Members' Journals

I did the ride I was talking about on the D&R Canal trail yesterday. The ride out there was pretty easy. Highland Park is called Highland Park because of the way it looms over the Raritan, so the ride down to the river was a lot of downhill coasting and only a handful of hilly spots. Then I rode through Johnson Park, dodging the Breast Cancer walk whose staging area overlapped with my route. Then over the Landing Lane bridge and onto the trail.

I'd only planned to ride on for two or three miles on the trail. This trail segment of the D&R trail, which used to be a canal towpath, is 29 miles long, and I said in my last post I was going to pace myself and try to work up to doing the whole length. But when I finally stopped myself and said it's time to turn back, I'd gone almost five miles on the trail. My best guess for the total trip is 17 miles- ~5 miles out on the trail, ~5 miles back, plus the 8 miles getting to the trail and back.

When I was on the trail, I just... kept riding. I always have that problem when I ride toward the river- the ride out is mostly downhill. And then when you're out by the river the terrain is flat the whole way. But... the trip back, the last few miles, is when you have to do the climbing. So it's very easy to overestimate my stamina and push further than I really ought to and not leave enough for the final push. In any case, this time out, I wasn't super-winded when I hit the final climb, but my legs were starting to stiffen a bit. I'm glad I did it, though.

But anyway, the D&R Canal Trail was so lovely and I want to spend more time there. There are people biking, and people hiking, and people fishing and people kayaking the canal, but mostly it's just you in the woods on a narrow path, with the Raritan on one side and the canal on the other.