The last two weekends I have had to do some rides without most of the usual members of the posse as they have been traveling or otherwise occupied. I posted a ride last Saturday that only got one person to sign up and then had to cancel the ride because of rain. I ended up doing a ride on my own on Sunday and then the All Paces on Monday. I was planning on leading my own ride at the all paces assuming enough of the posse would be there to join me but besides Jim, who was leading his own ride, nobody was there. I ended up on Dave's ride which was in the upper B range. I bailed after the rest stop because I wanted to swing by the old house the see it on my way back.
This Saturday I posted a ride from Bull's island to ride through some of the covered bridges on the PA side. It was going to be perfect weather for this ride so I thought I would get a good turn out but only got 4 people to sign up. Two people I didn't know and Chris and Jim. I was surprised that Chris sign up as he hadn't been riding in the hills the last few years.
It really was a beautiful day for this ride. We walked across the bridge to the PA side and then headed up Fleecy Dale which had a road closed sign across it but the only problem with the road was it was full of large pot holes which were annoying but easy enough to ride around. The toughest hill is at the beginning of the ride after the turn on Wisner and has two steep climbs. I hadn't done any tough hills in a few weeks but had my triple with me so just shifted it into the low gear and ground up. I actually had to stop and kick the front derailleur to get it into the bottom gear so I need to adjust that before the next ride. Chris was the last up the hill.
We continued on towards the first covered bridge but right before we got there Jim got a flat. After he changed it while his tire was on the ground and he was putting his tools away the tire blew out the side. Apparently the tire had a defect. Luckily Chris had a spare tire so Jim put that on and then decided to head back instead of continuing on. The rest of is continued on through the three covered bridges.
The part of the route has a nice rhythm as it has some gentle up hills followed by some twisting long gentle downhills. The only problem is that most of the roads had just be rocked so in the shade it was hard to see where the rocks were and I was worried about the bike sliding out from under me.
We did make it through with out falling and ended up at the Upper Black Eddy deli at the bottom of Bridgeton for our break. This is one of my favorite places to stop for a ride. It's got a nice set of tables out back by the canal that you could just sit out and relax all day.
After the break we headed to the NJ side and climbed up to the ridge and rode past Sky Manor airport. It was a little warm in the sun but not uncomfortably hot. The clear sky now had some clouds which made for some good pictures.
We finished the ride with a screaming decent down Federal Twist. Although there were a few problems with the ride is still was a good day on the bike. Hopefully most of the posse will be around for my next ride.
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