Greenway tour passes through Union County
By Anna Kreyman
Staff Writer

While eating soup and sandwich at Union County College's cafeteria, bikers spoke of their more than 1,000 miles of travels from Maine to the Garden State.

Roughly a dozen riders turned the pedals of bicycles worth $2,000 and more on the East Coast Greenway Tour that began on Sept. 12 in Calais, Maine, passing through Union County on their way to Key West, Fla. The trip will equal almost 3,000 miles when it is completed Nov. 3.

Not all of the people pedaling will reach the Sunshine State, said Elizabeth Brody of Roselle, chairwoman of the New Jersey Committee for the East Coast Greenway. Only six riders will go all the way to Florida, but others will stop somewhere in between like Trenton and North Carolina.

"I am stopping right here in Cranford," Brody said while sitting in Union County College munching on a ham and cheese sandwich. "We just decided to take this tour as far as we could and stop wherever our heart desires."

Residents of Maine explained being shocked when driving through Newark and said that it did not look the way they imagined it would.

"Newark was a lot cleaner than we thought it would be," Mac Sexton, 60, said.

"It actually looked like a nice place and everyone was very polite to us on the road," Myron Skott, 55, said.

Essex County Police escorted the bikers through all of the major roads and bridges.

"When we arrived in Weequahic Park, we were greeted by the Essex County executive, who commended us for our effort," Skott said. "But, most exciting was when the tour's executive director received a key to the city from Jersey City's mayor."

The riders, men and women over 50 years old, said that exercise, although an important aspect of the trip, was not the main reason for the sweat trickling down their spines while pedaling.

"We're doing this to show the country how important it is to have safe places to be physically active," Sexton said.

In 1992, while biking, Anne Kruimer of Edison was hit by a car and now rides a specially designed tandem bike with her husband because she is paralyzed from the waist down.

"That's a day we will always remember," she said.

Many towns in New Jersey currently are working on alternative paths for bikers to ride without having to worry about being struck by a car, reasoning that it is healthier to pedal rather than drive.

"It's horrible when doing something for fun can be lethally dangerous," Sexton said.

The greenway runs about 2,600 miles from Maine to Florida and about 17 of those miles run through Union County: in Rahway River Park going north into Clark through Linden into Winfield Park and up to Cranford, then onto Kenilworth Boulevard going northeast into Union and Hillside and finally hitting Essex County's Weequahic Park.

The lengthy trip, causing a flat tire on every bike per every 100 miles, began the way it continued, with tales to tell.

"Before we left Maine, the Native American tribe gave us a smudging ceremony," Jack Kurrile, 74, said. The ceremony included blowing smoke around the riders standing in a circle. Then the tribe handed the riders a piece of wood with a Native American message on it and asked that it be given to a tribe in North Carolina.

"We don't know what the message says," Sexton said. "But, the ceremony, they said, was for good luck."

Brody said that next year this time bikers will be able to go on this tour again.

"This is a great trail," she said. "Unfortunately, in all of New Jersey we only pass by one farm - in Cranford."

Before stopping for lunch, the cyclists rode to Dreyer Farm, where they were given hand-picked apples and cider. Others said that riding in rural areas can be difficult because of insects and animals that may cross their path.

"We have already seen a black bear, moose and partridge throughout the tour," Skott said. "We carry fly dope that keeps the bugs from munching on us and an emergency whistle to scare the large animals away." He added that dogs also can become a nuisance and for them they carry pepper spray.

For information on East Coast Greenway tours go to www.greenwaynj.org.

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Courtesy of The Echo Leader - October 7, 2004 Issue
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