Last Ride of 2015

I had my last ride of the year on Wednesday. I did try to invite a few others to join me but got no takers so ended up doing the ride solo. Even though it has been very warm this December it hasn't been that great to ride as when it was warm it was overcast and rainy and the few sunny days we had it was cold. Wednesday was one of those overcast days when the roads were dry enough to ride but still wet in spots. I ended up with just under 40 miles. It wasn't a great ride but I wanted to get out when I can since we are now in winter and you have to get out when you can.

Since this is the last ride of the year I looked back on my year of riding which can be summed up in one word HIGHPOINTS.

I had a theme this year to get to the high point in every county of NJ that was on a rideable road. Except for Union Essex and Hudson. which are on roads too busy to get to, we got to every other highpoint in the state. I'm still not sure this whole highpoint theme was a good idea but we did have some interesting adventures along with a couple of rides that sucked. I have included a set of links to the high point rides below in case anybody is interest in reading about our adventures. It is amazing to me that after over 20 years of riding in NJ that I am still discovering new roads and new routes.

I did some riding in Virginia and Tennessee this year and they have some good roads there too but I still think NJ has a lot of variety and good scenery to offer any type of rider.  I don't have any theme or ideas for 2016 but I'm sure I will come up with something stupid to do.

Happy New Year. See you all on the bike in 2016

Middlesex high point
Mercer County high point
Monmouth  County high point
Ocean/Burlington high points.
Salem and Cumberland high points
Somerset high point
Hunterdon high point
Camden, Atlantic, Gloucester high points 
Sussex,Warren high points
Morris, Passaic,Bergen high points
Cape May high point

Muddy Monday

Decided to do a solo ride today since it looks like it will be raining for the next couple of days. Because of the cold I decided for a short trail ride to make sure my mountain bike is ready for the winter season. (Besides a slight seat height and rear break adjustment it worked just fine).

I started from Carnegie Lake and went up just past Rocky Hill and back. It was just over 40 degrees when I started and really didn't warm up much. It was sunny for the first time in about a week. The cloudy and rainy weather we have been having meant there were a lot of puddles to go around on the trail. Of course some times the only way over was through so I splashed some mud on me and the bike as I had to ride through some puddles that covered the whole path. 

My sun glasses were the cleanest part of me and from the waist down I was 50% mud. Despite the messy ride I do like this part of the trail as it has enough scenery to enjoy and it a little different every time.

I stopped by the dam to take the picture of the mill. This is the same shot I take almost every time I ride this trail. It looks much nicer when there is ice and snow.

I also got a picture of the lock by Kingston that had an interesting sun glint in it.

It looks like we might have one more mild day on Thursday so if the forecast holds I will probably try to organize a ride from Mercer or Etra.

Ye Olde Cranbury Ride

Our families really don't exchange presents since non of us needs more stuff. Christmas, for us, is more about getting together as a family. We do exchange some little trinkets like ornaments or candy. My sister also tries to find the most horrendous cheap Christmas decoration to give to us. A few years ago she gave us a rapping snowman which dances and raps Christmas songs and is offensive on many levels. We have tried to find something to one up her but there is nothing worst than the rapping snowman. This year a plastic deer that plays Christmas songs with flashing lights was the worst thing she could find.

With Christmas over it is now time to get back to riding. Today I lead a pick up ride out of Cranbury. When I first started riding with the club I would go out of Cranbury every week because if was a close and easy ride to do and I really liked the people that rode out of there. For the past 10 years I only go to Cranbury occasionally as I tried to add more variety to my riding.

 Today I didn't have any thing in the book but the HoneyDo ride listed the C++ leader as volunteer so I sent out a email to let few people know that I would be there and hoped a few would show.

When I got there at 9am Chris and Joe were waiting for me and then Peter and another person decided to join us. We did a 45 mile loop to Millstone and back with a stop at Roy's Deli. I have not been out in a couple weeks since I had a cold last week. Because of excess of Christmas food and the lingering cold I felt a little out of shape. Still it felt good to get out.

I am off for the next week so I hope to get a couple of rides in between the forecast rain. 

Peace on Earth

This past week I was up at corporate headquarters in New York for set of technical meetings to try and bring three groups together to come up with our product strategy for 2016. There were about 25 of us there from all over the world representing at least 10 different countries. My main concern was that it would be hard come to consensus on our strategy as each group would want to promote their ideas over the other groups.

That turned out to not be the case and by Thursday afternoon we had a clear strategy that everyone could support. Some people may think that when you get a bunch of tech geeks together they calmly discuss the pros and cons of different technologies and come to a conclusion based on logic and reasoning. The truth is technical people tend to have as many turf wars and political maneuverings as executives in corporate board rooms or politicians in committee meetings.

