What is a Turkey Top?

Saturdays ride idea was courtesy of Laura who looked at a map and said we should go to Turkey Top Rd. That was over a year or so ago and although we worked out a couple of routes we never did the ride. This week I did a ride out of Gladstone. I was going to do one of my previous routes but then I remembered that one of the routes to Turkey Top Rd was a slightly modified version of one of my Gladstone rides. I had both routes in my GPS, my usual route and Turkey Top but it was a beautiful day so why not do another 800 feet of climbing.

Laura, Jim, Pete, Ricky and Ken joined me on the ride. We did this route The climbing starts in the first mile of the ride and continues for the 20 miles. Some of the climbs are like the one on Rockaway Rd and Guinea Hollow are easy gentle climbs and there are some downhills and flat spots along the way but it was more climbing than I have done this year so I took it slow to conserve my energy.

After climbing up to the top of Guinea Hollow we dove downhill into the town of Califon wiping away most of the climbing we had done. From there it was onto Silker Rd which was the steepest and longest climb of the day. Its one of those hills that starts out steep then gets flatter and you think you are near the top then it gets steeper again. We have done this hill before to get to Schooley's Mountain but this time we went beyond where we usually turn off. Before getting to Turkey Top we explored a few other road we haven't been on like Mt Lebanon. These were nice quiet tree covered roads. When we got to Turkey Top we stopped for the usual picture of the road sign before heading down the road.

Turkey Top is a 400+ decent over about a mile. Its a fun ride although it was hard to see the road surface in spots because of tree cover. The pay off for going down Turkey Top is a 500 ft climb to get back up to the top of Schooley's Mountain. Luckily it was a long shallow climb so it wasn't steep just a long slow burn. Once we got to the top we road along the ridge for a few miles until we got to our rest stop which was a combination of post office/deli/bakery. Its got a nice picnic table to set out so it is a good place to hang out except for the fact that it doesn't have a bathroom. From there we continue along the ridge on Flock Rd. I noticed the totem pole on the corner of Flock Rd and Schooley's Mountain Rd has been removed. It one of the objects that Dustin lists in NJBikeMap but I guess it must have been removed for some reason.

The only way off Schooley's Mountain is a steep descent. We went down Four Bridges Rd which only has two bridges although it was hard to count at 35 mph down a winding hill. I'm glad I upgraded the brakes on my bike a few years ago but doing hills like this make me think disc brakes on a road bike can be useful in these situations.

We made a quick bathroom stop at a Quick Check before beginning the last 12 miles of the ride. Although most of the tough climbs were behind us there was still a few annoying hills on the way back. I was definitely feeling tired and downed a gel to give me a boost to get me back with out cramping.

There was one more killer downhill before we got back. On Ironia there is a 1.5 mile stretch of road with just enough curves to make it fun with out been too dangerous. When Ken saw the sign that said "Slow, steep hill ahead" he actually accelerated down the hill with Pete behind. I followed them both and was one of the few parts of the ride that I could keep up with them.

The last few miles of the ride still had a few small hills and I cramped up about a mile from the end but was able to stand up on the pedals and stretch it out. By the time I got back to the parking lot my legs were done. We had done over 4000 ft of climbing but I'm glad we did the Turkey Top ride. I'm still not sure what a Turkey Top is but at least I can now say I been on the road. 

Where I Was Today

I decided not to do PFW event today and instead did a a ride on my own. Here are some pictures of where I was today.

 

Going to the Extreme

When I tell people that I ride bikes for fun they usually ask me how far I ride, 5-10 miles? When I tell them that I usually do 40 to 60 miles most weekends they think that is a lot of miles. I tell them that if you build up miles slowly as you begin to ride its really very easy to do long ride and you can even do 100 miles with out much of a problem if you put in enough training.

After being in the hills last weekend I decided to do something flat this weekend down in the pine barrens. At 60 miles this would be one of the longer rides I do. 60-70 miles is about longest rides I like to do especially early in the season.

We started from Mansfield park and I was joined by Chris, Pete, Laurie(second week in a row), and Jack (who rode in from Bordentown because apparently 60 miles was too short a ride for him).

We headed out the bike path to Island Rd and then went around Fort Dix and through Browns Mills to get to the pinelands. We had to a slight detour on Catesville Rd as it was more gravel than road so I'm taking that road off the route. Here is the modified ride we did.

Our first rest stop was at the ranger station at Brendan Byrne state park. As we were there a bunch of other riders pulled in. I saw that Mary was part of the group. This was one of the randonneurs rides that Mary does. Today they were doing 600k and in case you can't translate that in your head its a HOLLY SHIT 372 mile ride. Now this is over 2 days so its ONLY 186 miles a day. But the last time I did a century you know what I wanted to do the day after doing a century? Not get on the bike and do another fucking century and this group was about to do an almost back to back double century. It makes my 60 mile ride feel like a ride around the block.

After leaving Mary and her truly insane group we headed down through the pinelands and ended up at Nixons for our real rest stop. There we met Raj who is also a randonneur. He was only doing a 73 miles as a warm up to his 600k ride next week with 50 other randonneurs. Apparently this year is the Paris randonneur 1200k and you have to do a 600k to qualify for it which is why so many people are doing the 600k. I can understand a few people wanting to push their body to the extreme but it is amazing to me that there are over 50 people in NJ who actually do this. To do these rides its 14-17 hours in the saddle for two straight days. This is not only physically difficult but must be a big mental strain. I can imagine with that many hour on a bike you must start to hallucinate or freak out at some point.

In any case I was happy with the 60 miles we did. The weather was a little more humid than predicted so I was a little worn out by the end of the ride. I wish Mary and her fellow randonnerurs good luck on their long travels but for me I keep my rides well under 100 miles.