Stupid Surprise Hilly Highpoint Ride

Back when I was working on my Best Rides Philadelphia book I spend a long day around Chadds Ford exploring the roads in the area for a couple of routes in the book. Even since then I had wanted to come back to this area because it has some good roads. We had tried to plan a weekend down here a couple of years ago but could never pull it together.  So this past week I sent out an email to the posse to see if they would be interested in a day trip to Delaware. I ended up getting Laura, Ricky, Jack, Jim, and Bob to join me. I'm glad Jim and Bob were able to join us as they have been MIA for the past few rides.

It was a perfect day for a ride with sunny weather and temps in mid 60s. We met at Bordentown and carpooled just over an hour to the starting point which was a parking lot on the Brandywine river next to a covered bridge. We did this route which is a hilly one. There was no one tough hill or long climb but it was continuous and unrelenting set of small hills with only a few miles of flat roads. I brought my Feather instead of my hill climbing Synapse because I rode the Feather the last time I was down this way was able to make it up the hills. I guess I must have been a little stronger then because the first hill we rode up hurt a lot more than I remember.

We had 400 feet of climbing in the first few miles. The hills got easier and I felt better as I warmed up. The route I had mapped out went through Shadowbrook pond and snuff mill. This road looked like a driveway but I knew from google maps that it went to where I wanted to go. I guess we shouldn't have been on this road as by the time we got to the other end there was fence blocking our way out. We just climbed over it quickly and made our get away.

There were some great downhills to go with the climbing. The 2 mile downhill on Hildendale was scenic and fun. Even though it was a little tougher to climb with the Feather I'm glad I had it for the downhills.

The deli that I had planned to stop at around mile 20 is now a Mexican restaurant so we had a bar break and got water and a bathroom break at the gas station across the street.

From there we crossed Rt 1 and continued to follow to roads up and down the terrain as we made our way towards West Chester the only real town in the area. There were some good views of the surrounding country side so Laura and I stopped for some pictures. There were a few bridge outs and a road closed along our route today as a crew was taking down a tree. We were easily able to get around all these which was good because I don't know the roads well enough to know how to get around the detours.

In West Chester we found a gas station with a convenience store which was good enough for break. From there it was on to something stupid that I promised to show the posse. To get there we had to go on roads with a little more traffic that we had seen so far but we made it though without any real problems. I was feeling the strain of all the hills so I stopped to take a gel pack which I probably should have done sooner.

At 4 miles from the end of the ride we got to the stupid monument that I wanted everybody to see. As I got off the bike both legs cramped up and I had to sit down for a couple of minutes to get rid of the cramps.

The stupid monument was a sign and bench at (or pretty close to ) the highest point in Delaware. At 447.5 feet it is the second lowest high point in the US. (Florida is the lowest at 345 ft). My GPS had 453 ft which is with in the margin of error of my GPS. I took the required picture like I did for all my NJ highpoint rides. As well as a picture of the actual sign.

It was then a quick ride on a bike lane on Rt 92 and a long downhill back to our starting point. I stopped for a picture of Smith's Bridge on the way back.

I cramped again in the parking lot putting the bikes away but was fine on the drive back to Bordentown and felt fine once I got home. It probably didn't help that I gave blood on Monday. It was definitely a hilly ride. According to my GPS I had almost 3100 ft of climbing. Jim had almost 3900 ft. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

I haven't been able to get away for a bike trip this year so it was fun to take a day trip to do something different and somewhat stupid with the posse because I do stupid good.

The Long Rain

After getting rained out last week I finally got my Cocoluxe ride in this weekend. Its seems this summer the rain has been persistent and endless. This past week was a dreary rain filled week and I was concerned that it would spill over into Saturday but it didn't. Saturday turned out to be cloudy but no chance of rain. A few of my regulars had to beg off the ride so it ended up being just me Ricky and Pete.

I have started from this location 6 or 7 times and have been tweaking to route to find some good road, good downhills and minimal traffic. This is a hilly area so you can't avoid climbing but what I tried to do is to do the easier more gentle hills. Of course the climbing starts 3/4 of a mile from the start and doesn't really stop for 20 miles but its mostly in the 3-4% range with a few downhills along to way to recover.

Even though Ricky was on his new old 2001Cannondale (Sorry Jim forgot to get a picture) he was still faster than me up the hills. Pete wasn't far behind him and I was bringing up the rear. We did this route. This route was the same as last years as I couldn't find any way to improve it.

The longest climb of the day was up Rockaway and Guinea Hollow. In 6 miles we gained about 600 feet. It's a slow steady climb so its not a problem and the scenery is good. The climbing continued until we got to Long Valley where we had a screaming downhill before getting to our rest stop at Quick Check.

We had a few more hills to climb on the way back with a few more good downhills including a few we could have taken air on if we wanted to. Besides the roads by the lake at the end of the ride all the other roads were pot hole free. I think I called out "Hole" maybe once during the ride.

For 3000 ft of climbing I felt pretty good at the end of the ride and stopped by Cocoluxe for a couple brownies on my way out of Gladstone.

I know there is more rain ahead as the remnants of Florence are headed this way but hopefully the weekends will remain clear so we can enjoy the fall weather. 

The Swamp Ride

The wasn't actually a ride through any real swamp but a ride along Long Swamp Rd and through Turkey Swamp hence the name. After last weeks hilly ride and because Laura's hill bike still had some tire issues I decided to do a flatter ride this week. I didn't feel like a pineland ride or heading to the shore on labor day weekend so I came up with a ride that went south of New Egypt and through Cassville. Here is a link to the route.

The weather was more humid than last week but the temps were still in the low 70s so was comfortable riding weather. Joe, Chris, Andrew, the new Jim, Laura, and Ricky joined me for the ride. We fought a strong east wind as we wound our way through New Egypt and to the first rest stop Emery's. Emery's is a blueberry farm with a small store. They don't have the best facilities but the sell some tasty baked goods.

From there we road towards Cassville where we stopped at the Russian church to take a photo to send to plain Jim who wasn't able to join us for the ride. Hopefully we will see him on a ride soon.

From there we made our way to and through Turkey swamp. I planned a rest stop in Millstone where I saw a new coffee shop/bistro where Roy's use to be. It was closed for the holiday weekend so we ended up at Vesuvius Pizza across the street.

The weather was still a little overcast and just below 80 degrees so I still felt good the last few miles back and wasn't getting dehydrated like I did fore the PFW ride. I got back home with 70 miles and could have done more if I wanted to. Laura followed me home because she was feeling good enough to stretch the ride to a century and wanted the extra miles. I suspect she completed this one with out any problems.

The only regular missing from the ride was Jack. He actually registered for the ride but based on the picture I got it looks like he is busy stuffing his face.

He is also somewhere in the mid west on his way to Colorado so I really didn't think he was coming anyway.