North Jersey Weekend

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For the pass few years I have gather a few of the willing and headed away on a bike trip. I had a couple different ideas for this year trip out of state but for a couple of reasons could not get it a big trip put together this year. Laura had mention that she wanted to ride up the Delaware and ride Old Mine Rd. After looking at a couple different routes I couldn't find a ride worth doing. It however put the idea in my head that it might be fun to revisit some of routes up north I haven't done in a few years.

So that's how this years bike trip ended up in being to North Jersey. It was a simple trip. We headed up early Saturday morning to the Delaware Gap to do  ride around Old Mine Rd. Then stayed over night and did a ride around Hope and Tranquility with a stretch along the famous Shades of Death Rd.

There were five of us Laura, Larry, Jack, Ed and myself. We lucked out with perfect weather. It was a little chilly at the start but is was sunny so it warmed up quickly. The ride along Old Mine Rd was hilly and scenic. You could not ask for a better day to enjoy the views. The road up here are also as close traffic free as it gets. The only thing that detracted from the ride was a few spots where the road was so beat up that is was hard to find a clear path.The worst part was a the beginning  and end of the ride when we had to climb to and from Millbrook Village where we started. It was so rough that Ed actually lost his water bottle in the first couple of miles. It not only fell out of the cage but rolled off the road and in to the woods never to found again. The climb back to Millbrook was even worst.  It was a steep 400 ft climb in  just over a half mile on a road that was more potholes than pavement. Last time I did this climb on my old Myata I had to stop half way up to catch my breath. This time I was able to make it up but almost fell a couple of time because of the bad road.

Despite the few bad patches of road it was a beautiful ride. Although Old Mind is next to the Delaware you don't actually see the river most of the time. We did ride over into Pennsylvania at Dingmans Ferry to hang out by the river.

On Sunday we headed to Allamuchy to ride around some of the nicest roads in this part of the state. Fall is in full swing up here so the leaves have started turning and the colors were vibrant. The most scenic spot were around Kittatinny Valley State Park where we made a slight detour to check out the lake.

This a very rural area which make it a good place to ride. The only problem is that there is almost no places to stop. NJBikeMap has a food in Johnansonburg but when we pulled into town it looked like a ghost town and the only sign of life was a person on a horse standing in the middle of the street. It was truly a one horse town with out any food store.

From there headed to the famous Shades of Death Rd which is connected with a number of scary stories  that end badly. We stopped at the end of the road to take a picture of road sign. Laura did her usual dramatic pose.

We then headed up the hills of Jenny Jump forest which only had one tough spot but also had a killer downhill. From there it was a short slightly uphill ride back to the start. After a quick lunch we were on our way and the trip was over.

The last few times I road up in North Jersey it was by myself so it was fun to do these rides with other people. 

The Pace of Things...

Where's Barry

OK so shoot me. I lost another one. Being a ride leader sometimes leads to some tough decisions. The first decision I had to make was when to ride. Saturday would be cloudy with a 50% chance of rain after 1pm but Sunday would be a perfect sunny day. I knew if I moved the ride a few people would be disappointed since they won't be able to make the ride because they were going to the PFW fall picnic.

After looking at the weather on late Friday I decided to move the ride to Sunday. I had gotten stuck in the rain a couple times this year and did not want another wet ride. We would also be on a few busy roads so I didn't want to chance riding is wet and low viability conditions.

As soon as I posted the news on my blog and sent out an email blast I had some people question the decision and some bloody biker went as far as to question if I had any bollacks.

The decision to ride on Sunday ended up being a good one. Although the weather forecast actually looked a lot better Saturday morning it did end up raining around 1pm which meant we would have been riding in a steady medium rain for at least an hour.

Sunday was a little cool but it was sunny and clear. I ended up with 9 people at the start. I had not expected that many but I guess the word got out through the blog.

The ride to Sandy Hook from battlefield park on Monmouth is a mostly flat ride and so it wasn't hard to keep the group together. Once there are more than 4 or 5 rides it is sometime hard to keep track of everybody. What I usually do with larger groups is just make sure the slowest person is still in my mirror.

The only time we really got strung out was the hills in Atlantic Highlands along the Navasink river. I was having a good day because the hills didn't feel as hard as they usually do. I stopped at my usual intersection after the last downhill section. When Dave pulled in I knew I had everybody so we continued on. About a mile later after a couple of turns somebody realized we had lost Barry. I sent everybody across the road to the Quick check while Ed and I went back to find Barry.

As I retraced our path I was hoping to see him coming towards us but none of the bikes passing were him. I went back to the bottom of the Navasink hill and when I haddn't found him decided to keep going back to the last place I saw him on the ride. If he was lost that was bad but if he had a mechanical problem or got hurt I wanted to make sure we didn't leave him behind.

