Connecting New Jersey and Pennsylvania July 2004 

KenR, July 2004:

Sharon and I did a tour from New York to Pennsylvania by way of northern New Jersey. We found it pretty and pleasant on the roads we took thru New York and New Jersey. Our experience was that the toughest section was in Pennsylvania.

I suspect our experience was positive because we mostly stayed off major roads, and followed the major valleys north-south instead of trying to go east-west and "fight" the geology of the region. Along the way we saw many pretty farms (some being worked as we past, like baling hay) and animals, including lots of horses, a few cows, two wild turkeys, no camels, and one elephant.

Below are some of the roads we took from Wallkill NY to Bethlehem PA.  Note that

  • In the sequence of roads below, the direction of each road is roughly Southwest or South, unless otherwise specified.

  • We rode it on the weekend -- of course some traffic patterns and volumes are usually different on mid-week days.

New York

The village of Wallkill NY is in the valley of the Wallkill River, which flows into the Hudson River at Kingston NY.  There are several ways to connect to Wallkill from New Paltz and Kingston or Poughkeepsie -- see New Paltz - Wallkill Valley routes.From Wallkill in Ulster county, we rode into Orange county . . .

  • 208 (alongside the Wallkill River) into Walden NY in Orange county.

  • 52 West to S Montgomery St - Orange county 29 (beautiful)

  • 17K East into Montgomery NY, some local streets to

  • east on Goodwill Rd to Beaver Dam Rd to Neelytown Rd

  • 207 a short ways East (high-speed high-traffic)

  • Hamptonburgh Rd

  • Sarah Wells Trail (beautiful)

  • Main St - 207 into Goshen NY (nice food stop)

  • West Main St, then Rt 6 / 17M (high speed traffic but wide shoulders) a short ways West to Police Dr (but it's one-way northeast-bound) or Maple Ave

  • Maple Ave (Orange county 31 + 37?) gets beautiful, turns west

  • Onion Ave (past non-onion farms), curves west with steep climb up to big view east-ward

  • short ways on Rt 12, then second left onto

  • Pierce Circle (beautiful past the actual onion farms), leading to a mile of dirt-gravel on Lyman Ave

  • T at Turtle Bay; turn West back to

  • Rt 12

  • west on 62 a short ways, first left onto

  • ? Lain Rd ? very steep climb (could have been avoided, with more traffic on Rt 12 and Rt 1, but it was definitely worth going at least to the base of this climb to see the beautiful farm which was once a rest stop on the popular Country Roads bicycle tour. We just got off and walked our tandem bike up the climb, then enjoyed the pretty descent).

  • Lower Rd, and continue straight across State Line Rd into New Jersey

New Jersey

  • 284 South (high-speed high-traffic, but decently wide traffic lane plus some shoulder) into Sussex boro NJ (we re-fueled decadently in a "just desserts" shop we found off the main road)

  • 639 and 565 South (high-traffic, but mostly wide lanes with reasonable shoulders), all the way to

  • 206 South (high-speed high-traffic, but wide lanes with wide shoulder) into big shopping area just north of Newton NJ (? perhaps much of this and the next hill-climb could have been avoided by turning west just south of 626 onto the dirt-cinder Paulins Kill Valley rail trail ?)

  • west on Park Rd (turn comes by Shop-Rite supermarket near Home Depot) up hill, then straight across onto

  • Plotts Rd continuing west; then at bottom of descent just before railroad underpass turn left onto

  • Junction Rd (parallel to rail trail), straight across Rt 622 onto

  • Paulins Kill Valley rail trail (dirt-cinder) (beautiful above the narrow
    lake)

  • walk bike down steep hill to South Shore Dr and continue along the lake
    (we had a pleasant picnic with dessert food leftover from our stop in Sussex
    boro)

  • Kohlbocker Rd

  • right onto 610, then bear left to pass by 619 and continue on 610 into
    Stillwater NJ (where we re-fueled)

  • 521 (Maple Ave - Stillwater Rd) all the way into Blairstown NJ

  • 94 (high traffic but mostly wide shoulders) all the way to junction with
    Interstate 80 (a few years ago we rode on prettier and quieter alternate
    roads south of and parallel to 94)

  • tricky traffic lane crossings (wouldn't want to do it in heavy traffic),
    look for exit for "Columbia"

  • northwest into Columbia NJ

  • left on Green St

  • across the Delaware River on pedestrian bridge into Portland PA

Pennsylvania

Here it gets tricky and hillier. I hope some local rider with much more experience will suggest some improvements for this part. We don't much enjoy 512 to Bangor, and we really really dislike riding on this section of 611. So we took a route which is more complicated.

We ride this next section a couple of times a year in the opposite direction, which is why we're not sure what the signs and road names will look like, since we rode sorta "by feel". But I think it's OK to miss a turn and end up on different roads, as long as we head generally west, do not hit 611, and eventually find 512. It might help to look for painted white arrows with "GG".

  • south from pedestrian bridge in Portland PA a little ways to traffic light

  • Right on State St for 0.4 mile

  • Right just before crossing creek onto Jacoby Creek Rd (by Hummel's Dam, before reaching Rt 611) and go about 0.5 mile

  • Left on (unsigned) Middle Village Rd on concrete bridge #37 across creek.

  • immediate Right onto Jacoby Creek Rd, which later passes by Railroad Ave, becomes Million Dollar Highway and crosses a one-lane bridge, for a total of 1.4 miles.

  • Left on Heiden Rd (opposite Audubon Rd) for 1.8 miles to its end at Lillian Lane near Rt 512.

  • Right on Rt 512 West about half a mile (with high-speed high-volume traffic)

Note that the shoulder on south side of road was much wider and smoother.  And after a ways can avoid traffic bearing right onto Lohman Dr which runs parallel to 512 a short ways to meet Johnsonville Rd next to the Five Points intersection).

  • at traffic light, go Left on Five Points - Richmond Rd south about 2 miles

  • Right onto (unsigned) Locke Heights Rd, curve Right to go North, then soon turn

  • Left onto (unsigned?) Richmond Av

  • bear Left onto Springfield Rd, which ends with a steep-ish downhill into a T-intersection.

  • Left on Martins Creek Highway (going South)

After this we turned Right onto Flicksville Rd to go west to Rt 191.

A couple of weeks later we came back and found a nice way to avoid two of the hill climbs:

  • continue south on Martins Creek Highway about 1.5 miles

  • Right on Factoryville Rd half a mile

  • Right on Ackermanville Rd and

  • quick Left to continue west on Factoryville Rd about a mile to its end.

  • Right on (unsigned?) Franklin Hill Rd, going north a quarter mile to its end

  • Left on Rt 191 South

Rt 191 gets some high-speed traffic, but has a wide traffic lane, plus usually some sort of shoulder. We know some prettier and quieter alternative (more complicated) roads to the west of 191, but we were tired by then. So we took 191 thru Stockertown and Nazareth to finish in Bethlehem.

Another idea for connecting with Portland PA is to stay close to the Delaware River. We've enjoyed riding south on the Pennsylvania side as far as Riverton - Belvidere. After that we've found it's generally better to avoid Pennsylvania and continue south along the Delaware on the New Jersey side.