My Pictures of

The Twin Lights Ride

September 29, 2002

On Sunday, September 29, 2002, I rode in the first annual(?) Twin Lights Ride in the area of Highlands, New Jersey. This ride is organized by Bike New York, the same group that runs the Five Boro Bike Tour.

The ride includes a round trip ferry passage from lower Manhattan to Highlands, New Jersey, and then 14, 28, 48, and 62 mile rides. The 14 mile loop is a completely flat loop on Sandy Hook, while the others are hilly except they all end with the flat Sandy Hook Loop.

If you don't want to take the ferry from Manhattan, you can drive to Highlands and park near the start of the ride in Huddy Park. (Naturally, living in Lawrenceville, NJ, this is what I did!)

A sad note: Last September was to be the first running of this ride. It was to be called the Twin Towers to Twin Lights Ride (the ferry takes you from the Twin Towers in Manhattan to the Twin Lights in Highlands). We all know what happened last September and the first running of the ride was cancelled. But last year's direction arrows painted on the roads were still visible and a reminder of what happened.

The story is in the pictures below.

Click on a thumbnail to see a larger picture.

On the ride, I had my GPS recording the track and altitude. Here is the track overlain on USGS topo maps at a scale of 40 pixels per mile. Actually, the east end of the track went just past the edge of the "Newark" map, so I crudely joined a little of the "New York" map. The map conventions are different; for example, incorporated regions are denoted by a pink hatching in the Newark map and solid yellow in the New York map.
The ride started where the little stub (to the parking lot) meets the loop between the "Atlantic Highlands" and "Highlands" designations on the map. It went west. The little stub before the western loop leads to the first rest stop. We traversed the loop clockwise and returned to the same rest stop. Colts Neck has some really big (and no doubt very expensive) houses! Then we went east on the lower part of the eastern loop. We passed Bell labs where, among other things, radio astronomy got its start. The ride was rolling (or hilly depending on your point of view) until we crossed from Rumson to Sea Bright on a barrier island after which it was very flat for the last 15 miles or so. The little loop at Sandy Hook was done counterclockwise and we returned to the starting point.
Here is the altitude as recorded by my GPS (divide the scale on the left by 10). Also shown is the total climb which is the sum of all the altitude increases bigger than 3 feet (the 3 foot limit is to reduce noise and produce a result close to what the GPS displays - 2900 ft.). The last 15 miles (riding on Sandy Hook) were really flat! The first 50 miles or so were quite rolling. I had just put on a new chain and hadn't adjusted the derailleur, so I couldn't get into the granny gear, but it wasn't that bad.
The ride was supposed to be 62.6 miles according to the cue sheet. The GPS (which includes a one way trip to the parking lot - 0.4 miles) showed 66.3 miles. My bicycle computer which included a round trip to the parking lot showed 66.1 miles. I believe the computer reads about 1% too low so the correction would make it 66.7 miles and bring it (with the extra trip to the parking lot) in near perfect agreement with the GPS! As far as I can tell, the extra 3+ miles appeared altogether on the road from Sea Bright to Sandy Hook.

The ride started and ended at Huddy Park in Highlands, New Jersey. Here's the registration tent on Saturday morning about 7:30am. Looking across Huddy Park from the registration tent. The ride started out headed up the hill on the road in the background.

After climbing the first hill (about 220 ft) you get to Mount Mitchill Park which gives a good view of Sandy Hook in the foreground and if you look carefully you can make out the Brooklyn skyline in the center and the Manhattan skyline and the Empire State Building to the left (I think!). After about 14 miles we came to the first rest stop. The stops were well stocked with fruit, cookies, PBJ sandwiches, powerbars, chips, water and gatorade. I mostly ate cookies and drank water. We came back to this rest stop at about mile 33 after doing a loop through Colts Neck.

Here are Kevin and Joann. It turns out Kevin is Princeton class of '99 and we got to talking to each other because I was wearing my Princeton sweatshirt and he had been wearing a long sleeve Princeton T-shirt (it was cool in the morning!). Here's rest stop number 3, about 43 miles into the ride. This rest stop was shared by the riders doing the 28 mile loop, the 48 mile loop and the 62 mile loop.

After about 45 miles we crossed the Oceanic Bridge over the Navesink River. Here's the view looking to the west (inland). The boat gets closer.

The view to the east: the barrier island seen in the distance separates the river from the Atlantic. The bridge is a draw bridge and the crossing gates stop the traffic for a bridge opening. We crossed over to the barrier island at Sea Bright and then rode towards Sandy Hook along the inside of a sea wall. Periodically there were stairs going up the wall and a deck on top (labeled private property, but I went on one anyway!). Here's the view north to Sandy Hook with the Atlantic on the right.

Here's a group that had climbed up the sea wall before me and they're now getting ready to ride off to the right. Farther north on the barrier island, I took this picture of the Twin Lights on the mainland. They're being worked on and are enclosed in scaffolding.

The fourth rest stop was a few miles before the start of the Sandy Hook loop at a parking lot for a public beach. Here's the beach with (I think) Brooklyn in the background.

