travel
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MAY 2019 MILLBURN & SHORT HILLS MAGAZINE
IN NEW JERSEY:
HUDSON RIVER WATERFRONT WALKWAY, JERSEY CITY, 1.5 MILES
This broad, bricked trail along the river in Jersey City is perfect for a family stroll. Enjoy some of
the best views of New York City and access to a number of ferries. For more distance, try the
36-mile D&R Canal Trail that stretches from Trenton to New Brunswick.
trying to keep it from blowing away,
when a stranger picked up her and
Murf and housed them for the night.
Last year, Brett Bramble, who lost
his sister to a drug overdose in 2014,
completed a six-month walk of the
entire greenway to raise awareness
of the opioid epidemic and overdose
deaths. He had previously completed
an improvised walk from Delaware
to San Francisco, and the already-
mapped greenway appealed to him.
Bramble and his two companions
(John Azerolo, who turned 60 on the
journey, and Domino, a Labrador
mix) were the first to walk the entire
route in a single trip, covering rough-
ly 20 miles each day. They talked to
thousands of people about their mis-
sion. Bramble says they had to take
“emotional breaks” because not a day
passed when they didn’t cry, hearing
about the pain of people they met
along the way.
“Once, we were just standing at
a gas station, with the signs on our
carts, and a grown man broke into
tears, saying, ‘I just lost my son,’”
Bramble says. “One woman saw us
coming and came out to the side
of the road carrying an urn with
her son’s ashes.” During the walk,
Bramble said, he raised $30,000 for
the addiction treatment center he
plans to build in Georgia.
Last summer, Nora Jane
Montgomery, a tour leader for non-
profit organization Bike & Build,
led 15 young volunteers who cycled
the entire greenway and stopped to
build affordable housing in 15 cities.
The group covered about 60 miles
each day and relied on donated food
and lodging. Montgomery says that
she appreciated all the East Coast
Greenway signage, especially when
she wasn’t sure she was on the right
path. She also used the greenway’s
online mapping tool, which allowed
her to determine which routes were
closest to the greenway in areas that
weren’t yet developed.
“We usually ride East Coast to
West Coast,” Montgomery says. “This
was our first year on the greenway,
and we’re super excited about it.” She
said the group rode through a number
of small towns that had seen indus-
try come and go and were hopeful
that the greenway could “save their
town.” She also found some parts of
the route that aren’t famous for their
natural splendor — like New Jersey
— to be particularly beautiful.
Montgomery, who lives in western
North Carolina, says that one refrain
kept running through her head the
entire ride. “I thought, ‘I can’t wait
to come back here a couple decades
down the line when the greenway is
complete,’” she says, “‘and maybe
take a family.’” ■
federal government, which partners
with states and cities). “But the return
on investment is extremely strong,”
Markatos-Soriano says. “It’s not just
building more connection. It’ll relieve
gridlock from busy roads, bring more
enjoyment and health to people’s
lives, enhance tourism and increase
property values.”
While some trails are blissfully
removed from the hustle and bustle
of city life, other sections wind
right through urban centers, includ-
ing Miami; Richmond, Virginia;
Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; New
York; and Boston. “We’re trying to go
to the doorsteps of where people live
and from there provide great access
to the outdoors,” Markatos-Soriano
says.
He acknowledged that the entire
greenway isn’t family-friendly yet,
because following the whole route
requires navigating some busy roads
and gnarly bridges. But plenty of
shorter, protected segments that are
great for kids or novice cyclists are
already complete. He said the dif-
ferent segments of the East Coast
Greenway could potentially attract
more than 50 million visits per year
in the future.
For cyclists like Boewe, pedaling
through cities means experiencing, for
example, the riverfront in Richmond,
national monuments in Washington
and iconic architecture in Boston.
Boewe also didn’t have to worry
about packing a lot of food, because
it was easy to fuel up at stores
along the way.
Boewe began her journey on a
scenic path that parallels Florida’s
Highway A1A, passing seaside vil-
lages as she rolled north. She not only
met countless cyclists, she nearly ran
into iguanas, saw deer and was fol-
lowed by a butterfly for several miles.
But the most magical thing, Boewe
says, “was the kindness of strangers
along the way.” One of her scariest
stretches was in Florida, when she
turned around and saw the “mother
of all thunderstorms” behind her.
Winds whipped around at 40 miles an
hour. She was walking her bike, just