This Sunday 6/22 Larry had a ride in the book that he said should not be missed. He even sent out an email reminding people of the ride and how picturesque it would be. So I decide to take the drive and check out this ride. Even though the weather called for possible scattered showers I checked the radar and there was just one small shower just north of Flemington. This would make the roads a little wet but there should be no problem riding.
I got to the starting point and found a few other people there who were looking forward to the ride. There was just one thing missing on this not to be missed ride, the ride leader LARRY!.
We called him and he said that he didn't think the weather was going to be good enough to do the ride so he didn't bother coming. I didn't see anything major on the radar when I looked so I still wanted to do the ride especially now that I was at the starting point. So I asked Larry for the route and he gave me a quick turn by turn description. Luckly I had the NJ Bike Maps with me so I marked off all the turns. I knew about 80% of the roads that we were going on so I figured I could get us to Bloomsbury and back.
The first part of the out of Flemington is a slow climb of 260 feet which lasts about 2 miles. It wasn't steep but was long and a tough way to start the ride. We then rode along the ridges above Frenchtown and down towards Holland. There were no major hills here but just some constant ups and downs. Some of the down hills were pretty fun. The roads were a little wet here and we felt a few drops or rain but it wasn't a problem. We ended up on one of my favorite roads Sweet Hollow. Its a beautiful winding 3 miles of downhills.
Unfortunately Larry's route took us up this road to get to Bloomsbury so It wasn't as much fun. The climb up wasn't bad actually. There was a tough part when we made a left on Mylar and had to climb 340 feet but it wasn't any worst than any of the usual Sourland hills. Once we got to the top I ended up taking a wrong turn and ended up coming down a really steep hair pin turn as part of a 720 foot down hill. There were times when I had my brakes on full and I was still doing 20 miles and hour. That's one hill I'm never going to climb.
We stopped in Bloomsbury for a break in a nice general store. The weather had gotten better and I called my wife for an update. She didn't see any storms on radar so we were good to go.
We headed out of Bloomsbury toward Rieglesville and ended up riding along the Delaware to Milford. We made a quick water stop in Milford then started climbing again. Larry's route had us going across the river and riding along 32 but that would have meant more hill than I think most people wanted to do. I headed up Javes and Rummel a route Laura uses to get back to the ridge above Frenchtown that minimizes tough climbs. Most of the people on the ride were from Larry's Cranbury rides so they aren't use to climbing.
Once we got up to the ridge we ended up on 519 for quite a ways. This road has a lot of ups and downs so I took it slow. Most of the people were tired by the time we got back because they are not use to climbing but the last part of the ride was a 2 mile downhill that we climbed at the start so it was a great way to end the ride.
Larry's route with my slight modifications was a good ride and I can see why he likes to do it. He has a lot of nice road here but I think I can improve on it After all my rides last year for the book I learned a lot of roads in this area. My ride, with Michael, to Merrill Creek especially showed me some better roads that Larry's route could use to get to Bloomsbury. I think I will try to see if I can come up with a good route from Frenchtown that would use a lot of the roads of Larry's route is a slightly order to put together a nice 50 loop.
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