Gettysburg

Most people know Gettysburg as the site the of famous battle that marked the turning point of the civil war. Gettysburg National Military Park is one of the more popular national parks and a great place to learn about the history of the battle and the civil war. However when I go to Gettysburg I go there mostly to ride as the battlefield and the surrounding area has some of the best roads to ride a bike on. 

The Philadelphia bike club runs a trip every year to this area towards the end of October and is one of the best organized bike weekends there is. That is why I have done this trip 4 times in the last 10 years and why I did it again this year. This year was different of course because everything is different now. This trip is usually a very social trip with a lot of gathering of bikers from different areas and even a few different clubs. I enjoy trading biking stories with other people and learning about rides they did. In fact the last time I was in Gettysburg I learned about the GAP trail and was so taken by the description of it that I ended up making a bike trip to ride it. 

I haven't done any bike trips since because of Covid but as me and the posse are vaccinated and with the case counts falling some of us decided to venture out again and the Gettysburg trip seemed like a good place to go. We decided to stay mostly to ourselves and forgo all the group activities. It still felt good to be around other bikers as there was no need to explain why we were dressed in spandex and walking bikes through the hotel lobby. 

We ended up doing 3 rides for the weekend. The first one was on Friday at noon right after we got there. We did this route called Northern Exposure which loops around to the town of New Oxford. Besides the climb in the beginning of the ride it is a mostly a easy rolling ride through some quiet farmland roads. The stop in New Oxford is first class and one of the better rest stops on any bike ride. In the center of town there is a circle that always has a coffee shop. This shop has changed owners and styles a few times over the years but they always have great treats and good coffee. The current incarnation is called Deja Brew and is the best incarnations so far. When I walked into the store I was greeted by a wall of different kinds of cookies, muffins and other baked goods including a chocolate mousse brownie which was tasted as good as it sounds. The person behind the counter was dressed as a witch with an excellent purple hat. It was so convincing a costumed that she shocked Jack when she came outside.

Friday night we hung out in my hotel room instead of hanging out in the conference room. Although everybody was suppose to be vaccinated and wearing masks it just didn't feel safe to me to be inside around that many people. I'm just not ready to be around crowds yet. 

Saturday's ride was to and around the battlefield. It was cloudy and in the high 50's at the start of the ride. The ride out to the battlefield was through the many horse farms in the area. The roads in this area are in good shape with very few pot holes and there is almost no traffic so it is really a pleasure to ride. 

By mile 20 we were on the top of Little Round Top surveying the battlefield. Even if you're not interested in the history of the battle it is a good place to get a view of the valley and surrounding area. There are a lot of monuments around the battlefield more than probably any other battlefield. If you take a little time to learn about the battle and aftermath you will realize the great lost of life that occurred here and the effect it had on the people of that time. A moment that was perfectly captured by Lincoln's Gettysburg address and used to call people to rededicate themselves to the principals that founded this country. It's a lesson that is still relevant today and one that we all should revisit. 

After admiring the view we headed towards the Sach's covered bridge. This is a few miles away from the main battlefield but somehow covered bridges and biking just go together. Unfortunately the cloudy skies let go with some light rain. I blame Laura for this because this trip has been running for over 20 years and it never rains. For some reason when we are together the probably of rain increases even if it was not in the forecast. 

We took refuge under the covered bridge (which was littered with candy corn for some reason) until the rain let up. We then headed through a few more miles of the battlefield and town before getting back to the quiet country roads that brought us back to the hotel. We were a little chilled because of the rain but it's never too cold for ice cream so I made a detour a mile from the hotel to stop at Brusters for some of the best ice cream in the area. 

After the ride it got dark and cloudy and rain a little more. The plan for Saturday afternoon/night was to head back to the battlefield for some pictures. I spend part of the pandemic writing my Best Easy Bike Rides Gettysburg book. Because of the pandemic I was not able to get all the pictures I really wanted. Even though the book is now out I still wanted to get a few pictures I had planned for the book. 

One of the planned pictures was a sunset from the top of Little Round Top. The sun actually came out about an hour before sunset so we headed to the battle field but unfortunately the clouds came back on the way over. 

Normally Saturday night would be a dinner at a local restaurant with the rest of the people on the trip but we all decided that it wasn't a good idea so we all got take out. We hung out in the pool area for a little while before heading back to our rooms. It ended up being an early night. I know some people don't like hanging out in a hotel room. This wasn't a problem with me as it was a hectic week at work with not enough sleep and I was beat. I also wanted to work on the route for Sunday's ride.

Sunday was a little brighter but colder. I planned a 22ish mile ride around Lake Marburg. This ride went through some of the hillier parts of this area to get to the lake. We made a detour into the actually lake to get a view of the entire lake and surrounding shore. The trees were starting to turn but it was still a week away from peak. After the visit to the lake we headed around the other side and followed some train tracks a good part of the way back. We ended up crossing them a bunch of times including crossing then three times in a half a mile in the town of Porters Sideling. 

Half the of this ride was new roads that I haven't done before. I did this to made the ride a little shorter and a little less vertical. It ended up being a good route and was a good way to end the weekend. After that it was a quick shower at the hotel before heading home.

This is the fifth time I have made a trip to this area and every time I leave I know I will be back again. There are just so many good roads out here to explore.  There is also many places for sweet and salty treats (Did I mention that there are 3 different pretzel factories here with outlet stores). There are always ways to improve the trip. The hotel where we stay is in the middle of a concrete jungle of strip malls. It is a good central location and you can start most rides directly from the hotel but it is not a very scenic spot to hang out after a ride. The end of October can be a good time to come if you want to see the fall foliage but I the next time I come back I would like it to be during warm weather so I don't have bring tights and gloves.  So next time I come I might try to rent a house just outside of Hanover and do that in the late spring or late summer. Either way I know I will be back out here again to enjoy the roads and other things this area has to offer.