As part of this trip I got to spend some time outside of work with the people from these other countries I normally only talk to by phone. Its nice to get to know them on a more personal basis and get their views on the world. Of course the conversation eventually lead to the recent set of attacks in Paris and the US.

If you haven't seen John Olivers comments on the Paris attacks you should check it out on youtube. In his moment of profanity he correctly points out that these attacks are not carried out by a group of radical Muslims but by just plain "Fucking Assholes" following an outdated ideology of assholery. I support the governments efforts to track down these people and do what they can to prevent these type of attacks but am concerned by some ideas certain politicians proposed to solve this problem as they amount to nothing more than blatant racism. I explained to my colleagues that the ideas of these politicians do not really reflect the opinion of the people and are just grandstanding to energize their base. They all understood since their politicians do the same thing.  

One of the outings we had after work was to travel to Times Square where the Statue of Liberty reminded me that what makes America successful is our ability to integrate many people from different parts of the world with different beliefs so that they can participate equally in our society

One only has to spend a few hours in New York to understand how rich and strong our culture is because of our diversity.  And it makes for a lot of good food too. (Although as my Chinese colleagues point out what we call "Chinese" food is not really what they think of as Chinese food and the same can be said of any ethnic food in the US although it all tastes good )

The politicians may try to have you believe that our society is under attack and we must take dramatic action to prevent "These people" from taking our way of life from us. However if you look at demographics and actual facts you will see that the world is getting safer. More than ever the different counties of the world depend on each other economically and need to get along. We still have disagreements, of course, but more of these are solved through trade agreements and treaties as oppose to wars.

The main thing that divides us is the hate that is bread out of fear and fueled by politicians and those who want to benefit from this hate. It is important that we don't get consumed by this. As I walked with my colleagues through Rockefeller Center and saw all the people enjoying the Christmas season it is easy to believe that people from different places with different backgrounds and beliefs can get together and find solutions to common problems. My conversations with my colleagues this week have continue to confirm my belief that if we learn to understand and respect each other we can solve the problems that face us and live in peace.

Day at the Beach

While some people headed to the hills this Saturday I headed for the beach. I had to some things to do at the condo in Avon so I rode from home to Belmar and met my wife at the condo. Its a 40 mile ride with a few rolling hills and not a lot of traffic until you get about 5 mile from the beach. I wanted to be at the beach by 11 am so I started at 8:30 am while it was still below freezing. The first 5 mile was a little cold but once I got going I was warm enough. 

The beach is a barren place this time of year which means you don't have to watch out for cars and people darting out in front of you as you ride only the ocean.  It was a good quick ride and by 11 am I was there and took care of the codo before heading out for lunch.

We didn't head straight home but took a detour to Tuckerton. There was a craft show there that my wife and I went to last year. They actually has some cool and unique things last year so we headed back this year to see if we could find some Christmas gifts. Unfortunately the craft show was no where need as good this year as a lot of the vendors that we like last year were missing this year.

Although the vendors were disappointing the museum where the craft fair was help is a nice place to walk around and includes a small light house which you can climb to the top of.  I also did find a new favorite dessert. Its called a cheese cake cone and it is exactly like it sounds only better. It is a cone filled with a really good New York Cheese Cake but what really makes it spectacular is that the cone is made of some hard caramel that perfectly comments the cheese cake. Its turns out the restaurant that makes this cheese cone is based on Cranbury so I will now know where I can get a supply of this new dessert. 

Besides stopping in Tuckerton we also made a quick stop in Smithville for lunch since it was only a few miles down the road. We usually eat at the Smithville Inn but since it was such a nice day they were completely booked. We ended up eating at the the other pub in Smithville before doing some more shopping and finally heading home.

Stupid is as Stupid Does

We did some stupid rides this year and it seems like we haven't gotten rid of the stupid yet. Today I decided to do Laura's ride out of Pennington. I knew it would be in the Sourlands and knew there would be hills but with the winter approaching I know that there won't be many more days I would be able to do these types or rides. I also wanted see the gang again.

It was a cold day in the high 40s but sunny. At Pennington to my surprise both Mike and Larry showed up for the ride. I haddn't seen bike since he bought a sail boat in the early spring. A few others joined us before Jim and Laura rode up. Once we found Mike a helmet we were on our way. Laura wanted to do something different from her normal ride to Lambertville so she had some surprises for us.

The first surprise is that we made a left out of the school instead of going right. We never do that. I had a few more "we never do that" moments as we made our towards the Sourlands. The worst surprise for me is that we were going up Province Fucking Line Rd. I had decided to ride my Feather today because I thought Laura would take it easy on us since it is late in the season and we are no longer in peak shape. I guess this is payback for some of the hills I made her climb this year.

