Sunday morning my wife and I want to do a ride on some new roads. I was thinking of going from Princeton to Lambertville and back and am looking for a nice route. I came up with the following 37 mile loop but am not sure if the roads are good for bicycles. Any advice would be greeat! We will be on road bikes, not affraid of cars but of course prefer safe roads.

Start and end in Princeton at Marquand Park

1. Head northwest on Elm Rd toward Armour Rd 0.4 mi
2. Turn left onto Rosedale Rd 2.5 mi
3. Turn right onto Carter Rd 2.5 mi
4. Continue onto Hopewell Princeton Rd 1.6 mi
5. Continue onto Princeton Ave 0.3 mi
6. Turn left onto E Broad St 0.5 mi
7. Turn right onto Co Rd 518/​Louellen St Continue to follow Co Rd 518 2.8 mi
8. Continue onto Lambertville Hopewell Rd/​Lambertville Hopewell Turnpike Continue to follow Lambertville Hopewell Rd 2.7 mi
9. Continue onto County Rd 518/​Brunswick Pike Continue to follow Brunswick Pike 4.5 mi Brunswick Ave/Brunswick Pike 4.5 miles
10. Head west on Brunswick Ave/​Brunswick Pike toward S Franklin St 144 ft
11. Turn left onto Route 165 0.2 mi
12. Continue onto NJ-29 S/​S Main St Continue to follow NJ-29 S 3.3 mi
13. Turn left onto Pleasant Valley Rd 4.1 mi
13. Continue onto Pennington Harbourton Rd 2.9 mi
14. Turn right onto Rte 31 S 0.3 mi
15. Turn left onto W Delaware Ave 0.9 mi
16. Slight left onto E Delaware Ave 0.3 mi
17. Continue onto Pennington Rocky Hill Rd 0.6 mi
18. Head northeast on Pennington Rocky Hill Rd toward Elm Ridge Rd 436 ft
19. Take the 1st right onto Elm Ridge Rd 1.9 mi
20. Head northeast on Elm Ridge Rd toward Carter Rd 0.3 mi
21. Turn right onto Carter Rd 0.7 mi
22. Take the 2nd left onto Rosedale Rd 2.5 mi
25. Turn right onto Elm Rd 0.5 mi
26. Turn right onto Lawrence Rd/​Stockton St 207 ft

I assume that since you're from the area, you've been on these roads in a car. So you know some of them have no shoulders and have heavy traffic. For example, the 3 mile stretch of 29 in step 12. Also, some of them have hills. For example. Pleasant Valley road in step 13. On Sunday, there shouldn't be many 18 wheelers on 29, so it's doable if you really want to.

On thing that won't work at all is Elm Ridge Road. The bridge over the Honey Brook is being repaired. I suggest you consider Delaware Avenue to Federal City to Blackwell to Cold Soil to Carter (turn left) to Rosedale.

Some improvements:

At step 10:

Turn left on Franklin Street, go past Swan Street and up the hill on Franklin Street. It looks tough, but it's not very long. Keep going until you reach a dead end sign and turn left on Highland Avenue. You will be riding past a cemetery on your left. There's a great view of Lambertville & New Hope beyond the cemetery to your left. Turn right on Studdiford which becomes Goat Hill Rd. The top of the hill is at Hewitt Rd. Continue down the other side - careful, there are curves - to Valley Road. Left on Valley to left on Pleasant Valley where you are back on your route.

If you are up for a hike, on the way up Goat Hill (before Hewitt), you can turn right on George Washington, bear left at the park gates. Either lock your bikes up in the parking area are walk them with you up the hill to the Goat Hill Overlook. Fantastic view.

At step 13:

I would not take Pennington Harbourton all the way to 31 and try to make the left turn on Delaware avenue from 31. Doable, but there's a lot of traffic usually.

Here are two alternatives:

A. Turn right on Burd/Scotch Road. Left on Pennington Titusville Rd. Becomes Delaware Avenue when you cross 31 and you're back on your route.

B. Turn left on Burd Road. Right on Yard Road. (Go past the Hopewell Valley Vineyards.) Right on 31. There's an ice cream stand
at this corner. You might like some! After the ice cream stand, continue to the traffic light and turn left on Main Street. If you have trouble getting in the left turn lane, you could just turn right on Tree Farm Road, make a U and cross to Main Street with the light. Take Main Street around the big right curve to the first light (Pennington's only light) and make a left on Delaware avenue and you are back on route.

Hope this helps!

- Ed

Ed,

Thanks for the updates. We decided to do a different ride this past wekened since we havn't been on many of those roads in a car at all. We are familiar with Princeton, but once we are a few miles west of that, it's all new to us. I am going to take your updates, incorporate them into the ride and drive it first in the car and make sure we are ok with the roads before going via pedal power.

I'm guessing you're associated with the university (or possibly the IAS or seminary) since you seem to be new in town. I'm in the physics department.

- Ed

Ed -

I am not associated with Princeton U. I live about 15 miles east or Princeton and go to down-town Princeton for the shoping/culture/resturants etc.

Justin

I usually do something like:

Rosedale → Federal City → Cold Soil → Blackwell Mills → Pennington Titusville → Bear Tavern → Wash Crossing Pennington → River Road to New Hope / Lambertville

Brunswick → you can stay on that until Hopewell → Princeton Rd → Cherry Valley → Great Road

I wouldn't worry about the traffic, except on truly insane roads like 31 (which I avoid completely). Maybe be careful before the Washington Crossing bridge, it's a little hairy there. I also prefer to use lights on 29.

You should also go up to Sourland some time, it's nice up there.

One thing that will REALLY help you use to use google earth. Gives you a wonderful view.

Ed: Do you happen to have any cue sheets, gps files, or ridewithgps (or the like) routes that you would share? Always looking for rides in NJ.

Aside from short rides around the neighborhood, I take my GPS receiver and then upload the tracks to ridewithgps.com. Search for groth and that should find the rides. Note that they aren't cue sheets, just GPS tracks.

- Ed

The repair is finished. Elm Ridge Road opened yesterday.

- Ed