Trans New Jersey Trail

[intothenew]

Rob, first I want to thank you for the help on the PA routing and the TNJT. We left the very southern end of WV last week and had enough time to run a little of the TNJT. RR is to follow in a few days.

[rob23]

I won't be hosting another group ride for the TNJT anytime soon but I wanted to share the latest route for all of those that want to take advantage of it before the ridding season winds down for the year (I actually think the best time to ride is in the winter).

Well after years of poking around the backwoods of NJ, finding the best roads and building routes I think I finally nailed a great route down.

You can ride the route at your leisure or all at once. I suggest taking four days to ride the entire route at once. This will ensure you actually get to stop and see some of the nice areas you are ridding through rather than racing through sections.

Updates include:

• More of my favorite roads
• Updated/fixed routes
• Less noodeling around, more direct routes
• More dirt roads
• More remote areas/less housing
• 2 National Forest (Delaware Water Gap and Pinelands)
• The following Pineland Forest (Manchester, Lebanon/Bryne, Greenwood, Forked River, Penn, Wharton, Bass River and Belleplain)
• More useful waypoints
• Less whoops! More GS 1200/1150 friendly roads
• 4 New Hero Sections (Note: Hero sections aren’t much harder than the existing route but they do extend the existing route. This was one way for me to include some nice sections without making you have to ride them. All Hero sections are loops.)

If you do ride the route:

• Please record tracks and send them to me when you're done
• Mark waypoints of newly gated roads, new trails or other roads you liked/disliked along the way
• Take notes of what you liked and didn't like and send them to me
• Take pictures, post them online and send me a link to them
• If you write a ride report please send me a link

I hope to see everyone on during the PB300 this weekend.
http://pinebarrens500.org/


Please feel free to contact me for any of your route/vacation needs. I have an entire library of routes and tracks for the east coast and beyond.

For the latest copy of the roue please email me your email, first name, last name, address, city, state, zip to rob23 at GpsRouteBuilder . com

Thanks,


Rob

[RacerXS]

Just found & read this whole thread, AWESOME work Rob! I can't wait to check it out.

[davidvan]

.... December 27th, rainy and the snow is melting away. But really this IS winter.. and sure enough 2009 is lerking around the corner and I begin the plan my '09 adventures.. Rob and I have shared some emails already... just wanted to let you all know I plan to recruit or abduct some of my fellow Canadians which ever is easier to do the TNJT!!

Well done to you Rob.. also looking forward to the PB's!! October again?

[Motociclista]

Section 4-1 is on my backyard.

If you ride by PM me for a beer!

[intothenew]

Originally Posted by Motociclista

Section 4-1 is on my backyard.

If you ride by PM me for a beer!

[Motociclista]

I have a word for you Rob ...

OUTSTANDING!!!

[STBNE]

This is truly Outstanding...Rob. I kind of thought something like this might be possible. But to find someone has actually done so is just soooo cool. I have friends in other states that are amazed NJ has dirt roads at all. Sometimes so am I...I am a fan of TW200s' and the DR650s' as well. It seems to me the TW200 would do this trail well especially the southern sections...4 days and 1000 miles...all in NJ ..Wow..very impressive! I hope to have a bike by early summer then I will hit this up...

[dave-g]

Well this will be the year (i hope) to ride this trail- last year I hurt my back and it took me several months to get back riding. I have a copy of last year route has it changed much?

[rob23]

2009 v9 is now available

includes:

• 4 routes around Delaware Valley converted to Hero Sections
• Delaware Valley bypass
• Added Hero sections
• Total of 7 hero sections and 10 total hero routes

email me for latest version rob23 at gpsroutebuilder dot com

see ya`

[rob23]

Delaware Valley
--

This section of the trail often gets ignored. It's a series of noodling country roads that all look the same and it's a long haul before you get to camp when you're ridding the trail all at once and these sections often get skipped. Being that I grew up in this area I thought I'd go out, enjoy it and take some pictures for once! It was a great day and these are some really great roads. I made them into Hero sections for the TNJT 2009 v9+ so you day trippers can enjoy them.

Here's a taste of what you're missing.. (that being said I saw a few DSers out there today with Gps's).

[docgonzo]

Rob, great photos. And again, thanks for all the time and effort putting together a great tour of New Jersey. I enjoyed doing part of it with the group on Friday, and again this morning. That one farm looked awfully familiar, though:

[johnpitts01]

I rode 112B for a stretch this morning. I had never ridden this area before. Some nice riding out there. Has convinced me I need to cover the entire Northern route from Washington Crossing north to see what I've been missing.