I really don't have a problem doing Province Line on my Feather on a nice day in the middle of the season. Except for Dutchtown Zion Province Line is probably one of the harder ways up the Sourlands. Its actually not one continuous climb but a series of hills over a few of miles so it is long grind. Today wasn't a good day for me as I struggled up the hill and almost went aerobic and had one of my annoying stomach cramps. But once I got over it I got a second wind and was fine.

The only saving grace of going up Province Line was that I got the usual shot at the bottom of the last hill. Its not as pretty as it would had been a month ago when the leaves were at peak but it is always a good view.

From the ridge we made our way to Lamberville with a couple of more "we never do that" turns to our usual stop at RoJo's. Then out of Lamberville we made the ultimate "we never do that" turn up Rt 179. There is no shoulder on this four lane road for the first mile or so but there was light traffic so it wasn't too bad. It also turned out to be one of the easier ways to climb back up to the ridge of the Sourlands.

I was feeling better after the break so the climbs didn't bother me although some of group was feeling a little tired so we got a spread out. Our way back to Pennington was different than the normal route and the ride ended up being 49 ish (longer than I was expecting) but it was good to get out for hill ride this long late in the year.

The sub theme to the high point ride theme for the year was doing stupid things and even though we are done with the high point rides I think stupid is here to stay for a while.

Winter Project

Although I did get out on Saturday for a windy ride out of Cranbury with Tru, Mary, and a few others the days are getting shorter and colder and so will my rides. Since I won't be doing any epic rides or bike trips for the next few months this gives me times to work on some other projects. This year one of my winter projects will be improving my office at home. My current job has me working from home. Some people prefer an office environment but for me in my current role as a software architect who deals with people and teams spread across the globe working form home is very natural and efficient.

Since I stare at a computer screen for most of my day it is important to have a good work set up. This includes a large monitor, ergonomic keyboard and trackpad and of course a good chair and desk. My work requires me to have a couple of different computers (i.e. a Windows PC and a Mac) as well as an IOS and Android device. To organize all these machines I built a rack to store all these devices and hide most of the ugly cables to connect them all to my keyboard and monitor. This gives me a cleaner place to work and more desk space.

The rack similar to once you would find in most computer rooms and allows me to stack all my computers including my personal Windows PC and have them connected to a single monitor and screen using a Belkin KVM switch. The rack is well ventilated and has full slide out shelves that give me full access to all the wires if I need to reconfigure anything.

My current issue with my set up is lighting. I have a desk lamp but it doesn't light up the whole desk unless I put it above the monitor or aim it at an angle across the desk. The problem with doing this is that it creates some reflections and causes some glare which interferes with me seeing the monitor. This weekend I found a solution to this problem. I went to Lowes and got some under counter lighting from Sylvania. Its a 24 inch thin strip of flexible LED lights. The Mosaic kit I got had everything I needed and more. It contained 2 24 inch strips plus a transformer and remote control. I wanted the lights below the monitor but above the keyboard so it would light up the desk but not shine in my eyes. I ended up mounting the LED strip in a 1/2 inch aluminum U channel that I had painted flat black. The result was perfect.

I attached the U channel to the bottom of my monitor with some Velcro. This worked good and gives me the light I need with out any glare. The remote that came with the LEDs even allow me to change the light level and color so I can get just the right amount of light I need with out any glare.

I have a couple more improvements I want to make to my workspace one that may involve a linear actuator so when there is not much to share on the bike front I will share my winter projects in case anybody else might find them useful. 

We're on a Highpoint to Hell

When I got into my car Saturday morning my iPod starting playing Going to Hell by the Pretty Reckless which was strangely appropriate for the day. There is one line that really stuck in my head.

                          For the vows that I break, I'm going to hell!

Visiting all the county highpoints has made for a tough riding season and as I'm accustom to doing I may have not been entirely truthful about the difficulty of some of the rides. (i.e. I am a lying bastard). However the last couple of weeks I have lead some nice flat rides which has redeemed me a little. I thought I was done with the hillier rides for this season but I was wrong.

Laura who has been having chronic problems with the gearing on her Synapse (the bike not the ones in her brain) finally determined the problem was a bracket on the frame that could not be repaired. Because of this she got a new frame at no cost and wanted to try it out on some hills. We had talked about this on the way home from last weeks trip and decided to head up to Califon from Hillsborough. Laura came up with a route that was mostly rolling hills with one steep long climb in the middle. The climb was up Parsonage Lot Road which I had never done although I had planned a ride up that road a few years ago but got sick and asked Laura to lead it for me.

