Warren County sits along the Delaware River to the south of Sussex County. I've ridden around the southern part if it near Washington Township, but about the only place I ever go to the north is down County Route 521 through Hope to meet 519 on my way so uth. This was going to be the day that I took on the top of Warren County.
There are a couple of ways to go looking for roads. The first is just to go somewhere and just start looking for an interesting place to turn. As long as you start with a full tank of gas and some food in your system you can't get so lost in this part of the country that you won't come across some civilization before you run out of gas or want to eat lunch. The other involves pulling out the maps, the more detailed the better, and carefully choosing a route. In either case, you can't tell how great a r oad will be just by looking at it on the map or at an intersection. Each strategy has is benefits and pitfalls. For this trip I used a combination of the two.
Here's a look at some of what went through my mind as I put together this route. The route sheet that follows has just about all of my wandering around included in it, except for a couple of U turns that I'll explain later. Looking at my Warren County m ap, I saw what looked to be a nice road that intersected I-80 at exit 25, the International Trade Zone, and headed south along Allamunchy State Park. It looked like a good place to start so I headed out I-80, exited at the Waterloo Village exit, wound my way through the International Trade Zone and found my way to Waterloo Valley Rd. The road looked fine at the intersection, but soon the pavement began to deteriorate. It was early in the day, and I wasn't about to be turned around by a poorly paved roa d, so I kept going. As I proceeded down the road it turned to packed dirt and gravel. Still an OK surface for my FJ1200, besides the road looked like it went someplace. The scenery was nice too. The road followed a railroad grade along Saxon Lake. Af ter a short section of dirt, the pavement reappeared and the road continued on through the park. Don't let a bit of bad pavement scare you off of a road. Just slow down, downshift, put some of your weight on your foot pegs (this lowers your center of gr avity to give you more stability and lets your knees act as a shock absorber) and choose your line carefully along the road.
Waterloo Valley Road ended at the intersection of an unmarked but good looking road. I stopped to look at the map. As I looked to the north of where I thought I was, a road called Shades of Death Road caught my eye. I'm a sucker for an interesting road name, so I adjusted my course and started to ride to it. I found it, no thanks to the map I was using. It turned out that they had switched the route numbers on two county roads that I needed to traverse. After a U turn and a moment of staring at the map I realized what was going on and found Shades of Death Road. It's quite a nice road following the edge of a very productive agricultural valley. I had never realized that there were large commercial farms operating in this part of the state.
After Shades of Death, I headed toward another interesting sounding place, Jenny Jump State Park. The park proved pleasant, but it was time to find my way home. I continued back, trying to stay off the numbered roads until I found myself back on US 206 heading for the interstate. Heading home on I-80 I knew that I had had a glimpse of a bit of New Jersey that I hadn't seen before.
Here's the route that I took, just as it happened except for a couple of U turns that I did, but you don't have to. If you must skip Waterloo Valley Road you can pick up the route by exiting I-80 at US 206 North and continuing until you reach Sussex Coun ty 606. Pick up the route from there and enjoy. I'm always interested in learning about your favorite roads, you can send them to me through the mail to Backroads, or via Email to kadis@interactive.net. Ride Safe.
Warren County Wandering Mileage Total Leg 0.0 0.0 EXIT RIGHT Exit 25 off of I-80 West 0.4 0.4 BEAR RIGHT International Drive 1.5 1.1 RIGHT Waterloo Valley Rd. - "Area 3" 6.8 5.3 RIGHT STOP - T - Warren County 604 13.1 6.3 LEFT LIGHT - US 206 North - Follow US 206 17.7 4.6 LEFT Sussex County 606 - Follow SC 606 19.0 1.3 LEFT Sussex 603 South 19.6 0.6 BEAR RIGHT Y - Toward Greendell 22.3 2.7 LEFT SC 611 South - STOP - T 24.3 2.0 RIGHT STOP - T - SC 517 26.1 1.8 RIGHT Warren County 667 26.3 0.2 RIGHT STOP - WC 612 (no sign for 612) 27.5 1.2 LEFT Sussex County 615 28.8 1.3 RIGHT Shades of Death Rd. - No sign on signpost 35.8 7.0 RIGHT STOP - T WC 611 North - look at the road sign 36.6 0.8 RIGHT Parkview Drive. 39.5 2.9 RIGHT STOP - T 41.4 1.9 RIGHT STOP - T WC 519 North 41.8 0.4 LEFT Ackerson Rd. 43.3 1.5 LEFT STOP - T 43.6 0.3 RIGHT Wasaigan Rd. 45.1 1.5 RIGHT STOP - T - NJ 94 45.4 0.2 BEAR RIGHT Kerrs Corner Rd. 46.4 1.0 STRAIGHT STOP 49.0 2.6 RIGHT STOP - T - WC 661 49.4 0.4 LEFT STOP - WC 519 South 49.6 0.2 RIGHT Green Dell Rd. 52.9 3.3 RIGHT STOP - T - Henry Rd. 55.4 2.5 LEFT SC 517 North - Follow 517 59.6 4.2 RIGHT SC 606 59.8 0.2 RIGHT US 206 South 64.7 4.9 BEAR RIGHT I-80 West