Jersey Jaunts - Biking in (and around) New Jersey
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NAV buttons	Bike Tour of Bergen (2005, 2008, 2009) 2009 update The 2009 Bergen county ride had a different starting point, different routes and a huge turn out. The ride started at the community college rather than downtown Hackensack, providing a nice starting-ending point, as previous years, after the ride we received free soda, hot dogs, and ice cream. The huge turn-out over whelmed the organizers, the start times were late, they ran out of queue sheets, and the leader rides had 25-30 riders in each group. The 25 mile route was very hilly and groups were strung out, we lost our leader and merged into another group at the rest stop. Thankfully the roads were reasonably marked and we had a queue sheet of our own. 2008 Update In 2008 the Bergen ride didn't conflict with the Bike New York 5boro ride. The ride again was broken into small groups with a leader from the BTCN. This year the leader kept a very fast pace, and even skipped a rest stop in the park, while we had no problem with this pace there was a newbie who had trouble keeping up. I don't understand why a club member would volunteer to be a leader if they didn't want to ride slow on a "public" ride. We rode in the inaugural Bergen bike tour in 2005; it was a terrific follow up to the previous weekend’s 42 mile five boro bike tour. We chose the 25 mile ride, since we weren’t in the mood to “conquer” anything big, but rather keep our “training” (butt toughness) current. There were multiple 25 mile groups organized and lead by members of the BTCN (a local bike club), each group contained about 15 riders. The ride was somewhat self-paced, with a no-drop policy, faster riders were asked to wait at specific points to re-group, and cue sheets were supplied for everyone. Roads were open to vehicular traffic, however this tour had police or marshals at certain critical intersections and road segments to enhance safety, also a reasonable portion of the 25 mile ride occurred within a park (Saddle River Park?) on a multiuse trail. While open roads aren’t good for wobbly-wheeled youngsters, a child capable of completing 25 miles should be ok with light traffic. There were multiple rest stops each providing water, bananas, and jelly sandwiches (apparently a BTCN thing?). Be sure to stop by and see the USS Ling submarine at the NJ Navel museum that is located just across the street from the parking lot (along the river). In 2005 there was a $5.00 registration fee, and distances of 5, 12, 25, and 45 miles were offered, afterwards there was a free hot dog BBQ, including frozen fruit juice pops (healthy frozen sugar), as well as a drawing for a new bike. We missed the 2006 ride because it conflicted with the 5 boro in NYC (same day), but we look forward to riding in Bergen again. Here is a link (for 2006) to the ride info/registration form on BTCN’s web site. Here was the 25 mile route map in 2005. Here is a GPS track (bread crumb trail of waypoints in gpx format) for the 25 mile tour in 2005. Directions to Bergen Court house Complex The Bicycle Touring Club of New Jersey is an active participant supporting this ride.