The turn out to the ride was larger than expected there were 8 of us total. The ride toward Califon was on familiar roads past the Solberg air port then across 22 and towards Rockaway Rd. A few more turns we were going up Parsonage Lot. It is a 400 ft climb in 3/4 of a mile. It was a tough hill and I was in the low gears of my triple all the way up but we have done a lot worst this year. It has been a few weeks since I did any climbing and I definitely a little out of shape.

This climb is up the side of Hell Mountain. In keeping with the sprint of doing something stupid we went up a dead end street just to say we got to the top of Hell Mountain. I took my normal high point picture even though this is not a real county high point but at least I can now I can say I have been to the high point of hell.

I didn't know why it was called Hell Mountain. I assumed that it was because of some horrible massacre or series of unexplained deaths. I did a little research and it turns out the name is as stupid as us riding to the top of it. According the the Tewksbury historical society...

"The original German/Dutch settlers named it "Heil" (which means high in German) Mountain as it was the highest part of the area. When the map was being made, the ink dotting the 'i' dripped and it looked like it was Hell instead of Heil"

So it is called Hell Mountain because of an early form of the typo.  In any case I don't see us going back to hell as there are easier more scenic ways to get to the same place. From the top of hell we made our way down the mountain using Sawmill Rd and Fox Hill. Fox Hill is a very scenic road but I didn't stop for any pictures because most of the leaves were down and the overcast skies made every thing look murky.

We made a quick stop at the Oldwick General store before heading home. Laura's new bike seems to be working well. You can see more details on the new bike here

Lows and Highs

Done, Done and Done. My quest to reach all the county high points in the state was completed this weekend on a trip to Cape May county. I did not get to Hudson, Essex, Union county high points because there is no safe way to ride to them. If I am up in north Jersey this winter I may stop at these high point just to say that I have been there but that is probably not going to happen.

Since Cape May is an hour and a half to 2 hours away for most of us it made sense to make a weekend out of it. I had tried to do this during the summer but the difficulty in getting a reasonable priced hotel and everybody to agree on a date made me reschedule this to the early fall.

I got 5 people to join me for the weekend including Laura, Jim. Ed, Jack and his girl friend Dorthy. Many, many emails were exchanged to organize this trip which started from Bordentown where we all met. It was then an hour and a half drive down to the starting point at Belleplain State park. A few of us had done a century down here about 7 years ago but hadn't been back since.

We started from a parking lot at Nummy lake and headed out of the park the way my mapping software and NJBikeMap said there were roads. However the maps didn't match the actual roads so I just kept heading in the general direction of where I wanted to go and eventually made it back to the roads on the route. There are a lot flat and quiet roads to ride through mostly pine forests. Its not very scenic but does provide easy stress free riding.

The only scenic part was at the end of the Maurice River where there is a view of the bay and a small unnoticeable light house called East Point Light.

The route I had planned was a 62 mile figure 8 with a Wawa at the middle of the figure 8. We stopped there at 20 miles where we meet a bunch of dirt bikers on an 80 rally ride through the dirt and sand roads of the woods. We spent a few minutes talking to one of the bikers at the Wawa sharing experiences of our different forms of biking.

From there is was a 25 mile loop through Dividing Creek and Port Norris. Besides some more empty roads and pine forests there wasn't much to see here. The last time I was in this part I saw a lot of strange blue color lakes filled with some kind of chemicals but none were seen today.

There was one sand road I had to detour around as it wasn't marked correctly on the map. This brought us past a couple of people restoring an old 1940s train for reuse. We spent some time talking to them before moving on and going through the town of Buckshuem which is part of a song about strange sounding NJ towns.

At the Wawa Jack called Dorthy to see where she was. She had done a ride on her own since she didn't think she could keep up with us. It turned out she was just across from the Wawa heading back to the park.

From the Wawa it was a couple straight semi flat roads back to the start. Along the way we got to the actual high point of Cape May county which was suppose to be 60 ft but I got 86 ft on the GPS.

At the end we had 66 miles and maybe 600 ft of climbing. It sounds like an easy ride compared to what we have done but I still felt pretty beat at the end.

For the over night we went to Ocean City were we got a few rooms in the Biscayne Suite hotel. The rooms were spacious with a living room and large bedroom. For $90 a night it was better than expected although some of the bedding was little too mushy for good sleep. We had dinner at a decent Italian restaurant which was empty like the rest of the town. We took a walk on the boardwalk where there were only a few open stores.

Sunday we got up bright and early and headed to Smithville for our second ride of the weekend. The route I did was similar to the ride I usually do from Batsto I just changed the starting point. This was more quiet roads and pine forests. The only thing of note was that at one point my GPS said we were 100 ft below sea level. I'm not sure if I believe the GPS but it was just an excuse to take a "Low Point Picture"

By the time we got back we had just over 50 miles. We then said good bye and headed our separate ways home.

