Somerset Summit

This week we continued our quest to ride to the high point in every county. The ride was a lot hillier than last week since we were riding in Hunterton, Morris, and Somerset county.Besides finding the high point of Somerset county I wanted to do this ride to get in shape for the hills of Bike Virgina.

The weather was somewhat questionable since rain has passed through earlier in the morning and there was a 50% chance of some scattered showers around noon time. When I got up a 6 am I looked at the rain and the forecast and radar and it didn't look that bad. The rain has pass through and was clearing out. I figured any rain that might pop up later would be light and brief so we went ahead with the ride.

What this meant though was that the roads were on the damp side of wet. I had a bigger turn out than expected. Laura, Jack, Pete, Ken, Jim and Barry. I was most surprised to see Jim since he had emailed me telling me he could not make the ride.

We had less than a mile to warm up before the first climb which takes us over 206 and towards Tewsbury. After the initial climb the hills keep coming. Nothing real steep or long but when you're not warmed up it feels a lot harder than it is. Last on my Cocoluxe ride I wasn't in as good a shape and got a nasty stomach cramp after the first 6 miles and had to stop for a few minutes to recover. This year I didn't have any problems and felt pretty good.

I gave everybody a scare when I turned on Hollowbrook. There is a long steep (12-15%) climb on this road that no body likes and doesn't lead to a view. However I turned off onto Homestead Rd before the big climb. I didn't want a mutiny this early in the ride.

We headed to Rockaway Rd one of the nicest climbs you will ever do then on to the familiar roads around Califon. This route was similar to last years Cocoluxe ride but I made a few minor changes to lessen the traffic and do a couple of cool downhills. One of the downhills I added was Coleman Rd. Which is a long straight down hill that I wanted to do again since doing it last year. This brought us to the base of Schooley's Mountain and as close as we would get to the Columbia trail.

I tried a new rest stop which was a Quick Check right as we crossed 206. It was a updated one with a bathroom and decent food so I have another go place to stop when I ride in this area.

After the stop we headed up Pleasant Hill and around the Black River Wildlife Management area. The roads were a little bumpy and beat up here and Barry had a water bottle ejected from his bike. There were no flat spots in this area we were either climbing or descending. There were some really killer down hills here but the wet roads and unfamiliarity made me cautious.

At this point we were only about 10 miles from the end I could have cruised down into Gladstone and would have done that normally but this was a highpoint ride so we had to get to it. This meant a 400 ft climb up to the top of Mine Mountain. This was the longest and hardest climb of the ride. I know putting a climb like this at the end of the ride is mean but my insane bike posse has come to expect it even as they curse me out.

The high point of Somerset is nestled in the middle or some ridiculously large and expensive homes. We actually snuck up  a private driveway to get the high point picture. This put us at 850 ft which is only 13 ft below the actual highpoint which was probably behind us by about 100 ft. To tell you how ridiculous these houses are up here. The house you see in the background of the picture is really just the garage of a much larger house. As we road on we saw an actual castle of a house.

The path back to Gladstone was a decent down a series of roller coaster like hills. Then a brief ride around a lake before we got back to our starting point. A few minutes after we got back Marc showed up. He had got there a few minutes after we left and ended up doing last years route. Usually we never start a ride on time but I guess this time we actually left a couple of minutes early.

After the ride I felt pretty good and didn't cramp up. I plan one more really hilly ride before Bike Virgina but so far the training is going well and I think I'm almost in peak hill shape.

The next few weeks will be about training for Bike Virgina so I won't be doing any club or high point rides until July when we will head to Schooley's Mountain and the high point of Hunterton county.

Headwinds, High Points and a Gorilla

This Saturday was my Southern Safari ride to visit the high points of Salem and Cumberland counties. The official high points are 160 and 140 feet respectively so these are some of the lowest high points in the state. Salem and Cumberland counties are mostly farmland and is where the Garden State earns it name. This makes for very flat and open riding. This area is a nice place to ride because there is almost no traffic and no hills to worry about. Because this is mostly open farmland there isn't a lot of interesting things to look at except the odd stream, marshland or lake. It is also not a place you want to ride on a hot sunny day since there is no cover to protect you.

Because this was going to be a long ride where we had an hour drive to the starting point I didn't get a big turn out. It was just Laura, Jack, Ken, and myself. The starting point was in Woodstown which is south east of the middle of nowhere. It was however close enough to 295 to be easy to get to. From there we did a 65 mile ride though Salem and Cumberland county. On paper this looked like a flat and easy route but it turned out to be a little harder than I thought.

