The Cookie to Speed Ratio

I was able to get in a few rides in between Christmas and New Years. This is important because of all the extra food consumed during the Christmas festivities. I felt a little slower on the rides and attributed it to the extra cookies and chocolate that I have been consuming.

Last Wednesday I got Laura, Chris and Ken to join me on a canal ride from Washington Crossing. We went down the PA side. I wanted to head a little south of Morrisville and look for possible places to park as I want to do a ride all the way down to Bristol and that is too far south to do it from Washington Crossing.

It was a sunny day and around 40 degrees so it was not a problem staying warm. When we got down to Morrisville the trail got a little sketchy and we had to make a quick detour over a ditch and through a parking lot to get across Bridge street. The plan was to head south for 3 or 4 miles before turning around. Instead we ran into construction about a mile later.

It looks like they are building a tunnel through a hill. We then turned around and headed back. We crossed over the Trenton Makes bridge and headed back the NJ side. We ended up with just over 20 miles.

On Saturday I posted a ride out of Cranbury. It was 50 degrees and sunny so I expected a big crowd like I had last weekend. I only got 4 people to join, Jim, Ricky, Larry and Eric. There was a good stiff wind coming out of the west so I plan a north south route to stay out of the wind as much as possible.

For most of the way out we only had a cross wind or a good tail wind. As we wound our way through the Assunpink there seemed to be a lot of hunters in the woods searching for their New Years Eve dinner.

On the way towards Allentown we had a few wind in faces stretches and I knew there would be a few more after the stop.

We stopped at Woody's for our break and found a cool aero-recumbant on the side walk.

We all ogled over it. We also talked to the owner who had ridden to Allentown from the shore. Of course one of my question is how good was it into a head wind. He said head winds didn't affect it too much because it was low and had low wind resistance. It was a trike and weighed 65 pounds so its not climbing any hills.

It was only 16 miles back to Cranbury but we had two long stretches into the wind. I sucked a wheel as much as I could during these stretches as Eric, Jim, and Ricky seemed to have more left in the tank than I did.

Once we got back to Cranbury I put out some cookies so I could fatten up these fuckers. That way they would not only block the wind better but be easier to keep up with.

I'm thinking of instituting a new policy at the end of the ride that will require all riders to eat a certain amount of cookies or chocolate at the end of a ride based on how far ahead of me and/or how much faster they make it up the hills. I will call this new stat the Cookie to Speed Ratio. So if you come on my rides and push the pace I will increase you waist line according.

Laura, Jack and I did make in down to Bristol on a New Years eve day ride, as the picture up top shows. You can read the details here. Its not the most scenic ride but it was nice to see another another part of the trail. The town of Bristol looks interesting so it might make a good ride in the summer.

Lost in the Wind

Winter is officially here now so we won't have many weekends, in the next few months when we will be able to get out on the road. When I saw that this Saturday's would have temperatures hovering in the mid 40s I decided to list a ride out of MCP. Although the temperature was in the mid 40s, the wind was 20 mph+ from the west. Because of the wind I decided to head across Rt 1 instead of getting blown around in the open fields to the east. You can see the actual route we took here.

I had a couple of new roads I want to explore and thought this would be a good time to do it since I didn't expect many people on ride. I was wrong about that as I got my usual people along with some of the normal Cranbury B riders. We were 12 in total as we started off into the wind. The first new road was really a trail, the Trolley Line Trail. This trail goes from Penn-Lyle Rd to Rabbit Hill Rd. This gives me another way to get to Plainsboro from MCP. The trail was a well paved smooth trail. The trail goes through West Windsor Community part where it splits up into a couple of different loops. It took me a few loops to get back on the right path. There was a little grumbling from the group to get back to the roads but I eventually got them back on the fucking road.

We then went through Plainsboro on our way to the canal in Rocky Hill. With all the rain we had I was a little concerned that there would be some flooding by the canal but there was only a few puddle on the road.

Our stop was the Bagel Barn on 206.I have been here a lot over the last few months because of attending some of Jim's ride. Its a good place to stop but I was a little cold when we started the ride again. I didn't take the normal way back. Because of that and a gear problem one of the guys on the ride headed back on his own. The group headed west on 518 then down Cherry Hill Rd. There was a little more climbing than I had promised in the ride description but most people know not to trust me anyway.

We then made our way through the backside of Princeton on Terhune Rd to Snowden which is one of the less crowded roads through town. Getting across Rt 1 is always a problem. My preferred crossing are New Rd, College Rd, or Alexander Rd. I chose none of the above and instead crossed a Harrison. While it is true that Harrison does actually cross Rt 1 that doesn't mean you can't use it to do so. Let me explain.

The driveway to the old Sarnoff labs is just across Rt 1 from Harrison. If you are willing to go around a locked gate which is usually a requirement for one of my rides then you can get across Rt 1. I had actually done this a few weeks ago with Steve and wanted to come back with my regular crew to show them the abandon toxic dump Sarnoff had become. This is where TV was created and the place of a lot of leading edge research was done. Now most of it is go and only a few buildings are used. There is some environmental clean up going on so I didn't want to hang around the place to long.

