the top but the view was still pretty good and we hung out for a while to rest our legs. We lost Cheryl for a little while and didn't know where she went until she returned from climbing the 6 flight of stairs to the top of the monument I guess she still had some energy left.

We relaxed by the monument and took some pictures to prove we made it then started to head back to our starting point. Since we were at the highest point in the state we had a lot of downhill ahead of us. We headed out of the park and down Rt 23 and went from 1800 ft to 600 ft in about 5 miles which was a lot of fun. We were then back in the valley and had a few more rollers(which felt tougher then normal because of all the climbing) to go over before we made back to Milford Bridge. The bridge has a pedestrian walkway that we used on the way back. It was a metal walkway that vibrated as we rode across and didn't feel real stable.

The original plan was to get a hotel in Milford but Lynne's sister, Mira, had a house in Milford and was nice enough to let us crash there. Mira and her husband Ron were really great hosts. Not only did they provide us a place to stay but also made us a dinner. We had a nice evening with good conversation and great food. It was a perfect end to a good day.

The plan for Sunday was to drive to Newton NJ and do a 50 mile less hilly ride but unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worst. On Friday when I checked the weather the forecast for Sunday was slight chance for afternoon showers so I did think it would be a problem to get the ride in. I could go on and on about how Accuweather isn't but the truth is weather is unpredictable.

Because we couldn't ride we just hung around a little longer and then headed home. We made a quick stop on the way out at Raymondsskills falls and took a quick hike to the falls and back since the rain had let up a little.

On the way home we hit some traffic caused by all the people leaving the Poconos we also hit some really heavy, wrath of god, rain in spots. Despite the traffic and rain we did OK on time on the way home. Even though we didn't get the Sunday ride in it was still a good trip and something I would like to do a little more often.