Taste of Summer

After weeks of close to freezing weather and some scattered snow storms we finally had some great weather. Last week I needed to wear most of my winter riding gear to stay warm. This week I was in my summer shorts and jersey. In fact when loaded my car for the drive it felt like I forgot something because I didn't have my shore covers, heavy gloves, or jacket.

It was mid 70s at the start of the ride. It was easily the best day of the year to be outdoors. It was one of those days where if you had plans that would keep you stuck indoors you would find some way to change your plans. Because of this I thought I would have a big crowd, like I had last week, for the ride but only had Jack, Chris, Jim, Joe and Ricky showed up. I guess not everybody is ready for a 60 mile ride at this time of year.

It felt good to have the sun on my skin and I felt a lot lighter riding without all the winter cloths. To mark the first ride of the year with out tights I got a shot of all our legs. 

Although it was warm and sunny there was a strong wind from the south. The route I planned was a straight shot down to Tabernacle and back. The goal was to sit in front of Nixions one of the best rest stops in NJ. The ride south was a wasn't bad considering we had a constant headwind but it just felt good to be warm while riding in fact I think I was actually hot.

The roads have gotten pretty beat up this winter and we found a number of roads that were rough and had more potholes then road. I hope now that it is warm that the NJ dept of transport gets to work on fixing some of these roads.

When we got to Nixions there were a lot of other bikers there. The great thing about Nixions is that it is not a Wawa and has a is own distinct pinelands personality as the Piney Power sticker on the front down proclaims. They have a good selection of food and the brownies and crumb cake are top notch. They usually have porta-johns  outside the store but they were gone. We found out that they finally added indoor plumbing and a dinning room. I guess this place is going upscale now.

From the rest stop if was mostly tail wind all the way back. I purposely made a turn up Philos Bridge Rd which I know would have some dirt. On the way down we had to around a bridge out by Smithville although that didn't really count as there is a foot bridge that can be used as a detour. So we did have some dirt and a bridge out to make it an official ride.

I took Birmingham Rd which was closed last year because of a bridge out but that has been fixed now. This got us to the highest point in Burlington county and the only real climb of the day. From there it was the normal roads back. I was glad we had a tail wind because I could feel my self getting tired. It also didn't help that I had a large piece of crumb cake at Nixions. It was really good and a lot more crumb than cake but it felt like an undigested lead weight in my stomach.

I was pretty shot by the time we pulled in with 60 miles. We averaged 15.6 mph which isn't bad for this time of year. I'm glad I took advantage of the good weather and got a long ride in because with the weather we have been having it hard to tell when there will be another day this nice.