From Sarnoff we headed to and under the train station. This was the last little surprise I had to the group as I led them down the ramp and through the tunnel of the Princeton train station. I use to do this when commuting to work. Its the easiest and safest way to get to the back roads of West Windsor and back to MCP. I try to continually find slightly different ways to do the same routes and doing some slightly different and sometimes stupid things. This, I hope, make the rides a little more fun even though that draws some complaints.

After dropping the group back at the park I headed home. Laura and Ricky followed me part of the way as they had also road in. By the time I got home I had just over 52 miles. I hadn't ridden on the road in three weeks so I was a bit sort but am glad for the miles as my wife has been baking cookies for the holidays and it I needed some exercise to work them off.

December Get Away

CLICK HERE for MORE PICS

Going to a beach resort for a December vacation may seem strange but it has the advantage of cheap accommodations and lack of crowds. My wife and I weren't able to spend our early fall weekend up in Cape Cod so when I suggested a winter getaway we decided to see what Cape Cod looked like around Christmas.

Even though we knew we won't get any beach time because of the weather we did know that there were some festivals that might be interesting to see so we weren't concerned about being bored. Because it was off off-season we stayed a resort we normally couldn't afford. The hotel room was more like a condo and had an indoor pool as well as a beautiful beach view.

The weather wasn't great for the 4 days of the vacation. It was overcast almost all the time with a few hours of rain here and there. Since we weren't planning to sit on the beach anyway the weather didn't matter as much. We spent most of our time checking out the scenic beaches and our favorite shops.

Even though it wasn't bright and sunny the beaches were still very scenic. There was a fog coming in to one of our favorite beaches that made it hard to see where the water ended and the clouds began. I took a few pictures but it was really hard to capture how it really looked.

Of course one of the reasons we go to Cape Cod is for the food. Unfortunately our favorite place for clam chowder and our favorite place for breakfast was closed for the season so we had to try out some other places. Even though there isn't a lot open we did get our fill of chowder and found some good breakfast alternatives. Most of the places that are open are popular bars so I assume the locals do a lot of drinking in off season.

There are some special Christmas events and festivals so we did take in some of theses. The big one was Gardens Aglow. It sounded like it was a smaller version of the light festival that Longwood Gardens puts on. It ended up not living up to the hype. It was just too crowded with little kids running around and the displays were nothing special. I did manage to take a few decent pictures.

Before we did the Gardens Aglow we spent some time at the Sandwich Glass Museum where we not only got to see a large variety of interesting handmade glassware but also got a live demo.

Some of the towns on the Cape were highly decorated so we spend some time driving around at night taking in the sights.

I didn't get a lot of pictures of the light displays as it was hard to do while driving by but made it a nice way to spend the nights.

We have been up to Cape Cod many times over the years mostly in the summer and fall. The Cape is definitely must more desolate with less things to do in the winter but it was fun to see it during a different time of year.

'Tis the Season

There are only 17 days to Christmas and the joy and/or anxiety that it brings. The days are getting shorter and colder so it is becoming harder to get out and ride. Two weeks ago I did an off the books ride with the usual crowd. We did a my winter Englishtown loop. It was your barely 40 degree cloudy day. I had a 50 mile loop planned but at the rest stop we took the shorter way home and ended up with 44.

Last week I didn't feel like crossing over Rt 1 to go to Laura's ride so I decided to try the Cranbury C+ with Steve. Instead of doing a normal Cranbury route Steve decided to go across Rt 1 to Montgomery. We ended up stopping at the Bagel Barn on 206 so it felt a little like a Jim ride. The way back was on some busy roads that I would normally avoid but I did end up on two new roads I haven't been on before and might use one of them on a future ride.

This week it was too cold to get out on the road as the temperature barely went above freezing. I decide to post a ride on the Lawrence Hopewell Trail so I could get some riding in. I got a decent turn out for a cold day. Chris, Ricky, Pete, Andrew and Tim showed up. Jim and Laura were absent because they had other commitments.

It was just over 30 degrees when we started the ride but it was sunny so once we got riding it I didn't feel cold. We had to wait for Chris a few time because his fender was hitting his wheel. Eventually I told him to just take the fender off and stick it in his backpack.

We made our way through Lawrence and then eventually to the Mercer Meadows. There were a couple of puddles of ice here and there but the trail was actually in good shape and it didn't feel as soft going up the hill in Mercer Meadows as it usually does.

When we got to Rosedale Lake Pete had a brake problem and headed for home. At the top of Wargo Tim had some knee issues so slowed up a little. We made the usual stop on the bridge on Province Line for a couple of pictures.

It was then up the hill and into ETS. Andrew left us for home before we turn into ETS. The path into ETS was overgrown and a bit wet in places. There were even a couple of small logs across the path. I didn't have a problem getting over them but Ricky tried and failed to bunny hop over it. No damage done. I managed not to get lost in ETS this time and so we were back on the trail without me pulling out the map. We lost sight of Tim so I went back for him and found him fixing a flat. We were only a few miles from the end so once the tire was fixed we were quickly back at the start.

I will be away next weekend but we have officially entered the winter riding season so will get out for short rides on the road or trail, when I can, until warmer weather gets here.