I still don't know if the theme of riding to all the county high points was a good idea or not. It did lead to some fun rides, a few stupid ones, and some rides that got us to roads that sucked. It is amazing to me that after 20 years of riding around NJ I can still find new routes and new roads to ride. I guess the best thing that came of this quest is a continued appreciation of how many good roads there are to ride here and a new set of adventures to remember and tell stories about. Of course the quest wouldn't have been as fun if I didn't have people just crazy enough to join me and share in the fun and pain of the adventure.

I am lucky to have a good set of friends who enjoy biking together and trying different things. We may come from different backgrounds, careers and riding experiences and we all may be a little odd in our own way but we enjoy riding together. I don't know if I will even have a themed set of rides again but I would like to try to do more trips like this next year because its always a good time.

Ride to Rova Farms

Fall is at its peak around here so I wanted to do a ride to see the colors before the leaves fall off the trees. The colors seem bright this year but I think because of the dry fall we are having a lot of the leaves are already falling off. I planned a long but easy ride down towards Rova Farms. Back in the 1930s this was a cooperative farm and resort for Russians escaping from the Russian civil war. Not much is left of the farm or resort. The main reminder of the Russian past is St Vladimir's church which is of typical Russian design with some beautiful mosaics on the outside.

I sent an email out to the posse and posted a note on my blog. We all met at Mercer Park. Laura and Jim road in as did Marc and myself. Barry also showed up. I thought I might get a few others but I think the cold may have kept some people at home. It was low to mid 40s at the start and didn't get above the mid 50s by the end of the ride.

Although it was a little cold at the start it didn't take long to warm up. It was a good ride on some of our well known and favorite roads. I made our way up and over Rue road before heading south to Rova. It was definitely a good day to see the fall colors as there were a lot of bright yellows and deep reds along the way. Before the ride Laura had suggested we take the bike path back over the river as there was a good view of a tree that was highlighted by the sun. That is the picture you see at the top of this post. I saw Laura posted this picture on her blog post but it looks over exposed. I think my camera (the new Coolpix S33) did a better job getting the lighting as it actually was.

For the break we stopped at an antique/shit shop/grill. The have a lot of interesting but useless knick-nacks.  The food selection isn't great but the deli across the way isn't much better. I may try the other deli or doughnut shop up the road next time.

We had a slight tail wind on our way back from Rova. There were more fall colors and we kept a good pace. I finished the ride at a 16 mph average for 62 miles. Not bad for this time of year.

This was a much better ride than the last stressful ride I lead up north. I think this will keep the posse following me for some of my future rides. I'm hoping the fall colors stay around another week or so as we will be down by Cape May next weekend and some color may make the ride a little more interesting.

Morris, Passaic, Bergen Triple Highpoint

Some ideas should not be fully explored. That's how I felt about Sunday's triple highpoint ride. As you know by now I have been trying to ride to the highest road in each county in NJ and get as close as I can to the highpoints. I did this to try and explore some new areas and find some new routes. Some of the ride have been fun, some very challenging others just a little stupid.

Sunday's ride was a 60 mile 4000 ft of climbing marathon that followed close to this route. This is an area I have not ridden in much because it is far away and it is a very crowded area with not a lot of good roads. However with NJBikeMap and Google maps I tried to put together a route that would be rideable and explore some places I haven't been before.

We started in Pompton Lakes. We met at a school there. I didn't see a bathroom so Marc, Laura and I took a quick drive to the center of down and found a car show in the middle of town and a diner with a bathroom. Back at the school we picked up Jim, John, Ed (with new bike) and Jack and started the ride.

I was concerned with traffic in this area so I cut through some back neighborhood roads which turned out to be really steep. We almost lost John when he dropped a chain and fell but no damage to him or the bike so we continued on west as we climbed through some mountains that were a little steeper than the map had said. I heard the usual complaints.

After navigating a jug handle and traffic as we crossed Rt 23 we headed into Oak Ridge and towards our first highpoint in Morris County. The highpoint is actually at the boarder of Morris and Sussex county on Sparta mountain. It was a crappy road so the 300 ft 1.5 mile climb to the county border was slow. I took the required picture then we headed back the way we came back to Oak Ridge for a break at a local deli which was adequate.

We were 30 miles into the ride so half way done with two more highpoints to find. We headed back across Rt 23 and slowly up towards Greenwood Lake. It was 2-4% grade pass some pretty lakes and reservoirs the only problem was that there was more traffic than I was expecting.

