The Old Mine Road might be the oldest road in the United States, but nobody seems quite sure enough to state so definitively. In New Jersey's quietest corner, the road splits the Delaware Water Gap for 33 miles. With traffic almost exclusively limited to the hikers, campers, and anglers who seek haven within the 77,000-acre area, the Old Mine Road is a popular destination for cyclists.

I rode the length of the Water Gap on a Thursday in early May and passed as many hikers as cars. Though open to traffic, the road may as well have been a bike path. The occasional potholes seemed a small price to pay for this tranquility—and, besides, these were surely nothing like the conditions faced by copper miners on this same road 350 years earlier.

LEARN MORE
Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area National Park Service Road Biking Map (PDF, 63KB) New Jersey Department of Transportation Map (PDF, 1.1MB)

When biked from the southern end of the Water Gap, the first few miles of the road are rolling and quiet. Lush forest envelopes the road. Down to the left the Delaware River rushes toward Pennsylvania; to the right, somewhere in the trees, the Appalachian Trail snakes toward Maine in one direction and Georgia in the other.

The southern access point lies just off Interstate 80, in the shadow of Mount Tammany. The first six miles hug the base of the Kittatinny Ridge, and here cyclists can enjoy the rare pleasure of flirting with the speed limit—15 mph. A restroom is available just short of 8 miles into the Gap, next to the boat ramp. (Another is available at Millbrook Village.)

Eventually the road swings away from the river and the landscape opens up. Nobody works this land any more. High grass fills the fields and an occasional abandoned barn hints at the turmoil that led to the creation of the recreation area. A plan to dam the Delaware River and create a 37-mile-long lake had stumbled through the 1960s. Costs rose and, over time, the project galvanized environmentalists in opposition. Sixty like-minded organizations formed the Save the Delaware Coalition, with the Appalachian Mountain Club contributing an analysis of the recreational opportunities that would be wiped out by a dam. The plan was finally abandoned in 1975, but not before the owners of 2,500 homes had been relocated. The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, a fortunate outcome to an unfortunate series of events, now welcomes 5.2 million visitors annually.

The Old Mine Road began to rise at Van Campens Glen, 10 miles into my ride. Glimpses of the roaring brook and falls filtered through the trees as the road climbed toward Millbrook Village, a 19th-century town recreated in the middle of the Water Gap. The village, originally situated on lower ground, was relocated by the National Park Service to save it from the dam project. People in period clothing, demonstrating crafts, occasionally staff the buildings, but on the day of my ride all was quiet. Millbrook Flats Road enters the Water Gap here, coming up and over the Kittatinny Ridge. This is one of the few places to enter or exit the Water Gap, and to create a loop ride if you wish. After wandering past the old school house and peering into the blacksmith shop, I got back on my bike and headed back onto the Old Mine Road.

A quarter-mile climb—one of the biggest on the Old Mine Road—took me out of Millbrook Village, and a long descent carried me into a new landscape, characterized by larger fields and open views to the other side of the Delaware. At a T intersection, 13.8 miles in, I had a decision to make. A left would bring me to the most isolated—and unpaved—section of the Old Mine Road, while a right onto NPS Road 615 would keep me on pavement. While I pondered the options, two anglers stood nearby, waist-deep in Big Flat Brook, casting their flies across the water.

I took the right, and signs of civilization soon began to appear, including occasional farms and the Walpack Inn—your only chance for a meal during the ride. The ghost town of Walpack Center, abandoned decades earlier, offers another reminder of the Water Gap's unusual history.

Ten miles after turning off the Old Mine Road I pulled into Peters Valley, an active arts and crafts community where artists lead workshops, and sell their work in a shop located at the town’s four-way intersection. Cyclists arriving via the Old Mine Road first need to bear right on Kuhn Road, which descends to the village. From the intersection, a lung-burning climb up Walpack Road leads back to the Old Mine Road. (One mile of Old Mine Road is now private, so riders must swing through Peters Valley.)

The remainder of the ride had a very rural feel. The route occasionally intersected with side roads, and wild turkeys lurked between the forest and fields, freezing as I passed. This peaceful ride had to eventually come to an end, however, and this happened when the Old Mine Road met Route 206 at the northern entrance to the Water Gap. I headed across 206 and into suburban New Jersey, riding toward High Point State Park's campground. But day riders can simply head back the way they came, possibly taking advantage of some of the side roads to create a loop.