The area around Frenchtown is a nice place to ride as long as you don't mind a few hills. After accidently leading the Bloomsbury Boogie a couple of months ago I wanted to lead another ride in this area and try to improve the route a little.
Although the weather had been perfect most of the week we had some rain late Friday and overcast skys on Saturday so riding was a little messy. Only 3 other people showed up at the starting point so it was a small group. I found out later that I actually missed a few other people who were in the other parking lot. They eventually caught up and passed us.
We headed up along the Delaware for about 15 miles. Mike ended up getting a flat. After changing the tube and putting some air in the tire using my pump he tried to finish pressuizing the tube with a cartaridge. KA-POW!!!! went the tire about a second before I was about the say "I think you got enough air the tire." My ears were ringing for a few minutes while Mike changed the tube again. This time we just used the pump to put air in the tire.
After leaving the Delaware we starting to do some climbing. There were a number of 100+ foot hills we climbed as we headed for Stewardsville. After we got through Stewardsville I tried out some new roads on the way to Bloomsbury. These turned out to be some nice roads with good views of the surrounding mountains. It was still cloudy so the pictures didn't come out too good.
This is a very rural area of the state and once you get on the back roads you have them mostly to yourselves. This would be a great place to dump a body... err I mean you want to make sure you always ride with a group around here because it could days for somebody to find you if you fell and got hurt.
After 37 miles we made it to Bloomsbury for a break at the General Store then it was time for one big more hill as we headed back towards Frenchtown. Getting out of Bloomsbury to Tunnel Rd is a little ugly because you have to go on Rt 173 for a couple of miles. Its right off of 78 so it's your usual gas station, truck stop mess.
Climbing Tunnel Rd was easier this time around because the weather was a little cooler. It was another fun ride down Sweet Hollow then we rode along to ridge back to Frenchtown. Although the ridge is flatter than the surrounding hills there are still a number of 50 to 100 + foot rollers that make you realize how tired you are. We ended up on Stamets and Kappus with some nice down hills.
It ended up being a nice 55 mile ride which was enough According to Howie, with his GPS, we did about 3000 feet of climbing and my legs agreed that is was a hilly ride.
No comments:
Post a Comment