Winter Forecasts

After spending a week on the beach with 70 degree temperatures it has been a little bit of a shock to come back to the cold November weather. Last Sunday I ended up doing Jims's Ride. And this week I lead a ride from Bordentown. On both rides the temps were in the low 40s. Jim's ride was a little colder and cloudier but both were normal fall rides. As long as you were dressed correctly you could stay warm. There is that annoyance factor of riding in the cold of having to decide what to wear so that you are neither too hot or too cold and then dealing with the either being a little too hot or too cold during the ride itself.

Some people stop riding when it gets too cold. Others go down to Florida but neither is an option for me. I will just ride through the cold winter weather as best I can and try to have some fun doing it. These cold rides got be looking at the long range winter forecasts and the outlook is not promising. Both the Farmers Almanac and NBC10s long range forecasts are the same. They both call for a cold and snowy winter. I don't put a lot of faith in these long range forecasts as the models are very complicated and not very accurate. In fact there are more ways their models could be wrong than right. However with that said all the predictions seem to be in agreement so I believe them a little more than I normally do(especially after getting 5 inches of snow this week).

Because of that and because is was sunny for most of the ride. I decided to extend Saturday's ride a few miles and go around Mirror Lake in Browns Mills. We stopped for a few pictures as we rarely go around the lake. We ended up with close to 50 miles. It was a little cold on the way back because of some clouds and a stiff wind. I'm glad we put in the extra miles because base on the long range forecast this may be the warmest and longest ride we do for a while. 

A Relaxing Week on the Grand Strand

Click Here for more Pictures 

 
Because my wife was off from work and I had a few extra vacation days this year we decided to take a trip south to a beach to get a few more days of warm weather. We went to the Myrtle Beach area (also known as the Grand Strand). It was close enough to drive to but far enough to be 10-15 degrees warmer than home. Because we took our dog with us we decided to rent a house instead of a hotel room. The small house we rented was in an ocean side retirement community. The reason for renting in a retirement community was that it looked like a nice quiet place and it had an indoor pool we could go to if the weather wasn't warm enough to be outside.

This was meant to be a relaxing vacation to de-stress from our normal life. The house we rented ended up being your typical shore house. It was a little worn in spots but comfortable. The houses in the community are very close to each other but since these are vacation homes with mostly retired people it is one of the quietest places I have even been. About half the houses are empty and the people that are here aren't very active. Its so quiet that I could hear the ocean waves from the porch and the ocean is a couple of blocks away.

In this community everybody rides around on golf carts to get to the beach or the pool or the community center. It was very strange at first but our house came with its own electric golf cart and once we used it to get to the pool or beach it made total sense. It was just so much easier to jump on the cart and go some place. In fact at Myrtle Beach you can even take your golf cart on the beach.

The weather was actually sunny and warm enough to get some beach time and while we were sitting on the beach people were driving by in carts. The beach is very hard sand so it would actually be possible to ride a bike on the beach as long as you had wider tires.

Besides the beach there are a lot of attractions to keep people busy. There are amusements and rides an of course lots of shopping. On one of the cloudier days we spent a couple of hours at an outdoor mall walking around and visiting the local aquarium. It was small but had some interesting exhibits like some cool looking jelly fish.

They also had the usual large tank with sharks and stingrays which we enjoyed sitting around and staring at for a while.  The mall was built around a large lake which was filled with catfish that you could feed. They were well trained because if you looked over the railing you would see a bunch of catfish opening their mouths waiting for you to drop some pellets. It was actually a little scary looking at them and reminded me of a couple of horror movies that I had seen.

This place like all vacation spots is filled with places to eat. Being by the shore means there are a lot of seafood places. Being in the south means a lot of fried food. This included hush puppies which is fried cornbread. I have had hush puppies before but the ones in Myrtle Beach are the best I've ever had, especially went pair with cinnamon butter. I'm sure my arteries are a little more clogged than they were a week ago.

While driving around looking for a place to eat we found an interesting biker bar name Suck, Bang, Blow.

I know the name sounds like the plot to every porn movie but its actually referring to the internal combustion of a motorcycle engine (intake, combustion exhaust). I didn't have enough tattoos to stop in for a drink.

The weather for week ended up being better than expected as we had only one day where it rained. That let us get to the beach for a couple of hours most days. I also took a few hikes since there are not any good places to bike around here. The best hike I took was in Huntington State Park. This park is mostly marshland by the ocean and is filled with birds like egrets and storks. I spent a couple hours walking around the trails taking pictures of birds.

In New Jersey you are lucky if you get a fleeting glimpse of a heron. In Huntington State Park there are at least 10 or 20 egrets or storks in view most of the time along with a lot of other birds.

It was a good relaxing week that was a welcome break from the normal grind of life. We enjoyed our time in Myrtle Beach and at the retirement community. It's definitely a place we may come back to if we need to get away and relax a little.

 

This is My Happy Place

(sign on the door of my hotel bathroom)

There is a reason that I have done the Philly bike club trip to Gettysburg four times. It is just a great way to over indulge in biking and forget about everything else for a few days. This year over 230 of us bikers descended on the town of Hanover. This is unlike any other bike gathering or tour. There is no set routes or regimented ride organization. It's more of a temporary bike commune where nothing else matters but riding, eating and having some fun.

