Saturday was my hilly ride from Cocoluxe in Gladstone NJ. I have done this ride 4 or 5 times before but continue to tweak the route to find good roads and try and get the perfect mix between scenery, climbing and good downhills.
The starting point for this ride is an hour north from our normal rides so I only got 3 other people to join me (Laura, Bob, and Jack). I know Jim would have been there too if he hadn't been on call. Because of that I took the parking lot photos that he usually takes.
For once there was no threat of rain this Saturday. It was a little humid but otherwise a nice day for a ride.
The climbing starts almost immediately as there is no flat way out of Gladstone. The climbing continued as we made our way towards Tewsbury and Rockaway Rd. The climbs are in the 3-5% range so nothing too difficult but there is also not a lot of flat riding so you are either climbing or coasting down hill. For some reason in years past I would get a stomach cramp 5-6 miles into the ride and have to stop for a few minutes. I'm think doing so many hills at the start of the ride may cause it but didn't have any problems today.
The longest climb of the day was up Rockaway Rd and then up Guinea Hollow. These are gentle climbs next in the woods next to flowing brooks so even though you are climbing for over 5 miles it doesn't feel hard and you aren't continuing wondering if this is ever going to end.
A little more climbing along familiar roads as we made our way into Long Valley and had a flat or slightly down hill break for 5 miles. One of the changes I made to this years route was going down Coleman into Long Valley. I did this road a couple of years ago and remember that is was a fast straight downhill that I wanted to do again. It was a good as I remembered.
From there we climbed back out of the valley to a rest stop at a Quick Check. We meet a tri-athlete on an aero bike at the rest stop. He left just before us but was still sitting at the light for a few minutes until we joined him and pushed the button so the light would actually turn and let us continue on.
I usually take Pleasant Hill Rd but took a different way up South Rd. This ended up being less or at least easier climbing and a nicer road. At the top of South Rd I took a GU pack since there was some hills coming and I wanted to see if it would prevent cramping.
We had a few killer down hills on the way into Medham. The downhill on Ironia it twisty and steep but I have done it enough times now to be able to take it at almost full speed and enjoy it. It also helped that a lot of the roads in this area seem to have been recently paved. One of the reason I like hills is that it can lead to good scenery and some fun downhills.
Before getting back to Gladstone we had one more tough climb up Bliss Rd. I could have cut this hill out of the route as there are other flatter ways to get back but going up this hill would lead to two more fun down hills. One that has a number of small humps in it that make it feel like a roller coaster ride and if you are daring enough (which I'm not) you might even be able to get some air.
At the bottom of the hill Jack complain about the number of fast downhills. Which I don't understand. I understand when people complain about too much climbing as they are getting tired and hurting (although I have learned to ignore them) but if you don't like going down hill fast just use the brakes.
The last part of the ride was past a lake and was the only road that wasn't nicely paved. We ended up with about 3200 feet of climbing in 45 miles. Besides the climb up Bliss nothing was painful or steep so this was an easy 3200 feet of climbing. It also seems that the GU worked as I didn't cramp during or after the ride.
I have another hilly ride in Warren county in a couple of weeks. I hope it will be as nice as this ride was.
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