Get out the door early to catch an early morning Martz Bus from Port Authority Bus Terminal [Martz Bus Schedule from PABT] to Stroudsburg/ DWG, PA. You can be on the trails by 1pm. When you’re done riding, catch an evening bus [Martz Bus Schedule from Stroudsburg/ DWG PA] back to the city around 7 or 8pm. Click the links above for schedules.

You could also book a hotel for the night in downtown Stroudsburg, PA. Inject some dollars into the local economy, and more riding!

With that in mind, pack accordingly. For a day trip, bring a change of clothes to make the bus ride home more pleasant. If you’re staying overnight, clean undies are nice. Don’t pack your entire bathroom, or several options for the bar scene in town. Get to sleep, wake up, ride some more.

For great travel tips, check out this blog: Pack Light, Go Fast.

Make sure you have a canvas bike bag, like this one from Nashbar.com, or order one through your local bike shop. You’ll need a “heavy duty canvas bag” to take your bike on almost every bus line. Skip the taxi and ride to the bus station. Get a bungie cord, fold the bike bag, and carry it like this. It’s not elegant, but it’s cheap and it works. I’ve ridden in many cities with this set-up and it’s never fallen or come loose. It feels weird, and looks strange, but whatever, you’re a mountain bike adventurer now.

Once you get to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, roll your mountain bike into the station. Walk to the Martz Bus Line ticket counter and get a ticket to Stroudsburg / Delaware Water Gap (sometimes it’s listed as DWG). It should be $37 or so, one way.

Before you leave the ticket counter, make sure they tell you what gate your bus is at. Once you go downstairs the customer service is pretty much non existent.

IMPORTANT! Cell phone service at the bus gates is dreadful. If you’re planning to text or call your buddy down there, don’t. Meet on the ground floor before heading below.

Find your gate downstairs. This is the time to tear down your bike and put it into the canvas bag.

Try to stuff as much as you can into the bike back, rather than bringing it onto the bus. Stuff your helmet, tools, gloves, lock and water bottles into that bag. Travel light onto the bus.

When boarding the bus, hand the bike to the person loading it on the bus. Look them square in the eye and say, “This is a bike, please be gentle with it,” or something to that degree. Do not just leave your bike sitting on the pavement and board the bus. In all my bus and bike travels, I’ve never boarded a bus before watching them load the bike first. Always watch the handler put the bike on the bus. I think they’re less likely to toss it around if they know you’re watching them.

Be kind! Say please and thank you to everyone working at the bus line.

After about an hour and a half (or more, depending on traffic) you’ll pull into Delaware Water Gap, PA. Thank the bus driver for a job well done, and thank the baggage handler for being gentle with your bike.

Take your bike to the front of the bus station (nearest the road), out of everyones way, and put your bike back together. Look across the street at Glen Park. You’ve got a lot of climbing ahead of you.

With the bus station at your back, head right, down the street back towards Route 80. See the parking lot on the other side of the road, across from the self-storage place? Head there. There’s a secret entrance to the trails. Find the trail, head up.

When you see the fallen building, head left. Climb. Climb. Climb. Make your first right. When you come to a big clearing, with multiple trails leading off of it, congrats! This is the central point of the trail network.

There aren’t any maps of the trail network, so take your time to explore. As of May 2012, the Vertical Earth Mountain Sports bike shop leads group rides on Sunday mornings at 9am. Give them a call 570-872-9088 to make sure. Maybe do your own ride on saturday, spend the night, then meet up with them in the morning. They’re a good bunch!

If you come out to a big open baseball field, this is the parking lot on the Stroudsburg side of the park (and also where the group ride meets on Sunday mornings). From here you can ride into town for food and a hotel. There are some restaurants and bars on Main Street, as well as a hotel. My favorite food places are Palulmbos Pizza (map) and Big Star Drive-in (map). Or, if you’re too tired to ride back to the bus station call Pocono Cab Company at 570-424-2800 and ask for a van.

This little note found its way into my inbox, from a fellow traveler*.

