On Sunday, the East Coast Greenway Alliance is holding its second annual Hudson River Loop Tour along the waterfront in New Jersey and New York. The event is open to any and all cyclists, with a longer, more difficult ride kicking off at 8:15 am and a shorter, easier ride beginning at 8:45 am. Both rides will begin a little bit north of here, in Fort Lee. From there, the Greenway Alliance's Michael Oliva tells us, the ride will come south through Bergen and Hudson counties, traveling along the Hudson Riverfront Walkway whenever possible, before taking the ferry over to Manhattan and riding up the riverfront path on the west side and back to New Jersey over the George Washington Bridge.

The ride, he says, has a goal of "raising awareness that these pathways are there and open for use" and also to raise awareness about the Greenway, which hopes to extend a bicycle network from Maine to Florida in a continuous pathway. Oliva says that the ride will also help people realize what still needs to be done in order to realize that goal. In Jersey City, the biggest obstacle is currently the 6th Street Embankment.

Calling the Embankment "one of the most important sections [for the Greenway] in Jersey City," he says his group "would love to see a public park and multi-use pathway." They have been working with the Embankment Preservation Coalition to help achieve this goal.

For more details on the ride, click here.