Once the railroad cost less than the towpath, they were abandoned as commercial roads, and at some point turned into a park and enjoyed by those wanting a slice of quiet nature, even in the middle of the bustle of NJ. The tow path is wide enough for two bikes abreast. Joggers, walkers, and bikers love it because you can travel 25 miles and cross less than a dozen roads, while passing quiet communities bypassed by the Parkway or Turnpike, almost forgotten in time.
Jordan Katz, a spry and mischievous guy (though you might never know it) took the train to Princeton from New Brunswick with me, hauling our aging Mountain Bikes with us. After asking directions from a Princetonian so daft I finally felt proud to graduate from Rutgers, we made it to Lake Carnegie, watched Rutgers crew race, spoke to a few friends, and began our long ride, imperceptibly sloping 50 feet over 24.9 miles downhill.Jordan is such a funny guy he can get drunk at a wedding, take a few embarrassing pictures with the disposable cameras, and make the bride's mother laugh the whole time. After I dropped out of college the first time, he used to come into my room and ask me if I had 'found myself'.
As a lover of practical jokes, I had always wanted to sneak into Jordan's house when he and everyone else thought I was out of the country, and defecate in his cat's litter box. I desperately wanted to hear him explain how he dutifully took the cat and the cat litter box containing a man sized turd down to the veterinarian's office, where they both stared it at, pondering exactly how a small cat could have pooped out such an enormous, incomprehensible hunk of scat. I didn't, but I was always tempted.
We organized the trip weeks in advance, and had up to 6 people at one moment, but drunkenness and other excuses dwindled our numbers down to two. It was beautiful, and riding through towns that had neither fallen into ruin or gentrified or become developments I felt like this was the NJ that you can occasionally glimpse but seem never to know, driving 80 miles an hour around a state with the busiest road AND intersection in the world, with the highest population density of any state in the US.I can't really point to anything special, other than the beautiful water, the occasional fisherman looking like an extra from a depression-era movie, and quiet. The leaves were supposed to be peaking that weekend or next, but due to the amazingly warm weather they didn't turn into brilliant colors for over a month. So we rode under trees waving their green branches in the wind.
I'm overjoyed I did it, and very sad for those who were slated to go but didn't, because while it was no singularly spectacular, it was one of those things in life where you don't think you'll ever have the chance to go again. At least not with the guy called the 'Kung-Fu Jew' throughout grade school.