After going back over the Navasink hill to the last place I saw him I felt a little better that he was not sitting on the side of the road broken down or hurt. The only logical explanation is that he was lost or decided to turn around. In either case the chances of finding him were very small so Ed and I headed back to the Quick check.

From there we continued on to Sandy Hook and took a ride around the bike paths. It was one of the clearest days that I have been to Sandy Hook so we had a good view of the NY skyline. We stopped at Gunnison beach this time to admire the view from one of the old gun turrets.

From there it was the usual way home over the Shrewsbury river and through Little Silver. I manage not to loose anybody else.

When we got back to the parking lot I saw that Barry's van was gone so I know that he made it back. He may be mad at me for dropping him but at least I know he was OK. He didn't have a cell phone so there was no way to contact him during the ride to find him. I did call his home number and left a message for him to call me but he never call back so I'm still not sure what happen to Barry.


9/20 - ***UPDATE I got a note from John this morning who talked to Barry during the week. It turns out Barry continued on the Navasink Road and didn't turn on to Locust like the rest of us did. When we went back to find him he was already past where we were looking for him. He did make it to Rt 36 and did see the Quick Check and did go to Sandy Hook and through Little Silver on the way home. The bottom line is Barry made it home safely and I need to do a better job keeping track of people on my ride

Childhood Memories

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When I was a kid the summer vacation was a camping trip some where in the north east. The destination was usually on or near the lake or ocean. The vacation consisted of hanging out by the water and visiting the local town and attractions.

One of my favorite lakes we visited was Lake Winnipesaukee. It is the biggest lake in New Hampshire and its shores are dotted with interesting little towns, marinas, and a lot of cottages and motels to enjoy the lake from. As a kid we camped in one of the bays and I spend the days swimming and sailing in the lake. It really is a beautiful place and in some ways even more scenic than Lake George or Lake Champlain.

This year since my wife's family wasn't able to go to Cape Cod for our usually trip we decided to check out Lake Winnipesaukee since I want to see if it had changed since I had been there. This time we stayed at a hotel since I prefer not to rough it any more. The hotel we picked was on Belknap Point which overlooks the main part of the lake and is near some of the main towns. The hotel rooms are about 5 feet from the lake so when you look out your window you feel like you are on a cruise ship sailing on the lake. The hotel was built in the late 60s and it doesn't look it had be updated much since then but it was clean and comfortable so we had no complains.

The main attraction was the view. I spent half the time at the room just sitting on the balcony staring at the lake. It was just so relaxing to take in the view and watch the different boats go by. I don't meditate but if I did I imagine I would have the same peaceful feeling as I did just sitting by the lake.

Besides just relaxing we did do some sightseeing, swimming and even rented a boat for half a day to explore the lake. We were blessed with perfect weather so no matter where we went we had great views of the lake and surrounding mountains.

One of the main places we visited was Castle in the Clouds which is a mansion build on one of the hills overlooking the lake. I don't remember visiting this when I was a kid so it was all new to me. Besides the hand crafted house the grounds also contain a beautiful small water fall.

Besides swimming and sailing on the lake one of my more vivid memories of Lake Winnipesaukee is getting ice cream at Kellerhaus. They had good home made ice cream but the best part is they had a huge fixings bar that let you add fudge, caramel, marshmellow, sprinkles and a lot of other stuff. I remember getting the three scoop boat and just piling on all the toppings. Of course I also remember walking out of there feeling like my stomach was going to explode.

Luckily Kellerhaus is still there and has its ice cream fixings bar. It wasn't as big or had a many toppings as I remember(I guess it looked bigger when I was a kid) but is was still good. I got a more sensible two scoop cup and didn't overload on the toppings. The one cool thing they have in the fixing bar that I remember is the whipped cream. Not only is it rich and thick but it come out of a soda fountain like nozzle so there is an endless supply.

I'm not sure why it took me so long to get back to Lake Winnipesaukee. It was a beautiful as I remember and a good place to just relax.

Technology to Help You Ride

After doing the last three weekend rides mostly in Pennsylvania I decided to do a ride back in New Jersey this week. It was metric to the Pinelands from Bordentown and a nice flat change of pace. Jack H who I haven't seen in over a year joined us. When we last saw Jack we were at Peace Valley at last years lying bastard ride and his derailleur was stuck in the spokes of his back wheel.  I still don't know how that happened.

The reason we haven 't seen Jack is he had back surgery over the winter and so he was off the bike for a while. It looks like the surgery was successful because Jack seemed to be riding as good as ever. Dave, Joe and Chris also came along. Dave also had some back surgery. In fact he has had surgery this past Tuesday and was already back doing a metric. Although we all drool and desire the latest bike technology to help us improve our riding abilities it is really the advances in medicine that will keep us on our bikes as we age.

The Lying Bastard Ride

This is the story of the Lying Bastard ride. Since it turns out I'm the lying bastard what is included below may be slightly exaggerated or totally imagined but it may have more truth in it than most are willing to admit. I have kept the names the same to embarrass the usual participants.