I had these people I know say really harsh things, about how they’re at college trying to get a real job and real money and that I’m stupid for just wanting to travel.

One thing I’ve learned over the past year and 10 months is that you share your dreams with dreamers.

Share your wacky entrepreneurial ideas with dreamers.
Share your travel plans with dreamers.
Talk with your dreamer friends throughout the day.
Support your fellow dreamers.
Read the blogs of dreamers you respect.
Follow dreamers on Twitter.

You scare the non-dreamers with all your talk of travel, starting a coffee cart, or biking around the Great Lakes. “Dreams are for children,” the non-dreamers will say. They will try to wake you from your dreams. They’ll want to jolt you awake, back into the “real world.”

Want to live a dream life?

Start talking to more dreamers.

* Text changed to protect the dreamer.

It’s easy to link to a photo of some sexy piece of bike action and say, “WANT.” It requires very little ingenutiy or craft, other than simple lust.

What you have is enough. You’re reading this on a computer, in a room that is warm (or cool), with food in your stomach and running water.

Indeed, I have lusted for many a bike. I’ve buried myself in credit card debt for bicycle treasures.

But I tell you, from experience now, that it’s a worthless pursuit. You will never be quenched. Your bike will never be enough. There will always be a component to replace. Something that’s less weight, or more purple.

And if it’s not the bike, it’s the clothing. The shoes, the pants, the shirts, the gloves. There is always something to more to buy.

I face this now, as the most poor I’ve ever been. I’m able to borrow a bike, thankfully, but even still, this biking thing is expensive!

Even with a “free” bike, I still need bike lights, a lock, and a bell. At the least that’s $50, and that’s buying cheap, Wal-Mart style equipment.

That said – invest in a helmet (you’ve only got one you), good lights, and a bell. Be safe out there, and love what you’ve got.

The Bike Nerd is about discovering what works for you, as a biker, cyclist or whatever you want to call yourself. I remember ditching my single speed road bike and buying a multi-speed cyclocross bike because I had no constraints. I had a credit card with no balance, why not?

I did it again when I got tired of packing up my full-sized bike to take on buses. It was too hard to take on trains, too. Boo hoo. So, again, without any constraints, I bought a Brompton folding bike.

And now, all this time later, without a bike and hardly any money, I was reminded of a post in October of 2010, Work With What You Got:

Great things aren’t made because you have a high limit on your credit card. Great things are made by great people, working with what they got.

Thankfully I was able to borrow my moms bike. Yes, my moms bike. I even wrote a little one-page zine about, called ‘I Ride My Moms Bike.’

I rode this comfort bike through mountain bike trails with its overinflated tires with nary a knobby tread, and super upright riding position. I tackled the same terrain I did when I was in high school. It didn’t matter. I still got to the top of the mountain. I still had fun.

You don’t need a $1,200 bike to embark on bike adventures. Sure, it helps, but you can get the same view without dumping a few grand on your credit card.

There are creeks, woods, parks, and mountains all around, and they’re a cheap way to spend the day. The above photo is the Broadhead Creek in Stroudsburg, PA.

Even if you’re not ready to start commuting back and fourth to work, you can try riding to the park and back. And if you’re not comfortable doing that just yet, try walking the route. Pay attention to intersections, and the volume of traffic. Get comfortable with the walk first, then bike it.

I biked for many years before I moved to NYC. Do you think I just rode to work one day? Heck no! I walked down 2nd Ave from 59th Street at least once before I rode to work on 33rd Street.

Walk before you run and plan before you ride!

It was a job interview.

I spoke with five people at a recent job interview. With each person I explained my travels as the Bike Nerd. Five times I spoke of riding across the state of New Jersey. Five times I spoke of my 14 cities in 12 days adventure with my Brompton. Five times I explained how I led bike tours in NYC.

In recent weeks I’ve been feeling lost. In two hours time I’ve found my way.

If you’re traveling with a full sized bike on a bus, you’re most likely going to need a bike bag (Nashbar). I travelled with my bike from Youngstown, OH to Austin, TX using this bike bag above taking Greyhound and never had any problems.

