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.