First we had a strong headwind for the first 30 miles. Second it was on the humid and hot side but luckily it was mostly cloudy so that kept the temperature from getting too bad. Third although this is a very flat area it had a lot of small ups and downs which added up over the long ride. According to my Delorme GPS the total elevation for the ride was 1600 ft which is a lot considering we spent most of the ride at an altitude of less than 100 feet of sea level.

One of the strange things about riding south of Rt 70 is that it is like being south of the Mason Dixon line. People talk slower with a southern accent. There are lot more pickup trucks than cars and the houses seem a little more run down. This was most evident at our stop in Alloway and Centerton,

On the ride description I suggested that there might be some exotic animal sightings on the ride and I kept my promise by stopping at the Cohanzick Zoo This was NJ's first zoo and although it is just a small county zoo it was worth a quick stop especially since there is no admission fee. We took a quick walk around and got a glimpse of the white tiger which is their main attraction. They also have some small monkeys as well as some other assorted animals.

At the zoo I decided to take the high point picture since I know the high points of Salem and Cumberland would just be on a boring road next to a farm field. They had a Gorilla that made for a good photo op. 

From the zoo we headed mostly north and back towards Woodstown stopping a couple of times to take pictures at or near the high point. I had studied the maps and knew approximately where the high points were based on NJ Bike map but it was so flat that it was hard to tell which bump was the high point. I know we road through it at some point and my GPS read 135 feet at the Cumberland high point which is where the picture below was taken.

For the Salem high point I got 173 feet which is higher than the official 160 feet. It was also in a different road than was marked on NJ Bike map. Again the flatness of the terrain makes it difficult to tell what dirt pile is higher than the other. All that matters is that I can check these two counties off the list.


By the time we were done with the ride we where definitely feeling more tired than expected. The hot weather and wind had taken its toll. It also didn't help that we had two flats (Laura found a piece of metal staple in her rear tire at mile 30 and I had a pinch flat on Compromise Rd where that was more sand and dirt than road).  I also got stung on my tongue by a small bee. Luckily I'm not allergic and didn't experience any swelling.


Next week it is on to some real hills in Somerset county

Hilly Non Highpoint

I did not have a highpoint ride schedule for this weekend so I decided to do some climbing. This was to get in shape for the hillier highpoint rides and for Bike Virginia. I chose a hilly ride that Blake actually create a couple of years ago an then added a few more hills to get a total of 4000 feet of climbing.

We started from Bulls Island with the usual posse. Jim, Laura, Ron, Marco, and Barry. The first 25 miles are so were on the NJ side of the Delaware. The first few miles were flat as we headed up Lower Creek road to THE NJ Covered Bridge. Then we started climbing. Although the climb up Upper Creek was not the longest or hardest climb it still felt tough. We rode along the ridge for a while with some rolling hills then did another long and tough climb.

At this point we were just above 900 feet which is higher than any highpoint ride we did so far. The payoff though was a 3 mile ride down hill on Hickory Corner Rd. Then down 519 into Milford and over to PA to our rest stop in Black Eddy.

When I told Jim we were stopping in Black Eddy he seemed happy because he likes that rest stop. He then ask does that mean we are going up that really steep hill after the stop. Dumb question. Of course we are going up Bridgeton hill why else would I come this way.

Bridgeton hill is 10-15% grade that goes up about 400 feet. It is a hard climb. I usually do it once a year to see how strong and crazy I am. Its not a fun hill to climb but I made it with out my heart blowing up so it means I am in decent shape but still need some more training to make climbs like this less painful.

The next real climb we had was up Dark Hollow. This is a long 2.5 mile climb with a more or less constant grade of 4%. I actually enjoy this hill because its hard enough to feel like you accomplished something when you get to the top but easy enough to not worry about.

We went through Stover Park again. This time I managed to not loose Jim and Laura. I had planned to go down Fleecy Dale Rd but it was still closed so I had to detour to Green Hill. I had not expected Fleecy Dale to be closed since they have been working on it for 2 years but manage to remember the alternate way down.

By the time we got back to the start we had 52 miles. It was a tough ride but I'm happy with my progress this year and with a little more training should be ready for some of the extreme hilly rides I planning for the future. 

Ocean/Burlington Highpoint

New Jersey is a pretty flat place once you get south of 195. Today we hit the highpoint in two counties in a 57 mile ride and didn't even break 1400 ft of vertical climbing. The ride was a slight variation of my pineland rides. You can see the route here.