This year I only was able to get Jack an Dorthy to join me on the trip but I know enough people in the Philly club to not worry about finding other people to ride with. I got to the hotel at 11:30 am on Friday and Jack and Dorthy were only 10 mins behind me. Once they got there Jack and I decided to go on a ride around Lake Marburg. It was a hilly 27 mile ride that was reasonable scenic. The weather was mostly sunny in the 60s so all I needed was arm warmers. Unfortunately the leaves haven't started turning yet otherwise we would seen some spectacular vistas.

After the ride I checked into the hotel room to clean up then went down to the conference to socialize with the rest of the bikers.  I decided to lead a ride on Saturday and put it on white board in the conference room to let everyone know.

Saturday morning was in the mid 50s. It had rained overnight but the sun was coming out so the roads were slowly drying.I end up getting 10 people to join me on my ride to Loganville to visit a farmers market (think Delicious Orchards only in the hills). Besides Jack I didn't know any of the other riders although I had talked to a few the night before. They all seem not to be afraid of the hills or the fact that I had modified the route to not exactly follow the queue sheet. I had done a slightly shorter version of this ride a few years ago but the farmers market was closed and I had always wanted to go back.

The first part of the ride headed past Lake Marburg again although we got there quicker with less hills. After that we broke off the queue sheet onto the modified part. I modified the route to head up to the top of the hills to get some views of the surrounding valleys and have a couple of fun downhills. This was unexplored territory for me. I had checked it out on google maps as best I could be I did not really know what I would encounter. The group spread out on the climbs but nobody really complained (much). The roads were quiet with almost no traffic and the views where good.

We did run into bridge out because Tom can lead for different clubs in different states but you can't get rid of the Tom-ness from a ride.

This bridge out was a slight challenge as the original bridge was gone and they only had the cement beams and steel plates of the new one laid down. We had to go through some gravel, climb up onto the foundation then up on the beam and walk across. Although this was not my normal group of insane riders we quickly scoped out the situation and I got a couple of people set up to hand the bikes up and down from the bridge beams and help everybody across.

After that we were on our way to buffalo valley. Now there were never buffaloes here and there weren't even many cows around so I have no idea how it got is name but I came along here mostly because of the name of the road  and the fact that it offered a two miles of downhill fun.

The view at the top was as nice as expected. I want to come back here someday when the leaves are at their peak.The downhill was worth the climbing and detour to get to it(At least I thought so). After that we had a few miles of flat before some more climbing to get to the actual farmers market. Because of a new development that was added in Loginville we couldn't find a couple or roads but figure it out and made it to the farmers market which is at the top of a hill.

The market itself is very much like Delicious Orchards with a bit of a country flair. They had a full deli, bakery and coffee shop. Jack was looking for some donuts but they only sold then in boxes of 6.

At the break 2 people on the ride meet some of their friends who got there with a different group and decided to go back with them. I forgot their names. In fact I didn't know anybodies name on the ride. I ended up referring to people by the color of their jacket or some other distinguishing feature. So Mr Italy (he had an Italian racing shirt on) and his buddy, blue jacket, stayed back while Jack, Dave orange, yellow, backpack guy, tall guy and blue number 2 came back with me. Even though I didn't know any of them besides Jack and Dave before the ride they ended being a good group of people to ride with.

The profile looked less hilly on the way back and was more wooded along some lakes and streams. As soon as we made a turn off the main road to head down toward the first lake there was yet another bridge out sign. This was the rare two bridge out Tom ride. Since I really didn't know how to detour we took our chances again. This time it wasn't a bridge that was out but an entire DAM.

Luckily the actual bridge across the dam was bikable so they must have been working underneath it. As part of working on the dam they drained the reservoir to make it easier to fix. We stopped for a couple of pictures and then moved on.

After the dam we road next to the rail trail before heading uphill again. There were a couple long climbs that weren't that steep but the group got spread out and so I stopped a few times to gather them up. Even though the profile shows less climbing on the second half of the the ride if felt worst than the first part.

The last part of the ride was through some back roads pass a haunted Halloween village and then a couple of miles over some rollers on a semi busy road. I'm going to modify the last part of the route if I do it again to see if I can find a way to stay off the 2 miles on Hanover Rd. It wasn't dangerous but I think there are better back roads that we could take.

I had one last surprise a half mile before the end of  the ride. I made a short detour for some ice cream. Half the group followed me the other half went back to the hotel. After 50 miles and 3500 feet of climbing the ice cream was well deserved. It was good home made ice cream and Jack talked about coming back after dinner(which we didn't end up doing).

After getting back to the hotel and cleaning up I attended a talk, at the hotel, given by Daniel de Visé, a Pulitzer price winning Washington Post writer who just wrote a book about Greg LeMond "The Comeback Kid". He talked for 40 minutes about bike racing and Greg LeMond. It was a very interesting talk. Although I do not follow bike racing the story of Greg LeMond is an amazing story so I will probably get the book soon.

