Lying Bastard 2025

Believe or not I have been doing some form of the Lying Bastard ride for almost 13 years. This ride started out as a ride around Lake Nockamixon based on a route I got from the Philadelphia Bike Club. The original intention was to explore some new roads around the lake but this ride has come to define me in a strange sort of way. You can see the origin of the ride in this post. The short version of the story is that when I lead a ride around Lake Nockamixion, in 2012, I mention that the ride would be a little hilly but nothing too long or hard. Then in the first 7 miles we went up a 1 mile hill that had a 10% grade and an short but really steep 20% grade of 400 feet. At the top of the second hill one of the people on the ride asked if I'm often called a lying bastard. After that even though the hills and riding were a lot easier the other people joined in and at the moment my reputation was cemented. 

Some people may have been embarrassed by this moniker but I leaned into it and in subsequent rides put in a occasional unexpected steep hill or other surprise in the ride. This has led to a healthy sarcastic banter between me and my so called friends. In fact this is why the people I ride with on a regular basis are called the Insane Bike Posse because even though they jokingly say they hate my rides they keep coming back for more so they must be insane.

Over the years I have an annual ride I lead along some of the same roads of the original Lake Nockamixon ride that I title the "Lying Bastard" ride just to reinforce my identity. It has changed over the years to become a little shorter and easier but still is one of the hardest rides I do. As I will maintain until I die there is no one hill that is a real killer but I think the fact that there are no flat or easy spots in this ride is why it always feels tougher than it looks. 

This year I had to start the ride from Tinicum State Park as we couldn't start from Frenchtown because the walk way on the bridge is closed. This meant we started the climbing a mile sooner. I had some of the usual insane posse join the ride and a few new comers. 

The ride starts with a long slow climb up Headquarters Rd. It's only 2-3% so its not hard. The road has also been closed for at least 5 years as the bridge at the top of the road is closed and from the way it look (see picture at top of the post) the bridge is not going to be fixed anytime soon. In fact there is more junk across it every time we come this way. This makes for a nice no traffic road but the added tree this year did make it a little harder to get across. Dave bumped his chain against his leg going over the bridge so he needed a bandage for his leg and an adjustment to his chain before we could move on. 

Then is was a little uphill before we road along the ridge toward the southern part of the lake. On the way down the hill Dave got a pinch flat. I helped him change it as the rest of the people headed to a boat ramp for a quick break.

 

We join them a few minutes later and then headed up around the northern part of the lake and into the neighborhood above it. As I had mentioned in other posts about this ride this area is a little weird as there are some alternative medicine rest homes, a Greek temple among other strange things.  There is also a covered bridge hidden here. It was then down to the marina by the lake. My routes for this ride in recent years didn't go by the lake because it would have added too many miles but I found a new road that is paved that got us there.

It was a nice downhill going down to the lake. Once there we rode out to the point to see the view and watch a few sailboats on the lake. The day started out cloudy and humid but was in the mid 80s so it didn't feel too bad. It did clear a little but was still mostly cloudy. It was still good to see the lake although it meant a little climb to get back to the road. Then is was on to our rest stop. Its a Turkey Hill which is a slight step down from a Wawa but there are not a lot of options out this way. 

The rest stop is on a 611 which is a busy road and my old route stayed on 611 for a mile or so I tried to find a different way back for this years route. Of course the new way back had an extra hill that was a steep 200+ foot climb. So we traded traffic for climbing. It was a tough rude hill to add to the ride but it felt like the right thing to do for this years ride. Then it was mostly downhill and back to the start. 

This is tough ride but it is always interesting and something I will continue to do keep up my reputation.  

Belmar and Back

This past Tuesday I looked at the weather forecast and saw a perfect weather for Saturday. It was going to be in the mid 70s with sunshine and not much wind. This summer's weather has been mostly raining or hot and humid so there have only been a few rides where I didn't have to worry about getting wet or melting from the heat. The question was where should be ride? Flat or hills?

I wanted a long ride to take advantage of the weather so I decided in a flat ride. I thought let's go out of Etra Lake Park and head towards Farmingdale or Belmar. I usually don't like to ride to the beach in the summer months because it can be crowed but I wanted miles so put out the word I was doing a ride to Belmar on Saturday. This I knew would have Laura contemplating adding miles to the beginning and end of my ride to my ride to do a century. She wavered a little but eventually decided to do it and got Martin to join her. 

Those of use not doing the century option met at Etra Park. When I say met we actually all pulled in to the park with military precision with in seconds of each other even though we all came from different directions. I guess we all know the location of the starting points and the time it take to get there well enough to always get there about the same time.

Laura and Martin rode into the park a little while later as the rest of us were all set to start the ride and off we went. I have done this ride many times over the year so the route was familiar and I didn''t really have to think about the turns. I knew this was going to be a long ride so I kept a relaxed pace. Still with made good progress towards Belmar as the weather was as good as predicted and the riding was easy.

Because of the crowded roads expected by the beach we took the Edgar Felix bike path to get into Sea Girt. We were then on some busy roads on the way through the town. There was lots of traffic and some kind of festival and walk going on be we made it through unscathed. 

Then it was a few miles up Ocean ave to our normal rest stop in Belmar. We spent some time there fueling up and watching the beach goers. 

 

It was not as hectic as I expected. The only annoying thing is that the Trump train road by while we were sitting there. 

We headed out of Belmar on 16th street which is a one way street and we went the wrong way on it on purpose. I could have went up one of the other streets that is one way in the correct direction but that would have meant that we would have to have ridden on Main street to get back to 16th street once it was a two way street again and Main street has a lot of traffic with no real shoulder to ride in so it's not a good option either given the traffic at the shore today. 

In any case there wasn't any problem going the wrong way on the one way street and soon we were out of Belmar and heading back. We made our way through Farmingdale and then on to Freehold. The wind was mostly from the north east so we didn't have the normal headwind we usually do on the way back from the shore.  We had a second stop at a Duncan Donuts. I grab a glazed donut to get some sugar for the last 12 miles back to the start. 

The weather was still pleasant. It only warmed up a few degrees from the start the the humidity was low so although I was tired at the end of the ride I didn't feel wiped out as I did other times. After we got back to Etra Laura and Martin left to finish their century. They looked good so I doubt they had any problems finishing. 

This was a perfect ride for this perfect weather day. Hopefully we can have a few more like this as the summer continues.