Jersey Highlands and Greenwood Lake
A 353 km loop
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Why this ride
Leave the city behind and spend the day on roads with texture. 353 km round from Mountainside - plan on about 6 h 25 of riding. The stops in between: near Warren Township, Belmar, Sea Bright and near Stamford.
Roadbook
- Fuel stop near Mountainside
fuel
Fuel at 0 km.
- High point near Warren Township
swim
High point near Warren Township comes up 62 km in.
- Belmar
food
In January 1946, at Camp Evans, an army research base a few kilometres inland from Belmar, engineers bounced a radar signal off the Moon and detected the echo for the first time. Project Diana, as it was called, marked the birth of radar astronomy and the space age, and the site is now home to a museum of communications history.
Belmar is a classic Jersey Shore beach town, with a wide sandy beach, a boardwalk and streets of wooden houses. The Shark River inlet, at the northern end of town, is busy with fishing boats and pleasure craft, and the marina is a good place to watch the boats come and go. In summer, the town is packed with young people, and the bars are loud.
This stop marks the start of a ride into the Jersey Highlands, a region of wooded ridges, lakes and twisting roads in the north of the state. Leaving early, before the traffic builds, is the best way to start the day.
For food, Belmar has diners, bakeries and seafood restaurants, and the boardwalk stands sell coffee, egg sandwiches and pork roll, a New Jersey breakfast meat that locals call Taylor ham in the north. The debate over the name is fierce, and visitors are advised not to take sides.
If you have time for a quick swim before setting off, the beach is wide and guarded in summer, though like most Jersey Shore towns Belmar charges a beach fee in season. Fuel is on Route 35 and Route 71, where an attendant will fill the tank while you finish your coffee.
- Sea Bright
swim
Sea Bright is barely a town at all in the geographic sense: a strip of sand a few hundred metres wide, with the Atlantic on one side, the Shrewsbury River on the other, and Ocean Avenue running down the middle. A great grey seawall shields the road from the ocean, and on a windy day you can feel the spray even though you cannot see the waves. Beach clubs, seafood bars and surf shops line the street, and in summer the whole place hums.
Ride north and the strip continues into Sandy Hook, part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, a long hooked spit with beaches, dunes, old army batteries from Fort Hancock and the Sandy Hook Lighthouse, the oldest working lighthouse in the United States, first lit in 1764. On a clear day the Manhattan skyline floats on the horizon across the bay. To the south, Ocean Avenue runs through Monmouth Beach toward Long Branch, with big houses and glimpses of the sea between them.
This is a fragile place. Hurricane Sandy in 2012 broke through the seawall, flooded the town and wrecked many businesses, and much of what you see has been rebuilt since. Storms still push water across the road now and then, especially in the autumn and winter nor'easters, so check the forecast if it looks rough.
The riding here is about atmosphere, not curves. Ocean Avenue is flat and straight, limited to low speeds and patrolled, and in July and August it is full of beach traffic, cyclists and people crossing with coolers. Come early on a summer morning, or in September, when the water is still warm, the crowds are gone and the light is soft. The Rumson bridge takes you over the river into a very different world: shaded lanes, huge estates and old trees.
For the rides north to the Berkshires or west to the Delaware Water Gap, Sea Bright is a seaside bookend, the place to begin with salt air and finish with a plate of clams. The long run out of New Jersey involves the Garden State Parkway or similar highways before the good roads begin, so set off early. Fuel and supplies are easiest in Rumson or back on the mainland along Route 36. In summer, beach access usually requires a paid badge, and parking anywhere near the sand is scarce, though a motorcycle can often squeeze in where a car cannot.
- Photo stop near Stamford
swim
Photo stop near Stamford sits at 247 km, about halfway.
- Scenic stretch in Harrison
swim
Scenic stretch in Harrison comes up 309 km in.
- Harrison
finish
The New York Red Bulls play football at a sleek stadium on the banks of the Passaic river in Harrison, and on match days the small town fills with fans. Harrison is an old industrial town in Hudson County, New Jersey, across the river from Newark, where factories once made thread, steel and light bulbs. Many of the old works have been demolished and replaced with apartment towers, and the PATH train connects the town to Manhattan.
Across the river, the Ironbound district of Newark is famous for its Portuguese, Brazilian and Spanish restaurants, serving grilled meats, seafood and wine. The neighbourhood got its name from the railway lines that surrounded it, and it is one of the most vibrant food scenes in the New York area.
Coming back from the Jersey Highlands and Greenwood Lake, a day of wooded hills, lakes and twisting roads in the north of the state, home comes via the interstates into the urban core. Traffic is heavy, and the roads around Newark are a maze of junctions and ramps. Watch for potholes, trucks and aggressive drivers.
There is no great scenery to reward you at the end, but there is food. Cross the bridge into the Ironbound, find a rodízio where waiters keep bringing skewers of grilled meat until you surrender, and wash it down with a glass of vinho verde. Fuel is on every main road, attendant service included, as everywhere in New Jersey.
On match nights, check the fixtures before you plan your route. The streets around the stadium close and fill with fans, and parking a bike becomes a negotiation.
- Back to Jersey Highlands
finish
This is the Watchung country, a pair of long, curved ridges that rise suddenly from the flat suburbs of central New Jersey and give the area a surprisingly hilly character.
The ridges are made of basalt, the dark rock of ancient lava flows that poured out roughly two hundred million years ago when the supercontinent began to break apart and the Atlantic Ocean began to open. The lava cooled into hard layers that resisted erosion better than the softer red sandstone around them, so the hills stand as long, forested walls. In several places the rock forms small cliffs and waterfalls.
During the American Revolution, the Watchungs were a vital strategic asset. George Washington's army camped behind them for long periods, and from a lookout known as Washington Rock the general could see British troop movements across the plain toward New York. The view from the rock, high above the town of Green Brook, still runs out over flat country to the distant skyline on a clear day.
The Watchung Reservation, a large county park, protects much of the ridge here, with a nature centre, lake and woodland trails. The park roads curve through tall oak and tulip trees, and the speed limit is low, with deer, joggers and cyclists sharing the route. It is a pleasant, shady place to ride slowly, and in autumn the colours are generous. The roads outside the park, the old Route 22 and the main streets of the little towns, are busy and lined with shops, so the relief is real when you turn into the woods.
For fuel and food, Scotch Plains and New Providence have all the usual places, and there are many bakeries and diners, with a particular local fondness for Italian delis and sandwiches piled with cold cuts. This is the easiest ground of the whole ride, and you can pause here without any difficulty.
Spring brings dogwood and magnolia, and the humid summer afternoons often end in thunderstorms. In winter, snow can make the steep local lanes tricky, and salt makes the surface greasy.