Lost in Califon

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If you don't mind the hills, the area around Califon NJ is a nice place to ride. Laura introduced me to this area a few years ago. Since then I try to get up this way a few times a year. This past Saturday I joined Ken for a ride in this area.

This was a ride of exploration for Ken so although he had a general idea of where he wanted go he wasn't always sure which way to go at certain turns. This meant we got a little lost at times but this is a fun way to learn new roads.

We ended up taking the usually roads from Raritan Valley College to Rockaway after that we did some climbing eventually ending up by the by the Raitain river in Califon. From there we started climbing and climbing. None of the climbs where real steep but it seemed that it would never end.

Eventually we ended up on Pleasant Grove although I didn't really know where we really were. The only thing that I did know that we were finally on top of some mountain with some nice views. We tooled along the top for a while then Ken made a turn that took us onto a dirt road. It was hard packed dirt with some gravel but it was ridable as long as we kept it slow. This lasted for a mile and a half before the road turned back to asphalt.

Then the road started going downhill at a pretty steep rate. It was a nice downhill that had this wicked hairpin turn that was both dangerous and fun at the same time. I learned after the ride that the angle of the road at the hairpin was 34 degrees. I definitely want to do try this again.

Of course after this great downhill there was more climbing ahead. We had a tandem in the group with us and I felt a little sorry for them because of all the climbing. But even though they were a little slow up the hills they just kept grinding away and didn't seem to mind too much.

We eventually ended up on Old Turnpike and had a nice downhill that took us to our rest stop in Tweaksbury. From there is was a short easy ride back to the start.

This is a great area that I still don't know real well so I plan to come back up this way in October to do some more exploring and find some more fun roads.