You’ll need to know how to remove your front and rear wheel, loosen your stem to turn your bars, lower your seat, and remove your pedals (which makes for easier carrying). From there, use some bungee cords to wrap up your bike. This just makes it easier to carry in the bus station, and to get it loaded on and off the bus.

Be comfortable removing and installing your wheels, both front and rear, before you’re at Port Authority Bus Terminal in NYC with your bike in pieces.

Bus:
Greyhound: [Most US States and Canada > NYC]
Bikes are free, must be in a canvas bag. You can catch a Greyhound bus almost anywhere in the United States. I took a Greyhond bus from Louisville, KY to NYC with my bike. It took forever, but it’s tolerable.

Transbridge: [Lehigh Valley, PA > NYC]
Bikes are $7, must sign a waiver. [Details]

Bieber Tour Ways:  [Lehigh Valley, PA > NYC]
Bikes subject to $5 fee, front wheel removal.

Martz Trailways: [Northeast PA > NYC]
Bike are free, but must be in a canvas bag.

Peter Pan Bus: [CT, NH, DE, MA, MD, RI > NYC]
Bikes are free on a “space-available basis.” Must be packed in canvas bag. [Details]

Vamoose Bus: [MD, VA > NYC]
Bikes are free, but Vamoose not liable to damages. [Details]

DC to NY: [Wash. D.C. > NYC]
Bikes are free, but subject to available baggage space. [Details]

Adirondack Trailways, Pine Hill Trailways, and New York Trailways:  [Upstate NY and Canada > NYC]
Bikes must be bagged, $20 fee. [Details]

Tips for your bus ride to NYC with your bike

Pack water and some emergency food. Buses break down, and sometimes you can be standing on the side of the road for a few hours. You’ll want food and water for situations like that.

If riding on a China Town bus, bring a cable lock, and lock your bike to the bus frame in the baggage area.

Most buses have a bathroom. Use it. Just hold your breath, go in, don’t touch anything, and get out.

Be nice. Don’t listen to your music super loud. Don’t gab on your cell phone. Keep to yourself. You’ll only be on the bus or train for a few hours and then it’s time for bike adventures in NYC.

This will be a simple guide answering the big question: how to get your bike into NYC. There will be no cool ride guides, or “top 10 places to visit” features. This is stripped down to the bare-bones: getting your bike to NYC.

Being as I’ve travelled with my bike from Brooklyn, NY to Oklahoma City, OK on Greyhound buses and Amtrak Trains (and ridden across NJ and most of PA), I know a bit about the subject.

And no – my “how to get your bike to NYC” guide will not cover airline travel because 1) I don’t like being searched and 2) I don’t like being charged tons of money just to transport my bicycle. Besides, traveling by bus or train is a much better way to see the United States. That, and you’ll save money on travel costs, so you’ll have more money to buy NYC pizza and bagels.

Shoot me an email if you’re interested: sethw@sethw.com

This is how I’ve lived since August of 2010, when I left my apartment in Brooklyn, NY and rode to Rutherford, NJ with my bike, some clothes and my laptop. I’ve been living that way ever since (though I’ve been sans bike since November 2011 – March 2012 due to injury).

In the summer of 2011 I took a train to Miami, FL. Once there I made my way north to Portland, ME. Biking in 12 different cities in 14 days. Biking to train stations. Biking from bus stops. It was amazing.

Well, now you can come with me.

You’ll ride in Philadelphia, PA, New York, NY and Boston, MA. You’ll ride buses in between each city, so you’ll have plenty of energy to ride around the cities when we arrive.

That’s three days of biking with the Bike Nerd: $500

• You’re responsible for your own food and drink.
• I’ll cover your travel costs from Philadelphia and NYC.
• I respect all traffic laws. Yup, that means stopping at stop lights.
• I don’t ride with jerks, so I get to refuse anyone.
• You should be okay with sleeping on couches or floors.

Interested? I’m booking now for May 2012. Email me at sethw@sethw.com for more details.