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Cycletrippin Day 6 Summary – from Delaware Water Gap to Short Hill New Jersey

by bernt & torsten

This was my last day of cycling for this cycletrippin, I got a good night sleep, prepared myself a nice breakfast of oatmeal porridge and rhubarb pie – just ate half the rhubarb pie you never know when you need that extra energy from a pie. When I left the motel there was no person at the front, all doors were open so anyone could have come in during the night, what do I care I’m on my way.

I had to hand in my key card, I wanted to check if I could just leave or if they needed me to pay anything, I called a number that was written on a paper at the  front desk and I got hold of someone that told me to just drop the key on the desk and that was it as the booking already been paid for by booking.com which I had used to book the motel room.  I rode away from the motel happy that my ride was coming to an end.  It was early in the day when I hit my first hill – a steady 2.6 km Category 5 climb, I was a bit hesitant first I was not mentally prepared, the legs were there so it turned into a just perfect climb to get the day started.

Here is the route I took on the day

The day turned out to be a challenging ride, many climbs I had in total accordingly to mapmyride five Category 5 climbs and one Category 4 climbs, there were other smaller climbs that were really steep, luckily they were short, the small step climbs wore me out.

Getting over the first climb I got to the viewpoint of the Delaware River when it flows between a few hills, the sun was just getting over the top and low hanging clouds shielded the sun from me on a mystical morning ride, it did not last that long when I got down to the bridge that I was crossing to get over Delaware river into New Jersey – the clouds were gone and the sun was high in the sky warming up everything around me.

The good thing with riding in New Jersey is that there is a lot of vegetations, large trees that form a shade which you can ride under. On my way to Hackettstown, I was in the shade most of the way, Hackettstown is at the bottom of a hill, a very nice downhill run into Hackettstown – and a steep climb out of the town, I got through that and eventually got to Morristown.

What I noticed when I got to Morristown that the traffic had got more intense, more cars – I was not at the end of any confrontation, the cars seem to treat me nice today.

From Morristown to my final destination in Short Hills is just 15 km – now I just have to navigate the last bit to the house where my family is staying. The problem I’m faced with is that this part of New Jersey, is that New Jersey crisscrossed by roads, so you need to know were you have to go, I also had a problem, so far I had navigated by checking the GPS on my phone, the phone battery was out of battery, so I had to do a battery re-charge.

I always have a backup to my navigation system,  it does not work all the time, I had a printed map of the area – the map had got wet and was of no use. I did have an external battery with a solar panel on it, so I used that to charge my phone. I got enough charge in the battery to be able to make a few phone calls later when I was closer to Short Hills.

I headed out of Morristown towards Chatham on New Jersey Route 124, I knew that when the 124 was parallel with New Jersey Route 24. I would need to cross over 24 to get to the house. I took a wrong turn and ended up in the parking lots of The Mall at Short Hills. I was biking around there without finding a way out except going back the way I came, so that what I did. I made a phone call and got the directions, that I should get off 124 at the Hobart Gap Rd, exit. After that, it was easy to get to the house.

I said I would bike to New York, in one way I did Lower Manhattan is just 30 km by bike from the house in Short Hill, I will one of these days conclude with a ride into New York City.

Here are some pictures I took during the day.