Last summer, I took a ferry from Manhattan's East Side to Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Poked my way through the suburban sprawl of Red Bank, Matawan, and a slew of other towns, until I hit New Brunswick. There I hopped on the towpath of the Delaware and Raritan Canal, and took it to the end...past Princeton, Trenton, and thence up the Delaware River. Hooked a right in farm country, and rode on rail-trails mostly through Long Valley and eventually to Morristown. There I hopped a train to Hoboken, and the Ferry back to Manhattan. Four days total, about 280 miles. Camped in nearly deserted state campgrounds, a friend's vineyard, and one motel. New Jersey is soooo strange, always surprising. Often crazy dense, but then it turns into countryside. Worth a ride.