Saturday night was the usual dinner with at a restaurant with the whole group. We sat next to a tandem couple who had done some interesting trips. The one from Pittsburgh to DC sounded like a must do so now it is on my list of possible bike trips.

Sunday turned colder and was 40 degrees and windy when I stepped out the door before breakfast. Not ideal riding weather but Jack and I still planed to do a shorter flatter ride since we were here.

We did the Horse Farm loop. Its a 35 mile loop around the horse farms in the area and relatively flat. It would have been a perfect way to end the trip if it wasn't for the WIND!!.  The cold wasn't bad once we got started but between mile 8-17 there were a lot of times that we were straight into a 25mph+ wind. During this stretch I sometimes was having a hard time maintain 10mph on a flat road and I'm thinking to myself am I really enjoying this or do I just enjoy the suffering.

Once we turned around at mile 20 it became a lot easier and I started enjoying the ride. I would like to do this Horse Farm ride again in better conditions as it would be a lot more fun. Although I was sore from three days of riding I actually felt OK by the end. Its rare I ride two days in the row so I'm always concerned about these multi-day trips but what I have learned that is as long as I follow a certain recovery routine I can usually ride the next day and only be sore for the first few miles.

Despite the cold windy condition on the last day I still enjoyed this trip and will do it again. Linda and the Philly bike club really know how to create the perfect environment for a group of bikers to relax and enjoy themselves. This trip always makes me happy and it is a place I know I will return to again. Hopefully next time I can get a few more of the insane posse to join me.

Following Their Lead

I lead four rides in September and two of those were actually official PFW rides. I don't mine leading but I thought I would give some others a chance to lead. The first weekend in Oct I went on Laura's ride from Twin Pines. We did this route to Sergeantsville Even though there was no rain in the forecast it ended up misting and semi raining during most of the ride.

During the ride Jack was telling me of some roads he wanted to do in the area and I told him I was taking the day off on Wednesday so let's do a ride. I asked him to just send me the roads he want to do and I would put a route together. After a few email exchanges Jack decided he would lead the ride. We started in the middle of Ewing and did some urban riding as Jack took us through the neighborhood he grew up in while telling us stories of him riding his Stingray bike. Since this was the first time any of us (Me, Jim, and Ricky) could remember Jack leading we gave him a lot of shit about the route and leading in general because that is what we do. (The hard part of leading is not creating the route but dealing with all the jerks on the ride.) During the ride we decided we were Jack's Jerks since every ride leader needs a name for the people that follow them.

We eventually ended up on the normal roads out of Pennington and made our way over Goat Hill into Lambertville. Here is the route we did. Instead of stopping in Lambertville we stopped in Ringos at the Carousel Deli. The bathroom is a little dirty but they have a good outdoor porch to sit on and decent food and drinks so its not a bad place to stop in this area.

We had 30 miles by the time we got to the stop. Jack didn't really have a clue how much longer the ride would be but guessed in might be close to 60. Jack didn't really plan the route he was old school and just had a piece of paper with hand written direction on it.

From the stop we ended up heading over the Sourlands and back towards Pennington. Jack tried to take a slightly different way back to Pennington that involved two perilous crossing of Rt 31 but because of a road closed we ended riding on 518 for a while and then going back the normal way.

There was a little more urban riding involved to get back to our starting point in Ewing but nothing dangerous. We ended up with 57 miles and I was a little tired at the end especially since it was 85 and humid. It was a different type of ride and not a bad route. I may follow Jack if he decides to lead again.

This Saturday was a rain out. I was suppose to head down to the shore to meet my wife for lunch but decided to do Jum's ride on Sunday instead. The temperature had taken a nose dive over the last couple of days so when I started from Rocky Hill to get a few more miles it was 45 degrees. As I drove up to Rocky Hill I saw Pete and Andrew riding on Canal Rd so I told them to wait for me and the three of us ended up riding to Blackwell Mills together.

Jim's lead his usual ride at a slow B pace with a stop at the Bagel place on 206. It was a nice relaxing ride although I wished it would have warmed up a little more than it did as I was cold after the stop.

Laura, I and Ricky broke off a the Griggstown causeway and I decided to do Coppermine to get another hill in. Ricky decided not to do the hill and Laura took off at the top to head home and maybe get in a metric. . By the time I got back I ended up with just over 43 miles.

I will be with the Philadelphia bike club next weekend for their trip to to Gettysburg so I may not end up leading any rides this month but that is okay as long as I can follow other people on interesting rides. 

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.

True Lies

The fact that I have a ride called the "Lying Bastard" that I look forward to every year no longer seems strange to me. Lying doesn't seem to have the same impact it use to any more since there seems to be a lot more of it now. In fact someone this week said "truth isn't truth" so maybe I will just call the ride "The Bastard" in the future since that is the way most of my fellow rides refer to me now.

If you are unfamiliar with how my Lake Nockamixon ride became the Lying Bastard ride you can read this post. The short version is I sometimes under represent the difficulties of some of the climbs and that seems to drive some people to profanity. At this point however after doing this ride for over five years most people know what to expect and just use this ride to abuse my character.

