Headwinds, High Points and a Gorilla

This Saturday was my Southern Safari ride to visit the high points of Salem and Cumberland counties. The official high points are 160 and 140 feet respectively so these are some of the lowest high points in the state. Salem and Cumberland counties are mostly farmland and is where the Garden State earns it name. This makes for very flat and open riding. This area is a nice place to ride because there is almost no traffic and no hills to worry about. Because this is mostly open farmland there isn't a lot of interesting things to look at except the odd stream, marshland or lake. It is also not a place you want to ride on a hot sunny day since there is no cover to protect you.

Because this was going to be a long ride where we had an hour drive to the starting point I didn't get a big turn out. It was just Laura, Jack, Ken, and myself. The starting point was in Woodstown which is south east of the middle of nowhere. It was however close enough to 295 to be easy to get to. From there we did a 65 mile ride though Salem and Cumberland county. On paper this looked like a flat and easy route but it turned out to be a little harder than I thought.

First we had a strong headwind for the first 30 miles. Second it was on the humid and hot side but luckily it was mostly cloudy so that kept the temperature from getting too bad. Third although this is a very flat area it had a lot of small ups and downs which added up over the long ride. According to my Delorme GPS the total elevation for the ride was 1600 ft which is a lot considering we spent most of the ride at an altitude of less than 100 feet of sea level.

One of the strange things about riding south of Rt 70 is that it is like being south of the Mason Dixon line. People talk slower with a southern accent. There are lot more pickup trucks than cars and the houses seem a little more run down. This was most evident at our stop in Alloway and Centerton,

On the ride description I suggested that there might be some exotic animal sightings on the ride and I kept my promise by stopping at the Cohanzick Zoo This was NJ's first zoo and although it is just a small county zoo it was worth a quick stop especially since there is no admission fee. We took a quick walk around and got a glimpse of the white tiger which is their main attraction. They also have some small monkeys as well as some other assorted animals.

At the zoo I decided to take the high point picture since I know the high points of Salem and Cumberland would just be on a boring road next to a farm field. They had a Gorilla that made for a good photo op. 

From the zoo we headed mostly north and back towards Woodstown stopping a couple of times to take pictures at or near the high point. I had studied the maps and knew approximately where the high points were based on NJ Bike map but it was so flat that it was hard to tell which bump was the high point. I know we road through it at some point and my GPS read 135 feet at the Cumberland high point which is where the picture below was taken.

For the Salem high point I got 173 feet which is higher than the official 160 feet. It was also in a different road than was marked on NJ Bike map. Again the flatness of the terrain makes it difficult to tell what dirt pile is higher than the other. All that matters is that I can check these two counties off the list.


By the time we were done with the ride we where definitely feeling more tired than expected. The hot weather and wind had taken its toll. It also didn't help that we had two flats (Laura found a piece of metal staple in her rear tire at mile 30 and I had a pinch flat on Compromise Rd where that was more sand and dirt than road).  I also got stung on my tongue by a small bee. Luckily I'm not allergic and didn't experience any swelling.


Next week it is on to some real hills in Somerset county