Join our exclusive tour of the

Join our exclusive tour of the
East Coast Greenway (Wilmington DE to NYC)
September 27-October 5, 2008
We are pleased that our second tour offering for our Close the
Gaps Club members will be along the East Coast Greenway
between Wilmington, DE and New York City. You will be
surprised at how fascinating this travel experience will be. We will
mostly cycle but there will be some walking as well. We will
provide first class (and often historically significant)
accommodations.
This tour is exclusively for CTG Club members (donors at the
$1000 level or higher) and their families (or a close friend) and will
be an opportunity to travel with some of our trustees, advisory board members and staff.
About th e Tour
This slice of our Mid-Atlantic region holds many surprises when traveled slowly and guided by those
who know it well. Most people have only experienced it speeding along I-95 and have never seen the
many historic, architectural, cultural and natural jewels tucked away in cities such as Wilmington,
Trenton and Newark. We know you will come away from this tour with a new respect for these
historic cities and an awareness that they are each transforming themselves into exciting new urban
centers. A good example of a little-known gem you will discover is Bartram’s Garden, the home of
America’s first botanist, with its unique early American domestic
architecture hidden away on the banks of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia.
You will cycle along many completed sections of the Greenway and learn about the work in progress
or still needed to bring other sections off-road. To provide time to make some interesting stops each
day we will shuttle you, on some days, through a few of the sections still on-road that are not the
most pleasant cycling today. We want you to come away with a sense of the continuity of our route,
how much good trail is already in place, and what we still need to do. And, most of all, what
remarkable points of interest and landscapes our Greenway accesses.
Our Board Chair, Chuck Flink, will serve as your host, assisted by ECGA Executive Director Karen
Votava. Two support staff will handle all of the logistical details. We will transport your luggage daily
and have the capacity to ferry you and your bicycle when necessary. Every day a knowledgeable local
ECG volunteer will serve as our guide, able to provide insights into local history and Greenway status
and plans. Occasionally other local experts will join us to provide interpretive detail.
All breakfasts and dinners will be included in the tour but most lunches will be on your own. We will
stop each day in a location where lunch options are available. Most dinners will be in restaurants but
a few will be catered affairs with some of our local supporters from the area joining us.
This tour will offer participants a modest amount of cycling over generally flat terrain, ranging
between 20 and 33 miles per day. One day we will cycle 50 miles, but could cut that to 30 miles for
those who feel this is more than they want. The itinerary will provide an exposure to some of the
important yet not well-known sites along the Greenway in northern Delaware, Pennsylvania, New
Jersey and New York City. It will end with a spectacular day-long cycle tour around Manhanttan
Island, almost entirely along traffic-free pathway. The majority will be on paved surfaces except for
portions in the John Heinz Refuge and along the Wickahissen Trail in Pennsylvania and along the
D&R Canal towpath in New Jersey. These are stone dust trails that can be done on a standard road
bicycle although some may find it more comfortable on a mountain or hybrid bike. Bring your own
bicycle or we will help arrange a quality rental if you wish.
Trails We Will Cycle or Walk
 Northern Delaware Greenway
 Wilmington (Christina River) Riverwalk
 Heinz Refuge Trails
 Cobbs Creek Trail
 Schyulkill River Greenway
 Wissahicken Trail
 D&R Canal Towpath
 Johnson Park Trail
 Roosevelt Park Trail
 Merrill Park Path
 Black Brook Park Path
 Kawameeh Park Trail
 Rahway River Pathways
 Nomahegan Park Path
 Hudson River Walkway
 Hudson River Greenway
 Central Park Pathway
 East River Esplanade
 Manhattan Bridge Pathway
 Brooklyn Bridge Pathway
 Route 9A Bike-Ped Pathway
Registra tion Details
The fee is $2400 double-occupancy ($750 single supplement)
which includes the following:
 Personal ECGA tour leader and knowledgeable local guides
 8 nights lodging in select inns, hotels and B&B’s
 7 breakfasts
 8 dinners (excluding beverages)
 Luggage tranfer
 Van support
 Entries and private guided tours of select sites
 Special events including evening lectures
A leisurely
cycle ride
through the heart of our
Mid-Atlantic region, a
landscape rich in American
history, spanning Colonial,
Revolutionary War, Civil
War, early industrial, and
20th Century eras. You
will travel along rivers and
canals, through
surprisingly unspoiled rural
landscapes, older street car
neighborhoods and into the
heart of big city downtowns,
culminating in a
circumferential tour of
Manhattan Island.
To hold your place, an initial deposit of $200 is required for each participant. The balance will be due
in two equal payments, on April 1 and August 1.
More Inf ormation Sou rces
Tour information is posted at www.greenway.org/closethegaps/tour08.htm and will be updated
frequently. If you have questions and prefer to talk to someone personally, you may contact me at
401-789-1706 or by email at
karen@greenway.org. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Space is Limited — Reg ister Today
There are only 20 spaces available for this Greenway Tour. Use
the registration card on this web page to reserve your space.
Brief Iti nerar y
Saturday, September 27: Arrival in Wilmington Saturday
afternoon. Tour staff will greet you and help you check into the
Historic Inn at Montchanin Village
www.montchanin.com/village. (beginning at 3 pm). Cars can be safely parked here for the week.