The hot and humid weather had finally broken so the weather for this years ride was perfect, sunny, cool and low humidity. I had the usual gang join me, Jack, Ricky Laura and Blake and even had some unexpected people like Joe M and Paul I. There was also a new person on the ride Laurie who was not fazed by the title of the ride.

We started from Frenchtown and did this route. The ride starts with a slow easy climb to Ottsville on Headquarters Rd. Since there is a bridge out there is almost no traffic and except for the part near the bridge out (which is easy to ride through) the road is in decent shape.

After Ottsville we road along the ridge where we got some good views of the valley. The roads aren't flat but it is more rolling than hilly.

Some where along the way Laura had a flat. Her fourth one this year, even though she just put on new tires. I saw something fly off her tire as I heard it go pssst and go flat so she definitely hit something in the road. So this was a case of bad luck. A close examination of her tire showed a tiny hole in the side wall. A new tube and a dollar bill to patch the hole and we were on our way to Perkasie our rest stop. I had to put the rest stop early in the ride at mile 20 because there aren't may places around the lake to stop. Our usual coffee shop was out of business so we had to do with a CVS and Dunk'n Donuts.

After the rest stop I put in the FU hill for the ride because there always has to be one steep hill nobody was expecting just to make sure someone calls me a bastard during the ride. This climb was not as hard as expected. It was over 10% but less than 15% and was short. It was probably the best way to get over the ridge to the north side of the lake.

 From there we road through the roads and forests on the north side of the lake. These are quiet roads with no traffic and a great place to ride. There are no flat spots and you are always either climbing or descending so it is a bit draining. There are even a few annoying little climbs along the way. I think part of why people think this ride is harder than described is that there is really no easy spots that we can just cruse along on.

The people on the ride kept asking when we are going to see the lake and I had to remind them that the ride description said this would be a ride around the lake. There was no mention of actually seeing it. However we did get a glimpse of the north east side where see saw a radio controlled boat ripping around the lake.

We had another quick rest stop at a Turkey Hill store on 413 before heading downhill to Frenchtown. Last year I took Quarry Rd back which some gravel (OK foot deep gravel for a mile) that some people complained about because of like almost killing themselves and stuff. I don't remember it being that bad but I took a slightly different way back that didn't require go over gravel. We did go down the Red Circle of Death (Red Cliff Rd) again which is a some what dangerous but fun downhill before making our way back to Frenchtown.

The TRUTH about this ride is that it is a good route if you don't mind a few hills. This ride is FUN because of the healthy dis-R-E-S-E-P-E-C-T (RIP Aretha) and playful banter that come with riding with my somewhat insane friends. I'm happy to be called a Lying Bastard if we can do more rides like this. 

PFW Metric Event Ride

The first Saturday in August is usually the day of the PFW event. The club decided not to do the event this year because of falling ridership and the hassle of staffing it. I agree with the decision but still wanted to ride an event type route so I put a few routes together and posted them to the PFW Facebook account to see if I could get some other leaders to join me. I was thinking it might be like a adhoc all paces ride but it didn't really work out as I expected. I think the main problem was the weather.

I put posted a metric for Saturday and Laura posted a Century because she always does a century on the day of the event. We ended up getting rained out on Saturday so had to reschedule for Sunday. Like most of the PFW event days it was a hot and sunny day. I rode down from my house to Mercer park. Chris and Linda were already there and we were soon join by Andrew then Laura, Jack, and Ricky rode in. The last person to arrive was Sergey. Because of the heat Linda wasn't sure if she was going to do the century or metric but since we were going to ride together until mile 45 she didn't have to decide now.

It in the mid 70s when we started but the humidity made it feel a lot hotter. The route I had planned was similar to a century I had done a couple of years ago. I made some modification so that we would pass by enough Wawa's and other stores to keep us well fed.

We maintained a nice relaxed pace as we went through the Assumpink and wound our way down to the Wawa in Jackson. The first stop was only 21 miles into the ride but I wanted to stop early because I knew it was going to be a long ride and because I know a lot of the other people already had a 8-10 miles before the start.

From there we headed to Cassville and then on to New Egypt for our second stop. The humidity had decreased but the sun was still hot. Besides the water in my camelback I also had a bottom of pure Gatorade that I was drinking through out the ride so I actually felt OK at the 45 mile mark. Not good enough to do a century but I knew I shouldn't have a problem making it back.

New Egypt is where the group split up. I headed north with metric ride and Laura, Linda (who decided to do the century) and Ricky headed south for an extra 35 miles. When I created the metric route I decided to come back Hill Rd. In hindsight it probably wasn't the best idea putting the hills near the end of a long ride. The group spread out a little but nobody had a problem with the hills.

By the time we got to Allentown I was starting to feel the heat and miles. I asked if anybody needed a stop but we decided just to grind out the last 8 miles to the end. We actually did make a quick stop in Allentown as I saw Ron by Woody's so we stopped for a few minutes to talk to him.

As we crossed 130 and rode on Meadow Rd I was starting to fade a little. I had drank as much Gatoraid as my stomach could handle and taken a clif shot. It definitely helped me make it through the ride but I had weird sugar buzz on while feeling dehydrated.

