A Successful Southern Sojourn

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Three weeks after the original scheduled date we were finally able to do the Southern Sojourn ride. Weather and conflicts prevented us from doing the ride in May but we ended up doing it on Sunday June 1st. Although we had rain and tornado warnings on Saturday, Sunday was a warm mostly sunny day. It was actually hot when we started and go more humid as the day went on.

The group ended up being 6 people. Me, Laura, Cheryl, Mike, and new guy Glen. We all commuted from Mercer County park and when we got to Fort Mott we were joined by Howard who was running late and decided to just meet us at the start.

The ride started out from Fort Mott which is just a little south of the Delaware Memorial Bridge. The first part of the ride takes us through Salem and is kind of ugly and a little busy but once we got out of town the scenery is a lot nicer. There are a lot of little rivers and fresh water marshes which are nice to ride through. There are also a number of birds in the area, While changing a flat tire on Howard's bike we saw a pair of Egrets in a tree, which I got a distant picture of. We also found a dead gardener snake which we draped over the bike for a humorous picture.

Besides marshland this area is also dominated by farmland. Lots of farmland. It's early in the season so the farmlands aren't full of growth yet but it seems endless in some places. After a quick stop in Alloway we found some of the hillier places in the area. These were more inclines and not really hills but most of the roads are very flat in this area so when the roads have a slight incline and you have to actually change gears you notice it more.

One of the nice parts about riding down south is that there is almost no traffic at all. Once we got on the back roads on the other side of Salem we maybe saw 4 or 5 cars. There is a lot of nothing down here but it's a good type of nothing.

At 34 miles we hit our second stop and rested a little longer. We had mostly traveled south east and were now heading back to Salem. The route took us back north west near some of the rivers off the Delaware. We got a few good views of the Salem Nuclear plant and saw a number of warning signs telling us that if we heard a siren it meant that the area was about to melt down.

With Laura on the ride it was inevitable that the wind would pick up and the last 7 miles or so we were pedalling into a stiff head wind. On the way back in to the starting point we took a few pictures of the ugliest light house in NJ.

The ride ended up being 57 miles and was a good workout. I'm glad I did the route again because last year I ended up doing it myself. Doing it with a group was a lot more fun and gave me a better feeling how other bikers would view the ride.

Memorial Day Weekend

Weather and riding were almost perfect this weekend. I wanted to do some hills so on Saturday I rode with Laura on her ride from Pennington to Stanton and back. She had a big crowd of 15 people. The ride ended up being 55 miles and the weather was great. It started out around 60 and sunny and ended up around 70 by the time we got back.

Stanton is just south of Round Valley Reservoir is and is more or less directly north of Pennington. In between are the Sourlands so it was a hilly ride. There weren't any killer hills but the usually Sourlands ups and downs. The route on the way out went through Cider Mill Rd which is one of the nicer roads in the area with a great view of the surrounding hills. I took the opportunity to take some pictures along the way.

Our rest stop was at Stanton General store home of the some of the largest muffins you will ever see. They have so many types its hard to decide what to get. I ended up getting a smores muffin which sounds a little strange but it was good.

On the way back from Stanton we explored a few different roads and saw some nice views of the Raritan river. The full set of the ride pictures can be found here. All in all it was a good ride and helped me do some hill training.

On Monday I went to the all paces ride. It was crowded as usually. There were already a couple of B rides being organized so they didn't need me to lead. Laura, Herb, Mike and a few others decided to just do something on our own. The only problem with this is that when we started riding out of the parking lot a lot of other peoples started following us. We ended up having a total 17 people and even picked up a couple of C+ riders when the rides crossed.

We had a good ride to New Egypt and back but what was suppose to be a small All Paces Munity ride ended up being the large All Paces ride that we were trying to avoid. I think for the July 4 All Paces I will try to do an adhoc ride from some where other than the park so this doesn't happen next time.

The Southern Soujourn Rescheduled

The forecast of rain caused me to cancel the ride on 5/18. It has been tentatively rescheduled for June 1 assuming this works with everybodies schedule.

This is one of the rides I did for the book last year. I ended up doing the ride by myself. It was a good ride and I wanted to do it again this year with a group.

Directions to starting point:
Take I-295 or NJ Turnpike to exit 1 at Pennsville, Route 49 East to Fort Mott Road. Turn right onto Fort Mott Road and travel 3 miles. Park is located on right.

I mapped out the route on MapMyRide.com. It should be about 57 mile. Click on the button below to see an interactive map of the ride.


Click Here to see some pictures of where we will be going

The 2008 Adventures have Begun

Although the weather has been a little cold and wet this May I have managed to get out and do some fun rides. Besides the usual milk runs to New Egypt and Clarksburg I did a fun ride with Laura up in Pluckamin. It was a hilly ride so I took the Miayta triple with the new 12-32 cassette. It took a while to get used to the new gearing but there were a couple of tough long climbs that made me glad I had the new gearing. Now I have to work on getting my legs in shape so I can follow Michael up some even tougher hills in June.

The weather was kind of cold and cloudy and the roads were wet from a morning rain so it wasn't idea bike weather. Nevertheless Laura had a good crowd. It was the usually slugs plus Larry and Howie.

Despite the weather it was a fun ride in an area that I haven't explored much yet. Laura, as always, found some good roads and some nice rest stops. Although the weather prevented me from getting some good scenery shots I did take a couple of pictures of some of the more interesting things along the way. You can see the pictures here. I have a ride close to this area in June so I plan to go back to try and see the area again when the weather is better