10 miles later we were near Greenwood Lake and almost at the Passaic highpoint. I knew the highpoint was close to the Utopia Deli so we asked a local how far away it was. He said it was just down the road and I also asked him about all the traffic we were seeing on the road since there was now a constant stream of cars. I had expected this part to be the quietest part of the ride especially on Sunday. He said there was some major traffic light problems that was jamming up all the roads in the area. We continued on cautiously and found the deli to take the high point shot.

According to Dustin's map the highest road in Passaic county is 1191 feet. I got 1091 at the deli but I know it was higher a mile back but could not stop with all the traffic to take a picture.

After the Deli we had some steep descents which would have been a lot more fun with out the constant threat of the traffic whizzing by.  We did another rest stop at a bar/deli before heading to the last highpoint. We only had another 15 miles before the end of the ride. We were riding by Greenwood and a few other lakes that I might have normally stopped for picture but the lack of a good shoulder and constant traffic made me just keep going.

 I knew there was one more climb once we got on Skyline drive but never really looked into how hard it would be. I was more concerned when I planned the ride of finding the quietest back roads to ride on. I did look at the profile for the climb briefly and thought it was a 300 ft climb. It actually ended up being a 500ft climb in just over a mile. The RidewithGPS had the max grade at 8% but it was actually in the 10-12% range. It was a lot harder than I was expecting and I know most everybody else felt the same way and was cursing me out (but I'm used to that by now)

Just after the top of the hill we crossed into Bergen County and I took the final highpoint picture.

Then it was a steep downhill back to where we started. I remember when researching the highpoints debating whether I should try and ride on Skyline Drive. Google maps street view showed it as a busy road with a small shoulder but Dustin's NJ Bike map showed it as Green which meant it should be rideable. Dustin is not always right with his grading and this one he got wrong. It should have been purple. Yes we were able to safely ride down this road but it was not fun and not something I would do again or recommend any one else do.

Besides getting to the three highpoints there was nothing redeeming about this ride. Looking at maps and information about this area it seems like it might be a decent place to ride with a lot of picturesque lakes and winding roads and large forests but in reality the dense population in the area makes it a bad place to ride. There are just too many people in cars competing for space on the roads.

I am glad that I didn't have to do this ride by myself as it always helps to have a group of people when you are riding in traffic.  I have put the insane bike posse through some tough rides this year and I owe them a good easy peaceful ride for following me on this stressful one. Luckily this was the last hilly ride that I needed to get done to get to the high points. The only one left is the Cape May high point and I have some tested routes down there. Trying to ride to all the highpoints in the state seems like a good idea to change things up but sometimes it leads to rides that suck. At least I know some places that I shouldn't try to ride again. 

Zurich

It has been a very busy couple of weeks since I got back from vacation mostly because I had to catch up on work and get ready for a business trip to Zurich. It was a quick trip flying out on Monday night and back on Friday afternoon. This meant I really only had three days in Zurich most of which was spent in meetings at a research lab I was visiting.

I did manage to walk around town on the afternoon I arrived. Zurich is a medieval town on a lake in the middle of Switzerland. There is a river at the top of the lake where most of the old town is. In the narrow streets and alleys are a variety of restaurants and little shops that you could spend a day exploring. Interspersed around the town and on the lake are large squares that usually had a beer garden or coffee shop with an outdoor sitting area.

It is a nice town to walk around especially on a warm sunny day. Unfortunately I didn't have much time to explore further.  My hotel was a block from the lake next to the Opera house. It was a decent hotel but like most European hotels the rooms are really small. Well designed but small. One of the strange thing about the room was the glass door to the bathroom.

One great things about Switzerland is the bus and rail system. It is easy to understand, very clean and always on time. Each bus or train has multiple screens telling you where you are and how soon you will be at the next 4 stops. The clock on the screen has a second hand just to prove that the train or bus will be on time to the second.

Since this was a trip for work I spent most of my time in meetings and didn't get time to do any real sight seeing. I was hoping to at least get a good view of the Alps but they were too far from town to see.  Zurich seems like a cool place to hang out. If I do make it back here again I may try to stay a few extra days to explore the area a little more.

Aloha !

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Some places you visit not only impress you with what you see or what you experience but some how touch you in a spiritual way. That is how I feel about Hawaii

Hawaii is a scenic paradise. There are many strange and beautiful sights above and below the water to amaze. There is much history and many places to explore. Yet what I will remember most is the language and stories of the Hawaiian people. The language is musical poetry when spoken by a native. The words also seem more descriptive than the English counter part. The history of the Hawaiian people from the journey the Polynesians took to get there, to the war to unite the islands, to the fight to become a state is more interesting than most fiction.