We started in Allentown which is only 9 miles from my house so I decided to ride in and was joined by Jim. This would make the ride 77 miles for me which would be a high for this season for me. Laura, Ed and another rider did me one better by turning the ride into a century.

We all meet at Bruno's Bike shop and were joined by Ron, Jackie, Mike M, Mary and Herb. The weather called for a chance of rain but the radar and forecast looked like it would hold off until the end of the ride. We did have a brief scattered shower at the beginning of the ride and right after the rest stop but it was a minor annoyance and didn't really affect the ride.

The first highpoint we hit was Ocean County which is near the the intersection of 528 and 539. I stopped where the highpoint was according to Dustin's map to get a picture of the GPS but instead of taking another nondescript picture of everybody standing on the grass on the side of the road I decided to take the picture at the New Egypt Speedway which is just down the road and makes a better picture.

We then continued into the pinelands and made our usual stop at the Wawa in Browns Mills before getting a little rained on our way to Pemberton. On the other side of Pemberton we made the climb up to Arney's Mountain which is the highest point in Burlington Country. We stopped for a picture by the Windmill at the corner.

 I guess Mike was getting tired since he took a seat.

As you can see by the elevation both of these highpoints are nothing that would require any real climbing. The actual highpoints for both these counties are also pretty close to the road so although we did not get to the real high points we were with in site of both. When I got home I actually checked the numbers on Dustin's map. For Ocean country he had the elevation on the road on 204 feet and I got 191 which is with in the accuracy of my GPS. I actually think he has the highpoint in the wrong place I think it is on 528 just before the turn onto 539 because my GPS had 212 feet as the highest point. I think the reason for the difference is that Dustin is using USGS maps which doesn't take into account changes made to the terrain because of construction of the roads.

For the Burlington highpoint I think Dustin has a typo because he had it as 136 ft on the road where as I got 185 ft. Strangely the Burlington highpoint felt higher than the Ocean one probably because we had a small climb to get to it.

From Arney's Mount we made our way back using the normal event route. We had a slight tailwind which made the ride back easier. We ended up averaging 16 mph and after a brief stop at Allentown Jim, Laura, Ed, Mary and I rode back home.

I ended up with just over 78 miles and felt pretty good. I probably could have done a century but I'm glad I didn't

OBX

Click Here for More Pictures 

Spent a week on a working vacation in the Outer Banks. My wife had the week off and wanted to hang out at a beach so we rented a place in North Carolina. It was a typical raised beach house with a nice open floor plan and a comfortable place to relax. I was able work remotely for a couple of days to conserve my vacation for later in the year but did spend a few days enjoying the beach.

The first couple of days the dog woke up early so I got to see an amazing sunrise over the ocean. There isn't a lot of places to ride a bike here since this is a sand bar of an island and is little more and a half mile wide in most places. They do have a decent trail system up and down the island so I brought my mountain bike to do some exploring.

The first ride I did was up to Jockey Ridge state park. This is a large (I'm talking at least 150 ft high) set of dunes. When your between the dunes it looks like you are in the middle of the Sahara desert. The state part is next to the Wright memorial where they made their first powered flight. One of the reasons they picked this spot was because of the constant wind. On the day I visited Jockey Ridge there were some people taking a beginning hang gliding class.

They basically ran down the dune and lifted into the air after a few steps since there was a stiff breeze. The two people from the school ran along side them and helped them guide the hang glider. The whole flight lasted about 100 ft and took about 20 seconds but it looked like fun.

The second ride I did was did was to Nags Head woods the only real forest on the barrier island. I would have stopped for pictures but I was two busy pedaling my ass off to get away from bugs that came out to attack me. I must have been the only fresh meat they have seen in a few days.

For once on a vacation we had 7 perfect days of weather. Sunny and mid 70s. It was a great week to be at the beach and my wife came home happy and with a good tan. Although I did a couple of rides the rest of the time was spent just relaxing and trying out some of the local beers. It has been a long winter so it was nice to have some beach time to switch into summer mode.

The Big Bang

In 1959 Bell Labs built a large microwave antenna to support NASA's Project Echo which bounced radio waves off large metallic balloons satellites to transmit radio signals across the globe. A few years later this microwave antenna was use with Telstar the first communication satellite.  Two scientists at Bell Labs, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, got permission to use this microwave antenna to survey the sky and study radio emissions of the stars and Milky Way. As they used the antenna to look for radio emissions they found they had some background noise. Initially they assumed this noise was caused by a problem with the antenna or some interference from the surrounding area. However after eliminating all possible sources of noise (including cleaning the pigeon droppings out of the antenna and shooting the pigeons) they realized that this noise was not coming from some man made source but was some background noise that was coming from outside our galaxy.

