The Scenic Sourland Cruise

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With quiet roads and scenic vistas the Sourlands is one of the nicest place to ride a bike, as long as you don't mind a few hills. Although there are a couple of tough hills in the Sourlands most are in the 100 to 200 ft range and not too bad if you have done a little hill training.

My ride this week started by the canal in Rocky Hill and went to Sergeantsville and back. At this point in the season most people are in good shape so I decided to put some of the tougher hills on the route.

I had a good crowd (9 people). Henry and Irene were there which I was happy to see. They are a lot of fund to ride with. They had just gotten back from Anchor House ride so it was good to catch up with them.

From the canal we zig zaged north west for about 7 miles before starting the climb over the Sourlands. The first hill was Dutchtown Zion which is one of the hardest hills in the area. Its a 380 ft climb that gets steeper at the end so its was a rude way to start the ride. I try to do this hill once or twice a year just to see how I'm climbing. Although the hills last week to Merrill Creek were tougher I was riding my Miyata with a triple then. This week I was riding my Feather which is a lighter much better bike but doesn't have the low gears my Miyata does.

I learned two things climbing Dutchtown Zion this year. First my max heart rate is 190. Second I am in pretty good climbing shape this year. Although I maxed my heart rate out it recovered quickly and I felt pretty good when I got to the top.

A couple of years ago I did this hill and went Anaerobic (meaning I pushed to hard for too long). When you go anaerobic you are basically using more energy than your body can produce. You can only do this for so long before your body shuts down and you have to stop. It's good to go Anaerobic for short periods to help improve performance and strength. This is the idea behind interval training. But if you stay Anaerobic for too long you are going pay for it. When I went Anaerobic on Dutchtown Zion a few years ago, I made it to the top but had to rest for about 10 mins before I could continue. Since then I have learn how to train better so this doesn't happen again.

From Dutchtown Zion we made our way to Hollow then grinded our way up the Sourlands. Once we got to top will followed the ridge west toward Mt Airy. The weather was nice so I stopped to take a few pictures along the way.

After going through Mt Airy I took the long way up the the next hill towards Sergeantsville to explore a few new roads. This ended up being a little hillier than I thought but it wasn't too bad. Instead of going directly to Sergentville for a rest here I decided to take a detour down to the Covered Bridge because I hadn't been there this year yet and it was only a few mile detour.

After 31 miles we made it to Sergeantsville for a much deserved rest stop. This is one of the nicest places to stop for a break. They are very friendly to bikers and have good food (including dumplings and spring rolls). I opted for a Blueberry muffin because I don't think dumplings would sit well for the next 20 miles.

From Sergeantsville we made our way to Dunkard Church which is a pretty relatively flat road. Henry and Irene decided to drop off the ride in order to go at a more relaxed pace. I gave them the queue sheet so they won't get lost. When we turned off Wertzville Artie and Marty decided to take the shorter way back so we were down to five.

As we continued along we meet up with a biker traveling from Georgia to Connecticut. He asked about a couple of roads so I gave him the NJ bike maps I had with me. The last big climb of the ride was Lindberg which is never fun. After that it was some well deserved downhills and then some mostly flat miles to get back to the start. We ended up with about 55 miles.

Merrill Creek 2008

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Merrill Creek is a reservoir in north western Warren County. This area is a beautiful place to ride as long as you don't mind climbing some hills. When I say hills I'm not talking about little 100 or 200 ft climbs I'm talking 400, 500 and 600 ft climbs. Michael showed me this route last year and really enjoyed it which is why it made the book. This is a challenging ride that starts off deceptivly easy.

We start off from Frenchtown and headed to Milford. From there we rode along the river up to Rieglesville. Along the way we saw the Anchor house riders coming the other way on the last day of their trip. We managed to pick out a lot of people we knew including Henry, Irene, Bob, Barbara, and a few others.

We left the river by Creek Rd and started a little climbing. We had a little accident at the corner of 519 and Municipal when one of the riders fell while trying to turn around after missing the turn. Other than a little road rash he was non the worst for were. Luckly the owner of the house on the corner drove by just after the fall and helped put a bandage on his elbow to cover the wound.

We continue on toward Stewardville and took a good look at the top of the hill where Merrill Creek is. After passing through Stewardville we finally reached the first serious climb Montana Rd. The route seems deceptively easy at the start because we start along the river which is relatively flat and even when we start heading into the hills they are mostly short 100 ft climbs. When you get to Montana Rd which is the road that takes you up to Merrill Creek you realize that this is going to be a challenge.

