The FreeWalkers and the East Coast Greenway invite the Public to Walk the 100-mile Cross-Jersey Walking Challenge in 2012 - Starting with the “Great Canal Walk” on April 7th. Hoping to repeat and expand the Cross-Jersey Walking Challenge in 2012, the FreeWalkers are offering, for the second year in a row, a challenge to the public to walk across New Jersey in 2012. The program consists of walking 100 miles across the entire state – from Trenton to New York City within the next 12 months.

This “Tween Walk” (because it’s be-“tween” our 2 very different long-distance walks) was advertised as a “different” kind of walk. For one thing, the distance of 12+ miles would be pretty reasonable and most felt comfortable that they would be making the entire distance. What also made this walk unique was that this urban walk would be mostly along busy streets with an objective to catch some interesting sights along the way. Sights that you would not expect and most Jerseyans don’t even know about.

The area the walk covered is a hidden part of an important busy corridor in the Northeast, connecting major rail lines and highways, and as we learned last week during the Great Canal Walk, waterways too. The East Coast Greenway trail follows the direction of the Raritan River here, but is about 1 to 2 miles north of its shore so it’s not visible for most of the walk. Once crossing it from New Brunswick it heads out to the Raritan Bay, which connects with New York’s harbors and the ocean.

Driving through this area, there is little sign of history or significance in these largely blue collar towns. But our walk proved that this area and its inhabitants had an old historical connection and contributed greatly to New Jersey and our country over the years.

Join in on this flat 12.3-mile walk between New Brunswick and Metropark in Iselin on Saturday, April 16th along the East Coast Greenway (Hence, the name "Tween Walk"). Its an urban/suburban walk on sidewalk along some fairly busy roads, through the bustling town of Highland Park and older neighborhoods in Edison. We walk down Woodbridge Avenue passing in front of Middlesex County College. The trail goes through the interesting and popular Roosevelt Park as you get close to Metropark. This walk just may uncover some curious parts of Wierd NJ.