Lots of potential tags for the NJ Tag O Rama out there!!!

Here's one more;

[DR. Rock]

We had a group that made a three-day assault on the TNJT. We had a great time ... the ride report is here.

The ride generated some observations and comments from me, which I'm copying into this thread below:

Rob, you know i have a tremendous respect for what you've put together... but it's just not humanly possible to ride it all. It's like a 20-course gourmet meal. Every bite is delicious, but it's simply not all edible in one sitting.

You've strung together some awesome roads, but to do so, you've had to compromise somewhat the linear directionality of the ride. It's a huge motivator when you're riding and getting tired, to have a sense that you're actually closer to a destination, not just deeper into (or out of) a maze.

Some perspective: the Trans-am trail section across Utah is only 589 miles! Utah! You could probably string together 8000 miles of trail in that state and barely put a dent in what's out there. Colorado is 775 miles!

I would suggest as a solution, to create two (or three) connected loops... like a figure-8 (or a snowman). That way you could keep all the mileage, but include some of the roads on the way down, and others on the way up, and others on the ways across. People could start (or end) closer to where they lived no matter where that might be, ride one loop in a 2-day weekend, two of them in a long weekend, or connect all of them in a week.

A side benefit would be significant reduction in any motivation to "cannonball" the trail (which I know bothers you when people suggest it), since it wouldn't necessarily have a start/finish.

I seem to recall reading that a few of the states out west have something similar... there's a California scenic byways tour (as yet incomplete), and I think also UT, WA, and OR have examples. CO has the alpine loop, etc.

You could then change the name from "Trans NJ Trail" to "Tour of NJ Trail" -- same initials even . Even better would be if it used tracks that could be run in either direction. I realize some GPS's have track limits, and that's actually perfect. I'd go so far as to distribute it as one continuous track that would choke any and all GPS's, and thereby force people to spend some time with the route on their computer, chopping it up and piecing it together, or otherwise converting it into auto-navigating routes, or any other format their GPS's can handle. This has become super easy on the Mac with the release of BaseCamp.

In essence, that's what Sam does with the TAT by distributing paper maps and roll charts... almost no one uses them for navigation in the field, but rather everyone is forced to transcribe those lines he's drawn on paper into their own GPS's, formated in a way that works for them and their unit... and that exercise is INVALUABLE. Some bitch about the process, but it gives the rider a preview of where they're going, ideas of go-arounds and alternates if needed, basically a sense of direction like nothing else would.

I know what I'm suggesting represents a significant amount of work on top of what you've already done... but I would be happy to volunteer to help out in any way I could. I know the tracks exist, so it'd largely be a matter of you spec'ing out the loops, and then someone like me wood-shedding on the 'puter piecing them together. Any new sections or connector pieces wouldn't even have to be ridden, the tracks can be created in MapSource / BaseCamp, or even GoogleEarth.

[johnpitts01]

Interesting comments from DocRock above.

I LOVE the TNJT route as is. I use the routes as a "basis" for riding and exploring. I don't look at it as a "route" to go from north to south through New Jersey.

The TNT is a collection of interesting roads and trails with as much unpaved as possible that you can explore as you like while moving through the state.

I load the TNJT on my GPS and head into the Pines. I travel the ruoute looking for interesting trails as I ride. When i see something I want to explore - off I go. I never have any concern about getting lost and I am free to make as many twists and turns as I want. I can always retrace my track on the GPS to get me back to the TNJT. Or I can soom out and see the nearest intersection to the TNJT and then orient to get back on track. It's great fun and makes for interesting riding. Throw in a fewe Geocache's to look for while you're out there and you can make for some fun in our great state. I may go a bit slower than lots of other folks but I really have fun.

I live in Whitehouse Station south of Rt. 78. I have mostly ignored the TNJT route between 78 and Assunpink, as I just wanted to get to the "good stuff". This past Saturday I explored some of the Hero sections south of Rt. 78. What great roads!!!!

Having said all that a specific route to go from one end of the state to the other traveling on as much unpaved surface as possible while minimizing east-west travel would be a great tool for fellow inmates from outside NJ that want to traverse this great state of ours. Not sure if that was Rob's intent with TNJT or if hehas any interest in doing that work.