I’m nominating Ashton Brewing in Middlesex Borough as the place to find some really weird — as in unusual, in the nicest way — beers. That or call it the brewery with a really dark side. Of the 12 beers on tap when my group of five visited, most were dark (black or brown). One of us, a fan of a hard-to-find dark larger, was lured away by a cold black IPA, a first for him. The three “pilot” offerings — the newer, more experimental ones — were dark. If I liked the taste of coffee, I might have been enticed by Tear Me a Sue — Tiramisu Stout, described as “you’ll feel like you are drinking desser ..read more

We braved the mud and the wind — oh that wind! — to reach the Druery Brewery using the D&R Canal towpath and the Lawrence Hopewell Trail. This place opened Dec. 9 in a tiny storefont in a Lawrence strip mall, and we were impressed at how packed the place was at 2:30 p.m. on Good Friday, with people eyeing our table. Did I say this place is tiny? Two nice live-edge wood tables that seat six. Or you stand around some barrels/tables. Nine beers and one hard seltzer. Nothing that seemed truly “weird” … or maybe those hazy IIPAs with 7.5%+ alcohol content are unusual? The Triple Hefe with 10.2 ..read more

February temps in the 60s … had to get outside. And part of that included checking out the progress on the extension of the Henry Hudson Trail into Freehold. For you TL;DR types, this 0.4-mile addition could be open in two months, so the end of April. Here’s what we found: lots of work! Construction workers were at the biggest bridge abutment, doing some backfilling that will become the ramp. The concrete work looked done. The abutments on the other side also seemed essentially done, so it’s just about time for that prefabricated slab to bridge Center Street. The land for the trail on either ..read more

I’m excited to bike the Ohio to Erie Trail in June …. or should I say Erie to Ohio? Because unlike most people, my little group will be biking the 326 miles from Cleveland (Lake Erie) to Cincinnati (Ohio River). Various reasons. Hopefully no awful head winds. Or bad weather. Our plan is to arrive in Cincinnati at midday and get shuttled to Cleveland that afternoon. Then we’re following the Ohio to Erie’s suggested 6-day itinerary in reverse, overnighting in Akron, Millersburg, Mount Vernon, Columbus, Waynesville and Cincinnati. I’m excited to be biking primarily on trails through the state’s ..read more

When I first discovered the section of Pennsylvania’s D&L Trail that goes south to Bristol, the route would almost dead-end at an auto-repair shop in Morrisville. You had to creep around the side, then dash across Bridge Street/Lincoln Highway and finally haul your bike down a flight of stairs to reconnect with the canal towpath. On the way back it was even worse, because you’d have to push your bike up those stairs. Other, more significant problem areas on the route to Bristol got fixed, and I discovered a road detour that avoided the stairs but required cutting through a hotel parking l ..read more

Let me start by saying that for a couple of my friends, anything beyond a Michelob Ultra can qualify as a “weird beer.” But a cherry-red one with coarse white sugar crystals lining the rim — maybe we can all agree that it’s at least unusual? This was a short year-end ride, in part because it was chilly (barely over 40 and overcast), in part because we figured sections of the D&R Canal towpath might be too muddy. So we opted to start at the Trenton Farmers Market rather than closer to Princeton, take Mulberry Street to the paved part of the D&R Canal towpath, take bike lanes to go thro ..read more

I’ll be honest: the 202 Parkway Trail in Pennsylvania’s Bucks and Montgomery counties is never going to win any beauty awards. That said, it blazes an almost stress-free path through suburban sprawl. That’s worth a lot. I picked up this 8 1/2-mile trail at the trailhead at its northern end on the outskirts of Doylestown, a pretty town and the final stop on a Septa train line from Philadelphia. On the plus side: A wide asphalted pathway. Regular mile markers, generally every half mile (often at 1/4 and 3/4 of a mile, for some reason.) The negative: You’re practically next to U.S. 202, a busy ..read more

Hitting the D&L in mid-November with this trio. The Delaware and Lehigh Trail is Pennsylvania’s other long-distance bike trail, much less known than the Great Allegheny Passage but almost as long now (and will be longer once it’s finished). I’ve biked the southern half of the D&L, from Bristol (outside Philadelphia) to Bethlehem. With some sunny and warm days in the forecast for November, it was time to tackle another big chunk. Four of us met at Canalside Guest House, an unpretentious place a few miles south of Jim Thorpe. Think of it as an AirBnB, not a frilly B&B, a place where ..read more

We’ve been telling everyone that this bike trip in Italy is all about going downhill, from the mountains to the valley and Verona about 180 miles away. After just 12 miles between Resia/Reschen and Malles/Mals (every town here has an Italian and a German name), we can say we weren’t kidding. Sure, we had to pedal sometime. But we also had some short but so sweet steep descents … with, crazily enough, a couple of those electronic speed signs that tell you how fast you’re going. The first time, we were clocked going 42, 43 kilometers per hour, or about 25 mph. The speed limit is 30 kmh. Oops ..read more

I’m in love with this bike path along the Adige river in northern Italy. And with the area. Even before I had finished our first full day of biking, I was already contemplating a return visit. First, it’s just beautiful. The mountains, the unseasonably warm weather we experience — though this is an area that already boasts of 300 days of sunshine a year (!), however that gets calculated. Apparently the mountains on three (if not four?) sides creates an amazing microclimate … which is also why we are seeing apple orchards for miles on both sides of the path. Farmers grow 11 varieties of apples ..read more