The way points of this bicycle route:
Start at Watchung Avenue Railway Station. Proceed SE alongside the small park with the gazebo to the book shop on the corner.
Go E on Fairfield St. until it ends. Go S on Montclair Ave. about a block and look for the tiny entrance to Hinck's Alley between two houses. Take the alley until it ends on Grove St. Cross Grove St. carefully and continue directly E on Clairidge Court.
Carefully cross Ridgewood Ave (an excellent cycling artery connecting Brookdale Park, Bloomfield with East Orange) and continue E on Yantecaw Ave.
Carefully cross Broad St. (a mostly-excellent cycling artery connecting Clifton with downtown Bloomfield) and go a quarter-block N to Huck St. Take Huck St. to the end.
Enter Bloomfield Middle School. Go E, right around the school (N or S), to the E side and look for the paved path running beside the fence along the S side of the baseball diamond (under the floodlights). Take this path E into the woods and over the stream ("Third River"). The path comes out on Bessida St.
Proceed E on Bessida for one block. Turn N on Broughton Avenue. Proceed N past Demarest School and turn R into Pilch St. At the end of Pilch St. is the entrance onto a pedestrian walkway over the Garden State Parkway. Cross the Parkway. You may want to walk your bike as the local yobs make a sport of breaking beer bottles on the concrete bridge. Pilch St. continues on the other side of the Parkway.
Take Pilch St., carefully crossing E. Passaic Avenue, to the end (about 2 blocks). Go S on Sadler Rd. for a half block. Proceed E on Ohlson Ave until it ends. Go N on Ridge Rd for a half block. Turn E onto Chestnut St., and go about a mile, carefully crossing Bloomfield Avenue and Franklin Avenue. You will find yourself in downtown Nutley (Municipal Hall will be on the S side of the street, I think.).
A narrow park crosses Chestnut St. here, stretching along both sides of Third River N and S. Take the riverside path S through Yantecaw Park and Booth Park until the path ends at Harrison St. Go one block W to Franklin.
Franklin Ave. is the only heavily-trafficked street of this whole journey. Carefully proceed S about 1.5 miles (a guess) through the Franklin Ave / Belleville Avenue intersection. The imposing County Geriatric Centre in on the NW of this intersection. The Hendricks Field Golf Course runs along the E side of Franklin Ave N and S of Belleville Avenue. Go under the railway bridge. The next traffic light marks the intersection of Franklin Ave., Mill St. (W), and Park Drive (E). Turn L; that is, take Park Drive E into Branch Brook Park.
Do not take Belleville Avenue! I have never had to share the road with so many a**holes in my life.
At the T junction turn R (south) and proceed S for 2.5 miles (a guess) through the park. This is the most beautiful part of the journey. Stop and smell the flowers. Say hello to the old guys playing Bocce ball.
At the southernmost end of the park the road hooks over the lake back N to Newark Cathedral (inexplicably and inexcusably unmarked on the Hagstrom county map). At the southernmost tip of the hook leave the road at the Branch Brook Skating Rink and go SE through the children's playground to the corner of Clifton Avenue and 8th Avenue/Nesbitt St.
This is a busy intersection. Dismount and use the pedestrian crossing. Remount and proceed S on Clifton Avenue (which immediately becomes Norfolk Avenue). Go S two long blocks to Central Avenue.
Turn L and proceed E along Central Avenue for about 15 blocks to Broad St. [Alternatively, go S on Norfolk Ave for another two blocks to Warren St. and take the 15 blocks through NJIT and Rutgers. You are now in the center of Newark.
Welcome to Newark! It's actually a nice place. Four blocks north is the new Riverside Stadium. Trams will be humming by you from Broad Street Station to Penn Station Downtown. Military Park just one block south is a nice place for a rest. McGoverns bar is on New Street, one block south of you. Stop in for a great pint of stout.
