It begins!

Well, the day finally came. I got everything packed up and strapped to the bike, and headed out.

I did want to see some more of Manhattan, at least, so I biked from Sasha’s place down almost the entire length of the island. The riding was mostly pretty good, and seeing all the buildings was great, but there were a few points where the bike lane would just disappear for a few blocks, especially in lower Manhattan. I dismounted and walked the sidewalk for those, but there were a lot of food delivery riders much braver than myself weaving with the car traffic. It does seem doable, but I was not having it today.

I went all the way to Battery Park, on the south tip, where I could see the Statue of Liberty. I turned back up slightly and caught a ferry to Liberty State Park on the other side of the river, in New Jersey. I could get a different, closer angle in the Statue of Liberty from there, and I started to feel pretty giddy at making progress.

Those feelings were tempered somewhat by the brute fact of Jersey City. The simple fact of the matter is that there is not a very bike-friendly way out of New York City, at least not to the west. While the first few miles were actually pretty good, by the time I got to Bayonne I was up on the sidewalk, where I would remain for quite some time. I ended up also going a couple blocks off route to go through along a more pleasant street.

Bayonne takes you to the very high Bayonne bridge into Staten Island, which despite being part of New York is physically and spiritually part of New Jersey. The route is kind of tucked away in an awkward corner, and then I took the Goethals Bridge (which also carries I-278) into Elizabeth, NJ.

There’s not a whole lot to say about the rest of the trip. The route involves a lot of zigs and zags through nondescript townships. I was frequently up riding on the sidewalk on roads where I didn’t feel comfortable, which made the going slow. At one point it started raining pretty hard so I sheltered in a Wawa and got some hot food in my stomach. Roosevelt Park in Metuchen seemed pretty nice.

There’s no campsites anywhere nearby and I couldn’t find a host, so I’m in a hotel for the night — the Crowne Plaza Edison. I’m trying to minimize my hotel stays on this trip, but this hotel is actually pretty nice for what I paid.

Route Map

Gallery