Fresh Face

I tend to ride with the same group of people most of the time. Occasionally we get a new person to join our group for a ride but for some reason they usually don't come back. Today we had a new woman, Hillary, join us for a ride. She fit in well with the group so I hope she comes back for another ride.  She emailed me and told me that she wanted to move from a C+ to B ride. I sent her the route and made sure she knew what type of ride it would be. I just wanted to make sure she knew what she was getting herself into.

When she got to the ride I introduced her to the my regulars Jack, Jim, Pete, and Ricky. Laura was MIA because of her glassblowing class. I was going to do a group photo with us giving her the finger(because that is how we show her we miss her) but decided to ask Hillary to do it instead. The fact that she agreed to do it showed that she would get along with the group. I sent the picture to Laura with the caption "You've been replace" to which she replied "It was inevitable"

Before heading out for the ride I did the blessing of the Holy Kickstand since we had a new person on the ride. I made sure I gave a couple extra shakes towards Jack just in case we got near Federal Twist.

We did this route and started with a climb which can't be avoided when you are starting from Lambertville. It was a slow steady climb up to Sergeantsville then continued our way up to Pittstown and then through Sky Manor before heading down to Frenchtown. The weather was better than expected. It was sunny and mid 60s. We got some good views as we rode along the ridge.

Frenchtown was crowded as it seemed every biker in the area was gathered there. We ended up sitting by river. I had two routes for the way back. One flat the other hilly. I decided to go for the flatter way back which involved heading down Rt 29.

With a stiff tail wind we quickly made our way pass Bulls Island on our way to Lower Creek where we climbed back up the hill and back into Lambertville. We ended up with 43 miles and about 2000ft of climbing. Hillary didn't seem to have much of a problem keeping up and should be able to hang with us if she wants join us for another ride.