Pick up your rental bike or take your own on a short group ‘warm-up’ ride along local roads. Or, relax
in the beautiful Inn gardens. 6 pm get acquainted orientation reception and 7 pm welcome dinner at
Krazy Kats Restaurant www.krazykatsrestaurant.com located at the Inn. 5-10 miles of optional warmup ride
Sunday, September 28: Cycle tour of Wilmington area and visit to Hagley Museum. Breakfast
at Krazy Kats. Daily orientation at 8:30. Depart at 9 for morning Wilmington-area bicycle tour
following Brandywine, along Northern Delaware Greenway trail, into downtown, along Christina
Riverwalk, to Swedish Historic Area with a visit to the Kalmar Nyckel www.kalmarnyckel.org,
where first settlers in Delaware landed. Lunch along Riverwalk. Afternoon cycle back to the Inn
vicinity for a tour of Hagley Museum, original site of Dupont gunpowder manufacturing facility
and ancestral Dupont Homestead. Dinner location to be determined. 20 miles of cycling. Some hills on
return trip to Inn.
Monday, September 29: Wilmington to Philadelphia.. Cycle Northern Delaware Greenway trail
with stops at Bellevue Hall and Cauffield House. Picnic lunch at Cauffield House. Shuttle to
John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge in PA. Cycle through Refuge and along Cobbs Creek Trail
into Philadelphia. Visit to historic Bartram’s Gardens, home of America’s first botanist. Alexander
Inn in downtown Philadelphia. www.alexanderinn.com Dinner to be determined. Approximately 30
miles of cycling.
Tuesday, September 30: Philadelphia to Trenton. Morning visit to Philadelphia Waterworks.
Cycle along the Schuylkill River Greenway to Wissahicken Greenway and along it as far as Fort
Washington. Shuttle to Morrisville, PA across from Trenton, following future route of the ECG.
Much of this route is under development today as future trail. Walk along Delaware Heritage Canal
and across the historic Calhoun Street Bridge into Trenton. Walk to Trenton Marriott at
Lafayette Yard. www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/ttnmc-trenton-marriott-at-lafayette-yard Possible
visit to NJ state Capitol Building nearby. Dinner location to be determined. 25 miles of cycling
Wednesday, October 1: Trenton to New Brunswick along D&R Canal. Tour of historic
Trenton Barracks. Cycle from hotel to D&R Canal towpath, then along path into Princeton for
lunch and campus and town tour. Continue along path crossing busy Route 1 on new bicyclepedestrian Bridge. In Millstone we’ll stop to see new ECG informational kiosk. Cycle on to
Heldrich Hotel in New Brunswick. www.theheldrich.com Dinner spot to be determined.
Approximately 42 miles of cycling.
Thursday, October 2: New Brunswick to Newark. Cycle from hotel across Raritan River and
along a route that is sometimes on and sometimes off-road, passing through Roosevelt and Merritt
Parks, with short stop at Edison Tower in Meno Park. Lunch in Cranford. Continue to
Nomahegan Park. Shuttle into Newark for those wanting to shorten the cycling and perhaps visit
the renowned Newark Museum. Others will cycle into Newark, passing historic Olmsted Weequaic
Park. Overnight at historic Robert Treat Hotel. www.rthotel.com Dinner at Iberia, an Ironbound
District Portuguese restaurant. 42 miles of cycling (22 mile option)
Friday, October 3: Newark to Jersey City. Take the Newark subway to historic Olmsteddesigned Branch Brook Park where we’ll take a walk led by a park curator. We’ll return to
Newark’s Pennsylvania Station and catch the PATH train into Jersey City. We’ll form two groups:
those wishing to do more cycling can go up the Hudson along the Palisades toward the George
Washington Bridge. Those wishing to walk can follow the Riverwalk south to Liberty State Park
where the old Erie Lakawanna Rail terminal buildings are intact. Both offer spectacular views of
Manhattan. Later we’ll explore historic Jersey City neighborhoods on a walking tour and visit the
6th Street Embankment, a piece of rail infrastructure that is being advanced as a piece of the ECG.
Overnight at Hyatt Regency on the Hudson. www.jerseycity.hyatt.com Dinner will be with the
Friends of the Embankment at a location to be determined. 30 miles of cycling.
Saturday, October 4: Cycle around the edge of Manhattan. We’ll catch an early ferry to
Manhattan and begin to cycle north along the Hudson River Greenway past numerous sites
including Grant’s Tomb, Riverside Church, past Columbia University, the Little Red
Lighthouse, under the George Washington Bridge and on to the Harlem River, then south along
the East River Esplanade past the United Nations, East River Park. Crossing the Manhattan
Bridge, along the Brooklyn waterfront, back to Manhattan on the Brooklyn Bridge, then past the
South Street Seaport. To Battery Park and Battery Park City, Ground Zero. Catch the ferry
back to Jersey City Hyatt. Our farewell dinner will be at Amanda’s, an historic restaurant in
Hoboken. Approximately 30 miles of cycling.
Sunday, October 5. Departure. After catch breakfast everyone heads home. We shuttle those
needing it back to Wilmington.