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.