Here are the cast of characters that I had to deal with on this ride


First there is Jaunty Jim. Who always has a song in his heart. Just don't encourage him to sing it.











Then there is Laura Queen of the Hills Slugs

( Visual (Muppet) Approximation)



Of course we can't forget Dave the cheeky Brit

Winter (no show) Larry

Yes as always Larry said he would come to the ride but bailed at the last minute.
I'm actually happy that Larry didn't make it because the last time he and Jim were together on a ride they broke out into a medley of show tunes that required hours of death metal to get out of my head





Blake, Mike, Joe,  and the rest of the insane bike posse were too ugly to include here.

The weather was perfect as it is on all rides I lead. Somehow I just know how to pick days a month ahead of time where there will be no chance of rain. 

I first did this ride as part of looking for new routes for my Philadelphia book a few years ago. This is one of those rides that doesn't look bad on paper but when you ride it you find some hidden short steep hills and more rollers than expected that make it feel hillier. When I decided to change the start location to Frenchtown I wanted to make sure I kept the character of the ride the same.  On the original ride we had a mile climb with a 10% grade to start then some rollers and then a very short (400 ft) but very steep (20%) grade that had most people falling or almost falling off their bikes. It was the hill where I earned my name.

So of course this ride started with a long tough uphill that was steeper than expected. It was also much longer than expected. And to try and make sure I could drop the lying part of my name I posted the route on line so everybody would know what they were in for. Of course that itself is a lie because I did change the real route to add a short loop to make it worst with out letting everyone know I added another small but very steep hill.

I added this extra loop for a few reasons.

First because I wanted to add a similar very short but steep hill to take the place of one people thought we were going to by pass as I promised the group a surprise (surprises are not always good).

Second I wanted to compare the accuracy of my Delorme mapping program to RidewithGPS. Delorme said the hill grade would be in the 15-19% range. RidewithGPS said 7-9% range. I has suspected that RidewithGPS always reported lower grades and elevation gains than reality so I'm sort of happy to report that Delorme was the most accurate and pretty close to reality. It means I can more of these hidden gems.

Third and most importantly this loop was totally unnecessary that confused Mr Garmin and added nothing to the ride but a painful hill. I through about doing the loop twice but did not want to send a certain few in the group into an uncontrollable OCD loop.

The result of all this was that by the time we got to the top of the Geigel Hill we already had well over 1000 feet of climbing and only 10 miles to show for it.

Laura being the drama queen she is just got off the bike and lay on the ground like she had fainted but none of us were buying it.

Dave (who was the one who dubbed me as the lying bastard)  made his usual inferred character defamatory comments all the way up the climb. For some reason they don't sound like insults coming from him. Maybe its the accent. 

The pay off for the climbing was that we now were at Lake Nockamixion and had a relatively flat ride as we headed pass the dam towards the Perkasie and our rest stop. We stopped at a deli in a shopping mall that has decent food.

Perkasie is a normal small town except for the fact that all the streets are named and laid out similar to central Philly. It also has a Manayunk like section that we had to ride through. The hills aren't as long but they are almost as steep.

From here we headed to the strange but nicest part of the ride. Its wooded with rolling hills, traffic free and even has a covered bridge. The strange part is we go through a area known as Rock Ridge (named for the town in Blazing Saddles) which has a couple of retirement homes some homeopathic spas and an out of place Greek temple.

Once we got around the lake we headed back towards Frenchtown on some roads we had not been on before. Although it was mostly downhill, with great views.  we did manage to find a couple short but steep sections which had people calling out a shorten version of my name (i.e You Bastard!!!) The payoff was the last downhill to back to the Delaware. As its name implies Red Cliff Rd is a screaming downhill that we will be doing again. Then it was a short stretch on 32 and we were back.

The purpose of doing this ride is to go some place we don't normally go and try a few new roads. As always the ride ended up being  harder than expected so I don't think I will loose my lying bastard title anytime soon and I'm OK with that. Although people complain and call me names they still come on a rides like this because it is always ends up being a stupid kind of fun. Sometimes the anticipation of a ride is much better than the actual ride itself but in this case the ride was a good as imagined. In fact it was so much fun we may do it again it Sept.

Lancaster Covered Bridge Metric

This pass Sunday I did the Lancaster Covered Bridges Metric which I haven't done in a while. I don't do many event type rides but the Covered Bridges Metric is a well organized ride in a nice area so it is worth doing on occasion. I went with Chris and made it a long day trip. We usually make a weekend trip out of it but I was too busy to do that.

The weather forecast called for a chance of showers but it looked like the rain might hold off  as we drove into the school where the ride started. Unfortunately the rain started a few miles in. It was never more than a little drizzle and it only rained on and off for about a third of the ride but it still meant we rode mostly on we roads. Still even with the less than perfect weather is was still a good ride and I'm sure I do it again. Hopefully in better weather.