The climb up Montana is really not too bad its just long. The road climbs 620 in just under two miles. The grade is mostly constant except for a few little bumps. When I climbed this hill last year I had to stop for a few minutes about halfway up because my heart rate was maxed out and I needed a rest. This and a couple of other tough hills I did last year made me realize that I could use a little more aerobic training. I have started doing interval training during the week this year and I am happy to report that I felt much better on the climb up Montana even though the weather was hotter. I did stop about half way up again but this was to take pictures not because I needed too. A number of other people stopped along the climb also which is the smart thing to do. Long times are tough even if they aren't really steep. Even if you are in a comfortable gear climbing a hill your heart rate is going to creep up and eventually max out (Unless you are a highly train professional rider). The smart thing to do is to stop for a few minutes and let it recover because if you push too hard you just going to end up feeling sick and maybe puking you guts out. I know this from expericence.

Once we go to the top we regrouped and rode over to the Merrill Creek Reservior. Last year when I did the ride we didn't stop at the reservoir so I wanted to go back this year to get some pictures.

The reservoir has a good visitors center with a good view of the Merrill Creek. We stopped for about 15mins. I took a few pictures and took a look around the visitor center. Its small but has some nice exhibits on the animals in the area. The best thing about the visitors center is that it is air conditoned which felt really good after climbing the hill in the heat.

After our brief stop at the visitors center we headed back out along the ridge and eventually down the moutain. I got a couple of good pictures along the ridge and then had a really good time going down the mountain. It's 640ft of downhill. It's intense but fun. Of course half a mile ahead was another 350ft + climb that surprised me last year. This year I was knew what to expect so it wasn't as bad.

We then started heading to Bloomsbury over some "Rollers". Michael has a slighly optimistic definition of rollers because some of them required me to use the small chain ring of my triple to get up them. The views are nice in this area and I manage to take some more nice pictures.

In Bloomsbury we made a stop a the usual general store. It was a much needed rest since it was really starting to get hot. I really needed some gatoraid because I knew there was one more major climb coming and I didn't want to cramp.

There are many ways out of Bloomsbury most of them up hill. We chose to go up Tunnel Rd. Although its a 500 ft climb its probably the easiest 500 ft climb you can do since it is 2.5 miles long. It is still a tough climb mentally and physiclly because it just never seems to end. I was really glad when I got to the top because I was starting to get overheated and needed break. At this point between the heat and climbing most of us were pretty beat.

The payoff for climbing Tunnel is that you get to go down Sweet Hollow one of the best downhills in NJ. Its a three miles of shaded scenic costing that made up for some of the climbing.

Although the ride had not reached Death March status yet it was still pretty hot and we all wanted to take the shortest way back at this point. This lead to our decision to take Javes Rd even though it said the bridge was out. I had been on Javes about a month ago and the bridge was closed but still passable. This time when we got to the bridge it was in the middle of being demolished and not passable. Because nobody wanted to climb back up Javes we decided to ford the river which is pretty shallow. It wasn't too hard and the cool water felt good on the feet.

Javes got us to the town of Milford and then it was an easy 5 mile ride along the river back to Frenchtown. The ride ended up being around 59 miles. Its a tough ride but a really good route so I'm glad I did it. I will be doing a similar ride at the end of August because I enjoy this area. I just hope the weather is a little cooler.

Burlington County Cruise

On 7/12 I had a ride in the book for a 50 - 60 mile ride through Burlington County. I ended up with a pretty big group, 12 people, despite the fact that Laura, Mike, and Cheryl weren't there because they were doing the MS ride the next day.

Leading a group of more than 5 or 6 people can be a little challenging but I'm lucky because I have a good core group of people that ride with me. They are all experienced riders with good road manner. They make leading easy and fun because they help me keep the group in line.

Riding well in a group means having good communication. It's important that each member in the group call out hazards and cars up and back. This insures that there are no surprises.

The other part of riding well in a group is paying attention and not doing anything stupid. Although most bikers worry about getting hit by a car, the truth is are that most bike accidents are caused by other bikers or hazards on the road.

For the first time in the last few weeks weather wasn't a problem. There wasn't any chance of rain and it wasn't going to be opressively hot. We started out from Bordentown and headed east through Crosswicks and on to Walnford and Hill Rd. Hill Road is a series of 7 little hills and after the first one its really not too bad. After a few more little hills we made our way through Cookstown and the backside of Fort Dix and then into Browns Mill.

We had a quickstop at the Wawa at about 22 miles and then continued on through the top of the Pine Barrens and pass some nice farmlands. The roads in the area are nice and flat and the riding is easy. This is a pretty area to ride through although its hard to capture a picture that does it justice.

Our second stop was a an unplaned stop at a bakery that I forgot was on the route. Its on Smithville Rd just north of Woodlane. Its a great stop and we ended up trading some good stories with some other bikers.

From the second stop if was about 18 miles back to the start and with a tailwind it was an easy ride. Lisa and Alex split off at Chesterfield. They had ridden in from Plainsboro so they could make the ride a century.

We ended up with 58 miles at a 17 mph. All is was a big group it ended being a very orgainized and fun ride.