The Highest Point

So I think I broke my insane bike posse. We have had more mechanical issues like broken spokes and tire problems this year  as well as our share of physical problem like people cramping up. There have even been a few crashes. Luckily none were serious(i.e. Jim's face is no worst than it was before) but it has been a tough year.

This weekend was support to be a trip to north Jersey to knock off a few more county high points however the trip fell apart the week before because the few people who wanted join me had to bail. It is always hard to coordinate a weekend trip because everybody has busy lives with responsibilities pulling them in multiple directions.

I was still determined to do at least the ride to High point in Sussex county this weekend because I'm in the best shape I'm going to be in this year and will be taking a couple weeks off the bike for a vacation. So this may be my last chance this year to do this hilly of a ride. I would have done it myself but luckily I got Laura and Marc to join me.

The ride I had planned would visit the high points of Warren and Sussex and would be 66 plus mile ride with close to 6000 ft of climbing. I know that RideWithGPS shows 5100 feet of climbing but it is notoriously low.  The reason the ride was this long and hard was that the Warren and Sussex high points were JUST close enough to do together but were also the two highest high points in state with a lot of hills between them.

The worst part about this ride was the start. Within a few hundred feet of getting on the bike we started a 700 ft 1 mile climb that varied between 10 and 15% grade on Millbrook Rd. I am famous for starting a ride with a tough climb but even I was pissed at me for doing this. Unfortunately this was the only way to get to the Warren County high point.

The actual Warren County high point is on a remote part of the Kittatiny mountains and is in accessible by bike or car so Millbrookd Rd is the closest we could get. My GPS logged 1286 feet at this point which is 314 ft short of the 1600 ft of the official Warren county high point but that was the best we could do with out some back woods hiking.

After the Warren high point we road along the ridge in shaded woods on quiet roads until we emerged on Rt 206. There are not a lot of place to stop for food around here but we were lucky to find a deli to fuel up before the push to Highpoint.

This deli is right next to the Appalachian Trail as the sign clearly shows.

Most of the way to Highpoint was on Sunrise road which is mostly tree covered except for a small section that gave a great view of the valley below. It reminded Laura of the view from Skyline drive and since the view is facing east it would be a good place to be for a sunrise.

A couple more turns and a harder climb than the profile would indicate we were on Deckertown Rd. We were now on the normal route that we took up to Highpoint the last time we went there so Laura and I knew what to expect. It is a slow shallow climb up Sawmill then a short stretch on Rt 23 before we enter the park. We headed right up to the monument which is a mile from the entrance. The only really hard part is the quarter mile up to the monument which has a few brief parts that are 20% grade. It felt a little easier than the last time I did it.

We were definitely a little tired not only with the last climb but with all the hills we came over to get here. The high point picture on the top of the post is the only one I will be in since I wanted to have a picture similar to the last time I was here. I also updated my exhausted Laura picture.

It wasn't a perfectly clear day but the view wasn't bad. After a few more pictures we headed out of the park and back down to the valley. I started to have a few mechanical and physical problems on the way down. The mechanical problem was that my front derailleur would slip into the granny gear when I was in my low gear in the cassette and grinding up a hill. The mountain bike gearing I have on the bike is finicky and needs to be adjusted on a regular basis. I had not done much maintenance on it this year so I guess I was due. It was more annoying than a real problem as I just change my shifting a little to keep it in the middle gear.

The physical problem I had was some leg cramps. I had brought a bottle of gator-aid with me and was drinking as much as I could but I guess the climbing was catching up to me. I stopped and stretched a couple of times and was able to continue on especially now that we were on mostly flat to rolling roads.

I had two planned stops for this ride but when we got to the deli that we always stop at it was closed. Apparently they close on 1 pm on Sundays and I was out of water. We asked some people at a farm stand nearby if they had any water and brought us over to a spigot on their farm to fill up. It is always refreshing to meet helpful people along the road.

With 15 miles to go and only one more real hill to climb the end was near but we were all beat and tired of even the smallest climb at this point. So when we went through the town of Layton and I saw a Greek general store open I decided to stop for a break. I went for a Balaclava because it looked good and wanted something sweet. 5 miles later we were at the last hill.

We did this hill last year and it is a 10 % grade but what really makes it tough is the fact that it is more pot holes than road. I stretched at the bottom to try to prevent any cramps and then turtled up the hill.  From the shape of the road it looks like they didn't bother to patch the holes so you had to really plan out your path to miss the worst of it and not ride off the road.

I made it up with out cramping and was glad when I finally made it back to the car. This may have not been the toughest ride I have every done but it is definitely in the top 5, 4, OK top 3. For the record I promised that I will never ride on again Old Mine Rd by Millbrook Village or do the climb up Millbrook Rd. They are just too beat up and/or steep. I wanted that on the record because I said that we would never do the Millbrook part of Old Mine Rd again when we were here last year and here we are a year later so I wanted to say I mean it this time.

After a little stretching we got back into the car and headed home. I cramped up a little on the way home but it was not bad enough to make me stop and pull over. It was a hard ride but I'm glad I did it.  There are some good road to ride around here so I may be up this way again in the distant future but I need a few weeks of flat roads before I will consider doing hills again.

I will still need to get to north Jersey one more time to get to the Bergen, Passaic and Morris high points so there will be one more hilly ride in my future. I  will probably do that at the end of Sept or beginning of October depending on when I can get some of the insane bike posse sane enough to join me.