Leap Day Trail Ride

Although I have been riding over the past couple of weeks I really haven't had anything to write about. This Saturday however I decided to take a ride on the Columbia Trail and saw some interesting things along the way. It was a cold weekend which is why I decided to do a trail ride. I wasn't expecting anyone to join me since its a long ride to High Bridge but was happy to be joined by Laura and Ricky.

The Columbia Trail is build on an old central Jersey railroad that was once used to transport iron and coal from mines in Morris County. The tail is 15 miles long and goes from High Bridge to the other side of Long Valley. The trail is mostly hard packed dirt and gravel and is well maintained. We did hit a few muddy spots but nothing that was really difficult to ride through.

There is a lot of good scenery on the trail especially near High Bridge where you are riding above and along some branch of the Raritan river. We actually decided to leave the trail about a mile in to ride the road and path next to the river. This let us get some close up pictures of the river.

And feeder streams

As well as the Columbia Trail bridge that goes over the river.

We got back on the trail just before Califon and continued on toward Long Valley. Last time we did this trail we actually road up the 30% hill on Middle Valley to prove it could be done. This time I was feeling a little sluggest and didn't want to bother.

We continued on toward Long Valley. Although it was mostly sunny when we started it had clouded up. It was about 30 degrees when we started and it didn't really get much warmer so I was happy I had my warmest gear on.

There is not much real scenery the last 5 miles to the end of the trail. We turned around and headed back to a coffee shop in the middle of Long Valley by Schooley's Mountain Rd. It was good to take a break as I was getting tired. I have noticed this year that the cold seems to affect my riding. It just seems to take more effort to maintain my normal pace in the cold.

The place we stopped "The Coffee Potter" was nice rest stop and comfortable place to hang out.. Not sure about the quality of the coffee but there were plenty of goodies to eat and they had normal drinks and gatoraid. 

After the break we had about 10 miles to go to get back. There was some light snow flurries on our way back. I had to take a brief rest break a Califon because I was feeling like I was about to cramp. The brief rest break seemed to allow the gatoraid I drank at the coffee shop to kick in because I didn't cramp for the rest of the ride or during my ride in the car.

The last 5 miles back to High Bridge are probably the most scenic of the the trail . During winter the trail is not as colorful as during the summer or fall but there are a few other interesting sights to see. There are these gnome homes which are bird houses with some gnomes or fairies in them. There is also some wood carvings along the way like the owl at the top of this post. However my favorite sight was the dinosaur pile.

No sure what this is for but the large brontosauruses/dragon thing has a speaker in its belly so I'm assuming that it plays music or some dinosaur sounds sometimes.

By the time we got back to the start we had just over 30 miles in. It was a long ride for a cold day. We also did about 1600 ft of climbing, according to my GPS, so it was a good workout. I haven't been on this trail in a few years and am glad I did it again. Hopefully the next time I do it the weather will be a little warmer.