I Have a Theme...

For the score of years that I have been riding it has come to my attention that there is a great inequality between those who can climb hills and those who avoid them. Some may say that this is due to genetics or socioeconomic factors. I reject this bias view and believe that all bikers are created equal and can rise to any heights they want.

Every year I have a goal that drives the type rides I do and how I train. A couple years ago my goal was to climb Mt Greylock, the highest point in Massachusetts. It turns out that I have been to most of the high points of the states that I have ridden in. This has given me an idea for this year. Not only do I want to go to the high point of New Jersey, again, but I also want to try to visit the high point of each county. There will probably be some counties like Hudson, Union and Essex where getting to the high point by bike would be inadvisable but we should be able to hit most of them.

This should make for some interesting rides. We will start with some of the lower and closer ones first then work our way up to High Point by the end of the summer. There will definitely be some trials and tough climbs along the way but if you join me on this march we shall over come the forces of gravity. Then you will be free at last, free at last to explore any road you want and not live in fear of any mountain


With apologies to Martin Luther King

Amen

Duke Farms

It was too cold this week to ride on the road and really not even warm enough to even go outside. However Sundays forecast looked to warm enough to try a mountain bike ride. I didn't feed like doing the canal path so I decided to go to Duke Farms and do some exploring. I posted the ride on the blog and sent out a email to the usual crew. When I got up on Sunday it was 17 degrees which was colder than I was expecting. Although Ron bailed because of the cold temperature Laura, Jim, Barry and Joe showed up.

It was 23 when we started the ride but at least there was no wind. I dressed as warm as I could an even switched to mittens. Once we got started I was warm enough that I didn't mind the riding. Duke Farms is an ecological preserve created by Doris Duke and now open to the public. It is 2700 acres of land by the Raritan river that has a lot in interesting features from the 7 main made lakes with numerous water falls as well as buildings and sculptures scattered around the property.

I didn't bother with my GPS because I didn't have the roads of the farm on it. So I relied on a map of the property. This meant having to take map out from time to time to figure out where we were and where to go. This also lead to a couple of wrong turns Still we manged to follow the path I had planned to see as much of the park as we could.

The first part of the ride was in and around the lakes and waterfalls then we rode around some of the buildings on the farm. One of the stops was the Orchid house which is a green house full of orchids. I thought it was a good place to go in and get warm but it turns out it was closed. We continued on through a few more places taking pictures along the way. You can check out Jim's Blog for more pictures.

By the time we got back to the parking lot we had some where between 8 and 9 miles. It was a long drive for such a short ride but it was better than sitting at home and not riding.  I also now know that Duke Farms is a pretty place to ride around so I will probably back in the spring when it is a lot warmer.