Some riders came prepared to enjoy the beach! (But I'm not sure laying the bikes in the sand is a good idea!) Fort Hancock occupies the northern part of Sandy Hook.

We crossed a bridge from the barrier island back to Highlands. Here's a view of Highlands to the northwest from the bridge. The view out to Sandy Hook with the New York City skyline in the background.

Riders coming up the bridge headed towards Highlands. The twin lights seen from the center of the bridge.

Back at Huddy Park in Highlands. Some local restaurants have set up food tents and riders are relaxing and eating.

	On the ride, I had my GPS recording the track and altitude. Here is the track overlain on USGS topo maps at a scale of 40 pixels per mile. Actually, the east end of the track went just past the edge of the "Newark" map, so I crudely joined a little of the "New York" map. The map conventions are different; for example, incorporated regions are denoted by a pink hatching in the Newark map and solid yellow in the New York map. The ride started where the little stub (to the parking lot) meets the loop between the "Atlantic Highlands" and "Highlands" designations on the map. It went west. The little stub before the western loop leads to the first rest stop. We traversed the loop clockwise and returned to the same rest stop. Colts Neck has some really big (and no doubt very expensive) houses! Then we went east on the lower part of the eastern loop. We passed Bell labs where, among other things, radio astronomy got its start. The ride was rolling (or hilly depending on your point of view) until we crossed from Rumson to Sea Bright on a barrier island after which it was very flat for the last 15 miles or so. The little loop at Sandy Hook was done counterclockwise and we returned to the starting point.		Here is the altitude as recorded by my GPS (divide the scale on the left by 10). Also shown is the total climb which is the sum of all the altitude increases bigger than 3 feet (the 3 foot limit is to reduce noise and produce a result close to what the GPS displays - 2900 ft.). The last 15 miles (riding on Sandy Hook) were really flat! The first 50 miles or so were quite rolling. I had just put on a new chain and hadn't adjusted the derailleur, so I couldn't get into the granny gear, but it wasn't that bad. The ride was supposed to be 62.6 miles according to the cue sheet. The GPS (which includes a one way trip to the parking lot - 0.4 miles) showed 66.3 miles. My bicycle computer which included a round trip to the parking lot showed 66.1 miles. I believe the computer reads about 1% too low so the correction would make it 66.7 miles and bring it (with the extra trip to the parking lot) in near perfect agreement with the GPS! As far as I can tell, the extra 3+ miles appeared altogether on the road from Sea Bright to Sandy Hook.
	The ride started and ended at Huddy Park in Highlands, New Jersey. Here's the registration tent on Saturday morning about 7:30am.		Looking across Huddy Park from the registration tent. The ride started out headed up the hill on the road in the background.
	After climbing the first hill (about 220 ft) you get to Mount Mitchill Park which gives a good view of Sandy Hook in the foreground and if you look carefully you can make out the Brooklyn skyline in the center and the Manhattan skyline and the Empire State Building to the left (I think!).		After about 14 miles we came to the first rest stop. The stops were well stocked with fruit, cookies, PBJ sandwiches, powerbars, chips, water and gatorade. I mostly ate cookies and drank water. We came back to this rest stop at about mile 33 after doing a loop through Colts Neck.
	Here are Kevin and Joann. It turns out Kevin is Princeton class of '99 and we got to talking to each other because I was wearing my Princeton sweatshirt and he had been wearing a long sleeve Princeton T-shirt (it was cool in the morning!).		Here's rest stop number 3, about 43 miles into the ride. This rest stop was shared by the riders doing the 28 mile loop, the 48 mile loop and the 62 mile loop.
	After about 45 miles we crossed the Oceanic Bridge over the Navesink River. Here's the view looking to the west (inland).		The boat gets closer.
	The view to the east: the barrier island seen in the distance separates the river from the Atlantic. The bridge is a draw bridge and the crossing gates stop the traffic for a bridge opening.		We crossed over to the barrier island at Sea Bright and then rode towards Sandy Hook along the inside of a sea wall. Periodically there were stairs going up the wall and a deck on top (labeled private property, but I went on one anyway!). Here's the view north to Sandy Hook with the Atlantic on the right.
	Here's a group that had climbed up the sea wall before me and they're now getting ready to ride off to the right.		Farther north on the barrier island, I took this picture of the Twin Lights on the mainland. They're being worked on and are enclosed in scaffolding.
	The fourth rest stop was a few miles before the start of the Sandy Hook loop at a parking lot for a public beach.		Here's the beach with (I think) Brooklyn in the background.
	Some riders came prepared to enjoy the beach! (But I'm not sure laying the bikes in the sand is a good idea!)		Fort Hancock occupies the northern part of Sandy Hook.
	We crossed a bridge from the barrier island back to Highlands. Here's a view of Highlands to the northwest from the bridge.		The view out to Sandy Hook with the New York City skyline in the background.
	Riders coming up the bridge headed towards Highlands.		The twin lights seen from the center of the bridge.
	Back at Huddy Park in Highlands. Some local restaurants have set up food tents and riders are relaxing and eating.