This history has shaped the people into a unique society who are very proud of their heritage and welcoming of others into it. If you spend some time with the right people you will want to become more Hawaiian and become part of their Ohana (family). I don't know if or when I will ever get back to Hawaii but I brought back more than pictures and stories. I now know a little more about what is is to be Hawaiian and the true meaning of Aloha. It is more than a greeting of hello or goodbye it is a state of mind and a way to live a peaceful and enjoyable life.

My wife and I spent 9 full days in Hawaii so it will be hard to explain everything we did and saw in detail so the best I can do is provide a brief summary here of what we did. We spent two days at a hotel in Wakiki and then took a 7 day cruise around the rest of the islands. This let us spend two full days at each island so we could see all the islands and their different attractions. Here is a brief list of what we did.

In Oahu
Besides spending some time visiting the beaches we spent half a day at the Polynesian cultural center which was great. This is a place where they have 7 different villages from the different Pacific islands. Each village has a show that teaches about that island. I thought the shows would be boring but they ended up being really funny, entertaining and very interesting. Then at night after dinner they had a show that was like an opera only with Hawaiian dancing and music. It was as good as any Broadway show I have seen.

In Maui
We had two days in Maui. The first day we rented a car and did some snorkeling at a couple of beaches then drove up to Haleakala (a 10,000 ft volcano) for a beautiful sunset.

The snorkeling was great and I got a picture of the humuhumu nukunuku apua a (Hawaiian for trigger fish) with the new camera.

The sunset was some what magical too.

We also learned how to use the shaka to say mahalo (thank you) to people for yielding to you on a narrow road. Unlike NJ where people give you the finger when you do something wrong. In Hawaii they give you the shaka when you do something right.

On the Big Island of Hawaii

In Hilo
We took a tour to an active volcano. I didn't see any molten lava but saw a huge crater and steam vents all over the place. We also saw some old lava fields which were really cool. I learned the different between the pahoehoe and a'a lava. The picture below is obviously a'a lava. Some how when you see it and hear the word it makes sense. 

In Kona
We did a zodiac boat tour where we got up close with some non killer whales then spent some more time snorkeling. The water was clear to 100 feet so you could see the whales as they dove under and around the boat. Although I got some pictures of the whales none of them really came out that good.

In Kauai
We spend a day driving around the island and stopped at a botanical gardens. We ended up being the only ones there on the last tour and had the whole gardens to our self for an hour and a half. It was a very zen moment being able to just sit in the gardens by yourself

The second day we did a helicopter tour which was probably the best thing we did. The Na Pali coast is one of the most picturesque places I have seen which is why a lot of movies are shot here.

I took a lot of picture and am still going through them so it may be another week before I have posted them all but if you want to see what I posted so far you can look here

The main downside of our trip was the weather. Because of recent hurricanes in the area the normal trade winds that cool the islands were replace with hot humid winds from the south which meant is was 90 and humid. Since this is so abnormal for them it meant some buses and buildings were not built for this so there was a lot of sweating going on. Hawaii is a very expensive place to live and visit and they don't have a lot of high paying jobs which means most people have to live with extended family or work multiple jobs to make ends meet.The other funny and annoying thing about Hawaii is they have wild chickens all over the place so as you are looking at the beautiful scenery you hear the constant crowing of rosters.

If you enjoy the water, especially surfing, and want a relaxing place to visit or live you can easily overlook some of Hawaii drawbacks. There are other islands in the Caribbean that have beaches that are almost as nice and picturesque so if you just want a good beach there are places a lot closer than Hawaii. However if you want to visit a tropical paradise and be taken in by the culture and spirit of a people you should visit Hawaii at least once so that you can understand the true meaning of Aloha.

Easy Social Ride

After beating myself up for the last two weeks on hard hilly rides that pushed me to the limits and a season of tough rides I wanted a something mindless and easy. I sent out a email to the usually folks and a few people I haven't seen in a while. The response was great and I got more people than expected. It seems the words easy and flat were the key they drew everybody out, even though I am know for understating the difficulty of my rides. I ended up with 10 people. Gen, Laura, Cheryl, Mary, Herb, Jim. Jack. Dave, Joe and Marc.

We started out from the Edinburg parking lot of Mercer park and did this route. Except for a few minor bumps I kept the ride flat. I don't know what our average was but we moved along at a good relaxed pace. I wasn't pushing it or really having to slow down to keep the group together. These are all experienced riders and we have ridden a lot together as a group over the years so it was a very low stress ride that didn't require much from me to keep it together.

There were lots of conversations going on and I got to catch up with people like Herb and Mary who I haven't seen much this year. We stopped at the new Roy's which I haven't been to yet. It has decent food, a good bathroom and the location is central enough to make it a frequent stop for our local rides.

