travel
A Bike Path Runs Through It
The East Coast Greenway connects walkers and cyclists to New Jersey
WRITTEN BY MELANIE D. G. KAPLAN
I
n 2015, Florida cyclist Stefanie
Boewe suffered a collapsed
lung. During her long recovery,
she read an article about the
East Coast Greenway, a 3,000-
mile route that connects exist-
ing biking and walking paths and will
eventually create a linear park from
the Canadian border to Florida’s
southernmost point. Having grown
up in Germany, touring by bike as
a child, Boewe realized she missed
long-distance cycling. As she recuper-
ated, she began daydreaming about
biking the greenway and visiting
friends along the East Coast.
“I thought, ‘If I ever recover from
this, I’m going to tell these lungs
that they can’t say what I can and
cannot do,’” Boewe says. “Plus,
I had adopted this dog who goes
crazy running with a bike.”
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MAY 2019 MILLBURN & SHORT HILLS MAGAZINE
In 2017, over a stretch of 89 days,
Boewe biked the entire greenway
from Key West, Florida, to Calais,
Maine, pulling a trailer and accom-
panied by her 6-year-old Australian
shepherd, Murf. She joined a small
tribe of cyclists and walkers who
have taken on the whole greenway —
even though it’s only one-third com-
plete. For these pioneers, creating a
patchwork route of protected paths
and sometimes-busy roadways was a
small price to pay for the adventure
— and bragging rights — of being
among the first to complete the
East Coast Greenway.
“We’ve been working at this since
1991, trying to think about how to
piece together local trails,” says East
Coast Greenway Alliance Executive
Director Dennis Markatos-Soriano.
Forty-four miles were added in 2018
and he’s hoping for similar growth
this year.
Markatos-Soriano says that
remaining two-thirds of the trail, near
or parallel to the future greenway,
is included on the online map at
map.greenway.org, and that the
entire route will have turn-by-turn
signage by the end of 2020. “It’s
exciting to see the progress and see
people experiencing the greenway for
themselves. We continue this march
to become the most popular park in
the country.”
Building a protected, continuous
path for cyclists, runners, cross-
country skiers, horseback riders and
wheelchair users through 15 states
is no small logistical feat. It’s also
a hefty financial investment. Each
mile of greenway built costs about
$1 million (mostly funded by the
FROM FLORIDA TO NEW JERSEY AND POINTS NORTH The 3,000-mile East Coast Greenway connects biking and walking paths, and will eventually
create a park from the Canadian border to Key West, Florida.