Some of the Henry Hudson Trail

 

Keyport, NJ

21 February 2025

There was snow in the forecast. Again. We'd have the morning to squeeze a ride in.

Tom talked some of us into driving halfway across the state to ride the inland section of the Henry Hudson Trail that goes north from Freehold. By "talked some of us into," I mean that he made the suggestion and I seconded it right away. 

I spent too long drinking coffee and doomscrolling. I barely made it to the parking lot on time. Heddy, Jim, and Rickety were already there. We were all on our gravel bikes, except Tom, who was on a road bike.

The trail is paved and well-maintained. Six miles in, the trail dumped us onto Route 79 for a mile. Just short of 12 miles, in Matawan, we ran out of trail. Tom's original plan was to turn around here. But, he said, there was a good view of the Raritan Bay down in Keyport in a few more miles. I checked the radar. There was nothing coming our way. 

Through trial and error on solo rides, Tom had figured out how to get to the water's edge. We were on roads for a while, then, after crossing over the Garden State Parkway, wound up on the trail again. We crossed Route 35 then turned off the trail to go north towards the water. 

Our cameras came out when we reached the Raritan Bay.

Across the bay, to the east, we could see the Verrazzano Narrows bridge. To the southeast of that was the northern tip of Sandy Hook.

To the north was another bridge, over the Raritan River, I think. A gull photobombed my first attempt at zooming in on it.

Plain Jim has more photos. After a long conversation with a fellow who wants to get himself a bike, we headed inland again on a slightly different route. We were into the wind now, and the sky was taking on a more ominous hue. With gravel tires, road riding is plodding. 

 

Back we plodded, staying on the road for the last mile. We reached our starting point a few tenths of a mile short of 30. Heddy and I felt the need to Griff it up, so we returned to the trail via the dirt path. This sullied our tires for the drive home. Heddy pulled out a whisk broom and cleaned hers off. Jim was enamored with the idea. I mooched the broom when she was finished. 

I drove back through Freehold towards Route 33. The snow arrived as I got up to speed on the highway.