I ended up with 50 miles since I rode in from home. Because of the pace and the good group of people on the ride it was one of the more enjoyable rides this year and a good way to unwind from a hard riding season.

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.

So You Think You Can Climb

Next weekend I am planning on going to high point in Warren, Sussex, Bergen, Passaic and Morris. These will be very hilly rides. To get ready for next weekend Laura did a ride today from Lambertville through the hills in Pennsylvania and NJ around the Delaware. The route was a combination of some roads Blake wanted to explore and a hill Laura wanted to do. We only lost one person (Jim) to attrition (broken spoke) although some of us were feeling a little beat by the time we got to the stop in Milford.

Although the route had only 3200 feet of climbing it felt a lot worst probably because the hills we did climb were steep or long and sometimes both. Or as Laura put it the hills were in nasty little clumps. It was also well above 90 by the time we finally finished.  I was definitely was shot by the time I finished the ride and cramped up on the way home. However part of doing the ride today was to beat my legs up to be ready for next weekend so after some recovery I should have no problem with next weekends ride. 

I have done a lot of climbing this year and think I could tackle any hill I wanted to. That was until I saw the list of hills at this web site http://www.pjammcycling.com/home.html which lists the toughest climbs in the US. Except for Mt Washington I haven't been close to any of these climbs. In a few weeks I will be in Maui so I am definitely going to ride the toughest climb in the US (by car). This site also lists the toughest climbs by state so at least I can claim I climbed one of the toughest climbs in the state. Not all states are listed so maybe next year I might try to find of the toughest climbs in other flatter states like Delaware since my legs may fall.after next weekend.

Stupid Southern Highpoint Ride

Well at least I didn't kill Dave just his tire. I have had more than my share of physical and mechanical mishaps this year on rides I have been on this year. Some years are just like that.

Although I had planned do a weekend in Cape May the weather forecast and my inability to find a decent hotel made me rethink my plans. Instead I decided to do a ride to the high points of Atlantic, Gloucester, and Camden counties. When I planned out the route it seem like a stupid ride. In order to hit the high points I had to do a double back in order to not go on any major roads and keep the ride around 60 miles.

We started from a park in the middle of Hammonton which had a nice small lake as seen above. I was joined today by Jim, Laura, Jack, Joe and Dave. I was surprised to see Dave since he has been having some problems with his ticker but said that he would be fine in the flat lands we would be riding.And he was although he still complained a lot.

Our first high point was about 4 miles into the ride. This was the high point of Atlantic county which is suppose to be a whole 150 feet but I actually had 160 feed on the GPS.

As you can see Dave is faking being tired after the actual climb which was probably all of 40 feet from the staring point. From here we found some really straight roads as we headed towards Williamstown. When I say straight I mean that the road did not turn by more than 0.001 degrees for almost 5 miles.

Our second high point was in Gloucester county. This one was on a semi busy road north of Williamstown.

The high point was by the Life Church (LifeisHere.org) who's mission is to use religion to help heal sick, addicted, depressed and troubled people. I had 194 feet even though the actual high point which is just to the left of the road is listed at 180 feet. I think some of these high point are higher than expected because the construction of the roads add a few feet to the surface and makes the surrounding area a little higher.

From the Gloucester high point we back tracked down the way we came and made it  to a Wawa in Sicklerville for our only stop. There are not a lot of places to stop in this area so I had to put the stop at mile 20.

A few more really straight roads later we were in Atco and heading to our third high point in Camden county.

The actual high point is in the woods behind a large development. The are still building houses in this development so we have to go through some construction to get there. The path behind Jim, (who always has to take a picture of me taking a high point picture), leads to the actual high point. I had 213 feet here which is really close to the official 219 feet. On NJBikeMap.com Dustin actual has the highest road a few miles away at 167 feet which I think is an error since there are a lot of higher roads near the actual high point.

For those who are observant you noticed that Dave was not in the Camden high point picture. This was kinda my fault. On our way up the hill my saddle bag fell off the bike as it does once a year. Jim managed to swerve around it and Dave missed it with his front wheel but caught it in his back wheel causing him to skid but luckily not fall.

The skid which wasn't that long wore his tire through the canvas and produced a large hole in the tire. Dave and Laura tried to repair the tire with a boot and duck tape but although it held the tube in it was not really safe to ride that way. That meant we had to leave Dave at the side of the road with a promise that we would remember where he was and retrieve him later.

We made a quick 18 mile run back to the start for a total ride of just over 55 miles. Jack and I with Joe following went to retrieve Dave. After which we had to find our way home. We ended up going up Rt 73 which was full of traffic then got on 295 and made it back to Bordentown.

So although we had a stupid route and a mechanical problem we did check 3 more high points off the list. The next set of high points will be a lot high and require a lot more climbing.