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.
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