I led everybody back to the park then headed for home. Jack followed me to get a few more miles. He had ridden in from home and needed the extra miles to get a century in. I was happy to get 74 mile in. I cramped up about a mile from my house but was able to push through it and get home.

It felt really good to finally be off the bike and in air conditioning. After Jack left I had to sit down on the floor for 15 mins just to get enough energy to clean up and get something to eat.

It took me a hour and a half to be able to be truly functional again. I'm glad I didn't try for a century especially after hearing that Laura cramped up at the end of the ride. In heat like we had today I can only stay hydrated for so long so 74 was more than enough for me.

Everybody I Know is Quite INSANE!!!

I jokingly refer to the group of people I ride with as "The insane bike posse" because they come on my rides complain they don't like it then come back for more. I think the joke might be on me because I think some of the people are actually insane. 

Please play this song from the Queens of the Stone age as you read the rest of the post. 

I missed Laura's Belmar ride last weekend because I just didn't have the time to take that long of a ride. A day after the ride I get some bullshit legalize email from Jack explaining that because I wasn't present during the ride and did not bless then with the Holy Kickstand, I was to blame for all their problems.

Apparently Jack had a flat tire, loose bottle cage and pump and wanted to blame me for his bad luck.(I can't imagine how much other shit they must have talked about me) I replied to the email stating that if they believed that a plastic kickstand wrapped in some fancy rope had any magical powers then they were truly insane. If it had any powers, I pointed out, I would had made it rain on their asses. Laura responded and said that it did rain on them and by pure coincidence it happen to be while they were passing close to my house. It is an interesting coincidence but on a day that had a 60-80% chance of rain it was just dumb luck and not divine intervention. I mean come on if I had that power I would use to solve some real problems.

Despite my arguments they still believe that the Holy Kickstand and I have some magical power which is totally insane. Then there is the fact that for my Bulls Island ride this week neither Jack or Laura could make it and they both wanted to take the blame for any random problems we had on the ride which is more than a little strange (like they somehow caused this dump truck to run off the road?). And I had to make sure to send Laura a picture of all the people on the ride giving her the finger because that makes her feel loved.

There are a lot more things that make me believe that these people are truly insane. Now, I may not be the picture of perfect mental health but on a scale of guy putting foil on his head to keep aliens from reading his thoughts to person able to function in the real world I think I'm pretty normal. However the fact that I continue to attract and even somewhat enjoy these insane people makes me concerned that their insanity may eventually rub off on me.

The 2018 PFW Event

*****UPDATE  The weather is not looking good for riding on Saturday so I may move my ride to  Sunday. Keep and eye on my blog for more details.


I know there will be no PFW event this year and I agree with that decision but it is going to feel strange not riding the event. So on Saturday Aug 4, when the event would have been, I'm going to do my own event ride. I'm planning on doing a metric based on some of the old event routes. While I was working on the metric route I decided to create a full set of routes. They are listed below. I have created a century, metric, 50 and 25 mile routes. All these routes start at the picnic area of Mercer County Park off Edinburg Rd and are on roads and should be familiar to most of us.

So if your are missing the event get your group together, pick one of the routes below and join me and a few others who will be out there.  Since there will be no arrows on the road, cue sheets, rest stops or a sag it will might feel more like an all paces ride but it will be a fun way to spent the first Saturday in August. 


Here are the routes and some details about them

The Century
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/28166878

The Century is a pretty flat route that takes you through Jacksonville, Browns Mill, before going through the pinelands then back through Pemberton. Since there are no supported rest stops I have made sure there is a Wawa or some other store at least every 20 miles. Here is a list of the rest stops

• Mile 21 - There a Wawa on Pine Rd right where it meets Rt 537 
• Mile 33 - There is a Deli when you make the turn on to Stump Tavern Rd
• Mile 45 - There is a Wawa in New Egypt when you make the turn on to Main St (Rt 528)
• Mile 57 - There is a Wawa in Browns Mills. Just make a right at the light by the lake on to Lakehust Rd. Its a only a quarter mile from the light
• Mile 67 - There is a Super Wawa on the left just before the turn onto Pemberton Arneys Mt Rd
• Mile 76 - If you need a stop before Allentown you can make a left on to Mt Pleasant Rd instead of a right and take a quick detour to the center of Columbus (its about a mile)
• Mile 93 - If you need a one last stop to get you home you can stop at Woody's in Allentown

The Metric
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/28166358

This route follows the century until mile 45 then takes a more direct route back. The list of rest stops are the same as the century until mile 45 in New Egypt and then at mile 57 if you need a another rest stop you can stop at Woody's in Allentown.

The 50 mile route
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/28165774

The route will be a loop to Cassville and back. There are two places to take a break the first one is at a deli/antique store at mile 26 at the corner of Rt 528 and Rt 571. There is also a Wawa at mile 32 where Rt 537 meets Pine Rd.

The 25 mile route
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/28165658

The is a simple ride through the Assumpink to Roy's Deli and back.

Hope to see some of you out there next Saturday.

Mansfield Almost Metric

After a few weeks in the hills I decided to take a brake and do something flat. Florida Flatlander Cheryl was in town so I thought a flat metric would be something she might join us for. The regulars Jim and Laura had other commitments but I got a good turnout. Ricky, Chris Cheryl, Joe, Andrew and Sergey join me in Mansfield for the ride.

