Why this ride
A 299 km one-way ride from near New City, about 4 h 52 of riding. On the way it passes Scenic stretch in Fanwood, Manville and near Little Silver. in Montvale is the high point.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Hawk’s Nest and Upper Delaware · short arc
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 299 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 52
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Food stop in New City
Planning note
Food stop in New City is where the day begins. Next is High point in Montvale.
2. High point in Montvale
Planning note
You top out here; the road stops climbing. Next is Scenic stretch in Fanwood.
3. Scenic stretch in Fanwood
Fanwood is one of those small, tidy New Jersey boroughs built around a railway station, with a compact centre, tree-lined streets and commuters heading for Manhattan each morning. On its own it offers little for a rider beyond a quiet road and a coffee, but its position at the foot of the Watchung Mountains makes it a useful starting point.
Read the complete Scenic stretch in Fanwood write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 81 km into the recorded legs you reach Scenic stretch in Fanwood. Next is New York / Hudson Valley rides return.
4. Near Manville, on the way back
Manville takes its name from a factory. In the early twentieth century, the Johns-Manville company built a huge plant here in central New Jersey, producing asbestos building materials, and a town grew around it to house the workers, many of them immigrants from Eastern Europe. The plant closed in the 1980s after asbestos was found to be deadly, and the company was bankrupted by lawsuits. Today Manville is a modest working-class borough of small houses and shops, sitting where the Raritan and Millstone rivers meet.
Read the complete Near Manville, on the way back write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
New York / Hudson Valley rides return, about halfway. Next is Photo stop near Little Silver.
5. Photo stop near Little Silver
Little Silver occupies a neck of land between two tidal rivers, the Navesink and the Shrewsbury, in the comfortable heart of Monmouth County. It is an old place by American standards, settled in the seventeenth century, and the river shores around it are lined with marinas, big houses and marshes where ospreys nest on platforms in summer. Red Bank, next door, is a lively small town with theatres and restaurants, and it was the birthplace of the jazz bandleader Count Basie, whose name is on the town's grand old theatre.
Read the complete Photo stop near Little Silver write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Photo stop near Little Silver sits at 214 km, about halfway. Next is Hawk’s Nest and Upper Delaware checkpoint 8.
6. Near Ridgefield
You finish this ride in the flat, busy heart of Bergen County, New Jersey, between Ridgefield, Moonachie and Little Ferry, only a few miles across the Hudson from Manhattan. The landscape is the Meadowlands, a huge tidal wetland along the Hackensack River that was for decades a dumping ground for trash and industry and has slowly been cleaned up. Today it is a strange mix: warehouses, highways, rail yards and an airport, alongside reed beds, mud flats and channels full of herons, egrets and ospreys.
Read the complete Near Ridgefield write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 299 km. Next is Back to Hawk’s Nest.
7. Back to Hawk’s Nest
Hawk's Nest, the cliff road along the Delaware, is a long way from here. In the early twentieth century this part of the island was the Gold Coast, where the families of bankers and industrialists built mansions with lawns that ran down to the shore, and F. Scott Fitzgerald lived at Great Neck in the 1920s and drew on the area for the world of Gatsby, with its East Egg and West Egg.
Read the complete Hawk’s Nest write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back to Hawk’s Nest closes the day.
Leg by leg
Food stop in New City to High point in Montvale
Food stop in New City → High point in Montvale is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
High point in Montvale to Scenic stretch in Fanwood
High point in Montvale → Scenic stretch in Fanwood is 67 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Scenic stretch in Fanwood to Near Manville, on the way back
Scenic stretch in Fanwood → Near Manville, on the way back is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Photo stop near Little Silver to Near Ridgefield
Photo stop near Little Silver → Near Ridgefield is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.