This was a typical Sourlands ride. We started from the parking lot in Rocky hill by the canal and worked our way up Hollow Rd to the ridge. The highest road we can ride in at the corner of Featherbed and Hopewell-Wertsville Rd (471 ft according to my GPS). To get there we had to zig-zag up and down the ridge which added some more climbing but also got us on some nice roads that I don't normally travel.
From there is was more or less the regular roads to Lamberville including Alexuken Rd which is a beautiful was to head down the hill to Lambertvile.
After our normal break in Rojo's we headed back. The way back was different than normal. This was because I wanted to get as close as I could to Baldplate Mountain where the real high of Mercer county is. This required us to first head up Goat Hill Rd which starts with a short but steep 10% grade. This turned out to not be the toughest climb. Our next climb was up Pleasant Valley Rd which I had never done. On paper it doesn't look too bad as it is around a 6-7% grade. The problem is that its almost a 2 mile climb. I decided to ride the Feather today because it can handle anything under 10%. However it was a struggle getting up the last bit of Pleasant Valley as my heart rate was close to max by the end of the climb.
When we got to Baldplate Mountain park some of us tried to ride into the park to see if we could get to the actual highpoint. We made it to the parking lot but could not get to the actual high point. According to my GPS we got to 463 ft which is 17ft below the official highpoint of 480 ft.
I took a picture anyway since just to show we were there. (Not sure what's up with Laura's neck)
From Baldplate Mountain we headed through Pennington and then through the backside of Princeton to get back to the starting point. These are roads I haven't taken in a while so it was a nice change of pace. By the time we got back to the start we had 54 miles and had checked off another highpoint.
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