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.
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