It's Never Sunny in Round Valley

I end up riding by Round Valley reservoir at least 2 or 3 times a year. In the past 5 years I think I have only had one ride past the reservoir where the weather was actually nice. Most of the time it's either hazy, hot and humid or overcast and cloudy. The weather this Saturday was no better for this years ride around Round Valley.

The temperature was in the mid 70s which was good but it was overcast with the humidity of at least 110%. I didn't expect a lot of people on the ride since it was in the book as a long hilly ride but I actually ended up with 11 people. Except for Chris, Hilda, and Cheryl I didn't know any of them so I was a little nervous about leading this many people around hilly terrain.

As the ride got going it was clear that we had a few pace pushers who kept wanting to go ahead but for the most part they were pretty well behaved. The route I took was mostly the same route I have in book only backward. This way is a little less climbing and we get a really cool downhill after the reservoir.

We quickly made our way through Bellemeade and Hillsborough and crossed 202 in South Branch on Old York Rd. From here we headed past Solberg airport and made our way into Whitehouse Station. We were 21 miles into the ride so I decided to stop here since there were no other places to stop along the route for a least another 20 miles since the Stanton General Store is now closed. I had never stopped in Whitehouse Station for a rest stop so I didn't know what I would find. We found a pizza place which was closed but there was a nice deli that was open that made a good stop.

After the stop we headed towards the reservoir and started to do some climbing. The group started to spread out a little as some of the faster rides started to push ahead up the hills. I stayed back with the slower group to make sure nobody got left behind or felt like they had to push it up the hills. When I lead hilly rides like this it becomes hard to keep the group together when you have a mix of fast hill climbers and the rest of us who take a little time to make it up the hill. I tried to keep the group up front aware of the next few turns so they knew where we were going because although I have no problem dropping people if they don't behavior I prefer to try to keep the group together if possible.

As we got to the real hills around Round Valley and started a couple of long climbs I was very happy with the way everybody made it up the hill even though a few of them said they hadn't really done much climbing. Nobody really had a problem with the climb although we spread out a little. The humid weather and overcast sky made it not worth taking any pictures around the reservoir. For what the reservoir looks like on a good day see these pictures.

The downhill after the reservoir is one of the best downhills in the state. I hit 40mph and I'm sure the tandem hit 50mph. After the downhill we passed the abandon Stanton General Store and took Dreahook to Springtown. We ended up dropping a few people off the front when we made the turn onto Springtown and when we headed down Barley Sheaf I had somebody cramp up so we had to stop for a few minutes until he could ride again. We slowed down the pace so the guy who cramped up could keep up but he kept falling back so I stayed back with him and told Cheryl Chris and the other so go ahead since they knew where we were now and they could find their way to Peacocks.

We were on Cider Mill at this time and when we cross Amwell the guy who was cramping and his friend decided to head back around the north end of the Sourlands instead of climbing over the Sourland like I planned. They said they knew where they were and could get back so I left them and went to catch up with the rest of the group.

It was strange riding by myself after leading a ride but I took the opportunity to take a could of pictures. I eventually made it to Peacocks where I not only meet up with the rest of the group but also with the people I had dropped so in the space of a half hour I had lost almost all of the group and then found them again.

By the time we got to Peacocks we were pretty tired mostly because it was so humid. After the rest stop some of the pace pusher crowd decided to go back on their own. The rest of us climbed Linburg and headed back to the canal. I ended up coming down Dutchtown Zion just to get in one last down hill in. We got back to the canal around 1:30 pm just about the same time that the guys with the cramps got there so I was happy to see they made it back.

Even though the weather wasn't great and I had some problems with the group it didn't diminish from the ride. I may never see Round Valley on a good day but it doesn't mean that it's not a fun ride.