The way points of this bicycle route:
parking in High Bridge on west side of Main St (as of 2009) -- careful Main St gets significant motor vehicle traffic. Various food options on or near Main St. Also NJ Transit railroad station near Main St, but I'm not sure what service it gets on weekends.
There's a short section of the trail with asphalt here in High Bridge -- but really almost all the off-road trail sections are dirt-gravel.
trail crosses several streets with motor vehicle around here -- stop before each street to check for motor vehicle traffic before crossing
trail surface changes from asphalt to dirt-gravel around here (as of 2009)
bridge across Cokesbury Rd - (with possible connection to motor vehicle road which runs alongside Raritan River)
high bridge across South Branch of Raritan River - (read stories on sign about back where there was a freight railroad bridge here)
trail goes above motor vehicle road alongside Raritan River, but there's no connection to it here
trail crosses Hoffmans Crossing Rd - (possible connection here with motor vehicle road that runs alongside Raritan River)
trail crosses Academy St / rt 512 -- stop to check for motor vehicle traffic before crossing
Parking? there might be some in Califon near the Trail, but I wasn't looking closely when I rode thru in 2009.
trail crosses Main St of Califon -- stop to check for motor vehicle traffic before crossing -- possible food options around Main St
missing link in trail (as of 2009) for a short ways north of here: The only way I found in 2009 to get to the next off-road section was to ride on the public motor-vehicle road: on Vernoy Rd a short ways going north-northeast. (South from here the trail surface is dirt-gravel)
This section on Vernoy Rd had reasonably good asphalt surface and not much motor vehicle traffic when I rode my bike here on a day in 2009
Off-road dirt-gravel trail resumes from here going north. (South from here for a short ways is a missing link in the off-road trail, as of 2009)
Parking spaces (not many) here in 2009
trail crosses Valley Brook Rd here -- stop to check for motor vehicle traffic before crossing
sign for Morris county section of Columbia Trail north from here
trail crosses West Mill Rd / rt 513 with higher-speed motor vehicle traffic -- stop to check for motor vehicle traffic before crossing
trail crosses some dirt roads thru this area -- which might sometimes have motor vehicle traffic
trail crosses Middle Valley Rd -- stop to check for motor vehicle traffic before crossing
missing link in Columbia Trail north from here for about a mile (as of 2009). The only reasonable way I found (in 2009) to continue north is to use public motor-vehicle roads: Schooley's Mountain Rd + Fairview Av. Otherwise can turn around and go back the same way. (south from here is dirt-gravel off-road trail)
Parking -- I think I remember seeing some parking space here in 2009.
I turned Right on Schooley's Mountain Rd / route 517 (south)
this section of Schooley's Mountain Rd / rt 517 gets much motor vehicle traffic at higher speeds.
soon I turned first Left on Fairview Ave (east then northeast) -- (some food options near here south along high-traffic higher-speed West Mill Rd / rt 513)
This section of Fairview Avenue has motor vehicle traffic, but the traffic volume didn't seem high the day I was here in 2009.
I turned Right into parking area -- sign said something about Gillette trail (did not mention Columbia Trail)
I found a grass-dirt path going east - southeast from the parking area a short ways down to wide dirt-gravel path.
Columbia Trail off-road resumes north from here. (South from here a short ways is a missing link in off-road trail almost a mile in distance, as of 2009.)
trail crosses Naughright Rd -- stop to check for motor vehicle traffic before crossing
trail crosses North Four Bridges Rd -- stop to check for motor vehicle traffic before crossing
Parking area, I remember seeing about here, reached by dirt-gravel driveway from Bartley Rd
trail meets Bartley Rd / rt625 -- the north end of off-road Columbia Trail as far as I could find in 2009. Didn't see much space for parking here -- I think I remember seeing a more organized parking area a short ways southwest from here, reached by a dirt-gravel driveway on the northwest side of Bartley Rd
Welcome to Bikely, take a step by step tour of this path:
Press Start Tour - then use the navigation buttons below to move along the path.
rail trail that follows the south branch of the Raritan River in Hunterdon county + Morris county. Almost all dirt/gravel,which I found mostly easily ridable on the road bike with 700x23 tires I was on that day. Two sections on active public roads, about a mile near Long Valley, and north of Califon a section of less than half a mile. Map labels have detailed notes + warnings: click on Show, then select Cue Sheet.
Some sections of trail can be combined with road sections to make a loop (instead of riding back the same way on the trail) -- for more detailed info + connections to easy on-road routes, see www.roberts-1.com/b/v/u/09a - routeID [njwcolt].
Path shown is mostly track points from my GPS riding it one day, though some had to be edited.
Not checked by me since 2009.
Tagged with: Recreational, Basic, Offroad, Rural