I had a few routes mapped out so that I could change the distance depending on how hot it got during the ride. The forecast was Sunny with temperatures reaching 90 degrees so there was a possibility that we could approach death march territory. At the start of the ride the weather wasn't too bad. It was in the low 70s and the moderate humidity.

One of the reasons that I like to start the pineland rides from Mansfield is that it lets me get a little deeper into the pinelands and get to some different roads. The ride went through Jobstown then skimmed Fort Dix before going through the lovely town of Browns Mill. (Here is a link to the route). We didn't stop at the Wawa as it was too early in the ride.

We made our usually stop for water at the ranger station in Lebanon State forest before continuing on to Nixon's . Sergey got a flat on Sooy Rd so he pulled into a driveway to make a fix. This in the pinelands so it is very rural and not the most upscale community. Most of the houses here are small homes in need of some maintenance. However when the Range Rover pulled in to the driveway we were in we realized that there is at least one upscale home in this area. (No sure why someone with money would live in this area)

At our stop in Nixon's Chris realized he had a slow leak so he had to change his tubular tire during the break, It was getting warm but wasn't oppressive so we decided to do the longer route. We had not pushed the pace and I had kept to the shade was much as possible so most of us were feeling good. It helped that we had a tail wind pushing us home.

We had to make the usual detour at Smithville to get around the bridge out but otherwise it was an easy ride back to Mansfield. We came in at 60 miles. I could have added a couple miles at the end to make it a real metric but I've never seen the point of adding miles to a ride just to reach a certain mileage goal.

This was a nice long flat ride and a nice break from the hills. I got some emails from Laura about a road in Morris county she wants to try so I suspect we will be doing some more rides in the hills in the next few weeks.  

The Ride of a Thousand Turns

I enjoy making up new routes so when Jack asked me to plan a route from his house on the south side of Yardley I starting looking at the roads to see the best way to get to New Hope and back. I could of went out River road to get to the usually routes we used but decided to see if I could find a safe way to get to Tyler State park. There are some main roads that go towards Newtown but they all have too much traffic to be safe. Instead I strung together a bunch of roads through the residential neighborhoods to get us up to 95. This was a lot of turns but the roads were surprisingly nice.Here is a link to the route.

This would have been a really hard ride to lead without a GPS since there were turns every tenth to quarter of a mile. Doing this with a queue sheet would have been impossible. I have a Delorme PN-40 which is 10 years old and no longer made but it still works great and I haven't found anything better to use to lead a ride. It was easy for me to just have the map on the screen and follow the overlay of the route on the map. Jim, Laura, and Bob Garmin GPSes were in various states of distress during the ride and none of them was able to follow the route or recover when I went off the planned path. Technology is great when it works but when it doesn't it really distracts from the ride.

And it was a good ride on a beautiful day. The heat wave finally broke and today we had dry, cool and sunny weather. The rides through all the back roads and neighborhoods to get to Tyler State park was nicer than I expected and the couple of busy roads I was worried about had shoulders and not much traffic. The only problem we had was Jim almost running into me right before the entrance of Tyler State park as he was not paying close attention as I slowed down for a light. He reacted just quick enough to avoid a disaster. Even though he smoked his breaks and skidded his tires he did it with out going down and taking the rest of us with him.

The ride through Tyler was scenic and different than our usual rides here which are almost always in winter on a frozen landscape. It was nice to get a few pictures with out snow in them for once. I veered of the planned route here to take a easier way up the hill and stay closer to the river as it is more scenic. At the top of the hill we left the park and zig zagged through another residential neighborhood to get to the normal roads we ride in Bucks county.

One of Jacks suggestions for the ride was to go over Jericho mountain on Eagle road because he hadn't done that in a while. Eagle road is one of the steepest hills in the area and the hardest way to get over the mountain but Jack was the host so over Eagle we went. Eagle is a half mile assent in the 10-15% range and is steepest towards the top. I'm glad I was able to make it over as it proves that I'm in decent shape but there is no real view at the top and so there is no pay off for the climb except a screaming downhill.

After Eagle we made our way toward one of Jacks old houses which was up a slightly annoying hill.

Jack spent a few minutes telling us about the house and all the work he had done on it before we headed to New Hope for our break.

The way back after break was a slow steady climb back up to the ridge and then some rollers along Street road. There was a bridge out that we had actually to go around because the road crew wouldn't let us through. There was only really one tough hill on the way back as I took Thompson Mill to get back over Jericho mountain. Jack joked that he wanted to Eagle the opposite way over Jericho but "No" I wasn't going to do that.

Eventually we made our way back to River road and Jack lead us back to his place where we hung out afterwards. We rarely get together after rides because most of time we all have other things we usually need to do. Blake and Cheryl joined at the house after their ride and I spent some time catching up with them.

Jacks new house is a nice place to hang out. He has pool to cool off in and plenty of places to sit in the shade in the backyard. We all dove into the pool after the ride and I used my camera to grab a few underwater shots. Now that we know we can ride from Jacks place hopefully we can do this again sometime as it was the perfect way to spend a day.