The morning started out chilly and the bike, with two panniers and a bar bag, felt heavy. I rode through Brooklyn over the fairly-new Brooklyn Bridge bike lane into Manhattan. I swam with the traffic down Broadway, stopping at the Charging Bull for a 'money side' photo. There was a line on the other side. I had a half hour wait for the ferry. The bicycle waiting area was grim, an official dog sniffed my panniers. I should have timed it better or waited in the sun till just before ferry time. I was loaded on the lower deck of the ferry and crossed the Upper Bay to Staten Island. I spied a few landmarks, the new WTC and the Statue of Liberty, through dirty windows.

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   I wanted to connect with the East Coast Greenway on Staten Island. I had worked out a route using cycle.travel, which avoids busy roads through SI. The problem was I couldn’t figure out how to bring up the route while RideWithGPS was already running and recording. I improvised with mixed results in staying off busy roads. The new Goethals Bridge was a literal high point of the morning.

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  Northern New Jersey and the ECG was a blend of industrial, residential and suburban areas with the occasional park and shoulder-less road blended in. I did stop at a White Castle for a post-breakfast snack. While horrifically delicious, those cheese burgers remained increasingly less delicious for several hours afterward.

   Things looked up at New Brunswick. I caught a corner of the Rutgers campus, some parks and the beginning of the D&R Canal Path. I had planned to stay with friends, but that didn’t work out. My goal was Princeton for the day, mimicking a fundraising ride the ECG is running next weekend. The ECG has two routes through this area. I assume one is for road bikes and the canal path is for everyone else.

    The trail was in great shape. The state must have recently put on a layer of crushed stone. It had rained all weekend and the trail was dry. The canal and Raritan River were high. The trail bisected the river and canal the whole way. At times, I had water on either side of me and was riding a berm between two water sources. It is a really nice trail.

Around Millstone the new surface ended. The old surface wasn’t bad, it just had more spots with standing water that could be worked around. This trip is a credit card tour, but I didn’t see any designated camping sites nor any signage for nearby facilities.There weren’t any bathrooms on the trail. As the day wore on and my saddle became increasingly uncomfortable, my pace slowed and I took frequent rests. The high mileage (for me) day was taking its toll. I ended up a little north of Princeton near the town of Kingston in a Doubletree off US1. It was one of the cheaper choices on booking,com.  Booking had a better rate than the front desk. The restaurant had just reopened in the Doubletree and my dinner was great without leaving the premises. I lucked out and slept well.