At the same time a few Princeton astrophysicists who were being led by Robert Dicke were trying to find some evidence to support  the Big Bang theory. At the time there were two competing theories on the formation of the universe. The Steady State theory said that universe was static and unchanging and had always existed this way. The other theory was the Big Bang theory that said that the universe had started from a large cataclysmic explosion and was constantly expanding. At the time there was no observable evidence to back up the Big Bang theory but Robert Dicke had theorized that it would have left a low level microwave signature.

Penzias and Wilson hear about Dicke's work and contacted him. Dicke came down and listen to the background noise which immediately confirmed his theory. This lead to a joint paper published by Penzias , Wilson and Dicke that eventually lead to wide acceptance of the Big Bang theory and a Nobel Prize for Penzias and Wilson in 1978.

Its turns out that this microwave antenna known, as the Holmdel Horn Antenna, is at the highest point in Monmouth County. So as part of our ride today we visited this now national landmark. Unlike the last couple of highpoint rides where we got close but not really to the actual highpoint the plan today was to get to the actually highpoint. Also instead of a boring picture of some people standing on an nondescript piece of grass I wanted to get us all standing in front of the antenna. 

Unfortunately things didn't work out as planned. As Laura and I rode around the fence blocking the road to the antenna a guard in the building starting yelling at us with some urgency so we stopped. I suspect he would have called the police if we had gone any further. We tried to ask for permission to see the antenna but it is not allowed with out an appointment. Although the the antenna is open to the public you need to do it by appointment during the week. A fact that is not mentioned on any site I looked at regarding the antenna.   So instead of getting a picture of us in front of the antenna I got one just below looking at it through the woods. You really can't see the antenna but we got as close as we could. We also only got to around 340 ft which is 40 ft below the actual 380 ft high point. Oh well as least we got a good story to tell.

 

The rest of the ride was close to a normal Sandy Hook ride except for the fact that we came in to Sandy Hook from a slightly difference direction because of the detour to the antenna. This meant we missed doing the hills along the Navasink river. It was a clear day so we stopped at the top of the bridge on our way into Sandy Hook to get a couple of pictures of NY

We also stopped at the beach on Sandy Hook to see the beach and take a few more shots.

The ride back from Sandy Hook was made easier by a nice east wind and a newly paved Rumson Rd. At the end we go in just over 62 miles so we got our first metric in for the year.

Part of the fun of the highpoint rides is trying to find something interesting along the way. Although I had known the story of the Holmdel Horn Antenna I did not realize where it actually was so it was cool to kinda almost see it.

Mercer Highpoint

At 60 degrees to start and the promise of almost 80 degrees by noon we finally had good weather to ride in. Today's goal was to ride to the highpoint of Mercer county. Unlike Middlesex county the highest road you can ride on and the highest point of Mercer county are not very close to each other.

This was a typical Sourlands ride. We started from the parking lot in Rocky hill by the canal and worked our way up Hollow Rd to the ridge. The highest road we can ride in at the corner of Featherbed and Hopewell-Wertsville Rd (471 ft according to my GPS). To get there we had to zig-zag up and down the ridge which added some more climbing but also got us on some nice roads that I don't normally travel.

From there is was more or less the regular roads to Lamberville including Alexuken Rd which is a beautiful was to head down the hill to Lambertvile.

After our normal break in Rojo's we headed back. The way back was different than normal. This was because I wanted to get as close as I could to Baldplate Mountain where the real high of Mercer county is. This required us to first head up Goat Hill Rd which starts with a short but steep 10% grade. This turned out to not be the toughest climb. Our next climb was up Pleasant Valley Rd which I had never done. On paper it doesn't look too bad as it is  around a 6-7% grade. The problem is that its almost a 2 mile climb. I decided to ride the Feather today because it can handle anything under 10%.  However it was a struggle getting up the last bit of Pleasant Valley as my heart rate was close to max by the end of the climb.

When we got to Baldplate Mountain park some of us tried to ride into the park to see if we could get to the actual highpoint. We made it to the parking lot but could not get to the actual high point. According to my GPS we got to 463 ft which is 17ft below the official highpoint of 480 ft.

I took a picture anyway since just to show we were there. (Not sure what's up with Laura's neck)

From Baldplate Mountain we headed through Pennington and then through the backside of Princeton to get back to the starting point. These are roads I haven't taken in a while so it was a nice change of pace. By the time we got back to the start we had 54 miles and had checked off another highpoint.