Where I Was Today

I ended up doing a solo ride today. It was a nice sunny warm day and probably the last really warm day we are going to have this year. 

Houses are putting up their Halloween displays.

Some of them are pretty gruesome. This one had dead babies, a person being put into a mulcher and a number of other disturbing signs.

 

I went by a couple of lakes today. The leaves are starting to turn. The view should be even better in a week or two. 

This small lake in a development had about 15 hawks flying above it for some reason. I couldn't get a shot that showed all the hawks but they were hunting something. 

Close to home the bog is starting to show some fall colors. I'm sure I'll be back so some late fall pictures.

New Stuff

I have been on a buying spree over the last couple of weeks

 

My first purchase was a new set of weeks for my Synapse. 

Bikes and parts are still a little hard to get but I found a good wheel builder in California Bicycle Wheel Warehouse that made me a set of wheels that matched what I wanted. I like the fact that a person at the company actually emailed me to ask me exactly what type of riding I did and what type of bike I had. We exchanged three or four detailed emails about the different wheel options he thought would work for me. 

I originally wanted a set of Mavic Open Pro wheels but those rims and parts are almost impossible to find. Based on the emails he convinced me that the Blackset Race rims were as good if not slightly better than the Mavic. The have a more aero profile at about the same weight. I went for the 32 spoke wheels for extra durability. They look good but I haven't really ridden many miles on them yet so I will post an update once I have a few hundred miles on them. Hopefully they will be as good as the wheels on my Feather which have at least 25 thousands miles on them without any problems.

I did have to do some maintenance on my Feather as it was skipping gears but that was easily fixed with a new chain and cassette. 

Since I moved I had to find a new bike shop for any repairs I can't handle. Luckily there are two good shops close by one a family owned place and another one that more of a pro shop with higher end bikes and service that bike races would go to. Both seem to do good work. After I got the new chain and cassette at the family owned place I had a problem with my front derailleur of my Synapse so I took it to the pro shop where they cleaned out the gunk in the derailleur and even realigned the rear derailleur. So now both my bikes should be in good shape for the foreseeable future. 

My last purchase was a new pump. I like the Topeka Road Morph that I have but it only lasts a few years and the last one I got was hard to get seated correctly on the presta valves. I did some research and decided to try the Acacia Mini bike pump. The advantage of this pump is that it screws onto the presta valve and has a much better gauge. It's also a nice looking pump AND it fits into the Topeka mounting bracket.

I have been doing a little more riding in the past few weeks as I have been taking a day here and there off from work. This is the best time of the year to ride so I want to take advantage of the good weather and continue finding new routes from my new house. I have been mostly heading east and north. I now have a good 40-50 mile route that goes around Freehold and the outlying parks and ponds. The picture at the top of the post is one of the more scenic spots along the way. I also had a nice ride down to Manasquan to check out the inlet. 

Lastly this past weekend I did a ride to SandyHook from Monmouth Battlefield Park. We had almost perfect weather so instead of just going to the first parking lot and heading home we went halfway up the hook. This meant the ride ended up being almost 70 miles but it was a good day to go for some extra miles. 

Lying Bastard 2021

 

There wasn't much drama with this years lying bastard ride. I did not add my usually surprise 15% grade or any other major twist in this years ride. I figured people won't want to deal with any other issues this year. I have tweaked the route over the years to try and make it a little easier and remove any problem road crossings. We no longer go through Perkasie because that means a tough climb to get to Lake Noximixon and had to cross a Rt 313 which always had lots of traffic on it. Here is the route we did which hasn't changed much since last year.

My only concern this year was the condition of the roads. I wasn't sure if any of the roads I was using had gotten destroy as part of the storm that flooded the area a week ago. Some reports on Facebook seem to indicate that we would be okay and we were. There was a little extra sand and debris on Headquarters Rd and the closed bridge at the top of Headquarters Rd was a little harder to cross but we didn't have to make any detours in the route. 

It was a beautiful day for a ride and so we got some good views of the surrounding area after we got to the top of the hill. This route doesn't have any more climbing than a normal Sourlands ride but they are spaced out differently. Instead of some long climbs followed by some flat or downhills this ride is a series of rollers with a lot of annoying little climbs. The route also slowing goes uphill as you go up and down these rollers so there are no breaks or real flat parts where you can rest. 

There is some nice scenery along the way. Because the rest stop is at mile 34 I take a quick break at a boat launch on the south side of the lake where you can get a view of one of the coves in the lake. 

I did get a good turnout for the ride this year. Most of my regulars where there as well as a new guy, Jeff. I always wonder what a person unfamiliar with the Insane Bike Posse is going to think about the group especially since he thought that going on a bike ride called the "Lying Bastard" was a good idea. He fit in well with the group and it is always good to see new people on our rides but we don't have a good record of them coming back. We did have one other bridge out situation to deal with on and we sent the new guy over first because just like Star Trek you always send to the new guy(Ensign Expendable)  on any risky situation because you don't want to harm any of the main characters. 

We did our usual rest stop at the Turkey Hill gas station and convenience store then headed the last 10 miles back to the start. Although we didn't have much traffic for most of the route the first few miles after the rest stop had a lot of traffic so I will see if I can find a different route back next year. 

I was a little concerned about the last down hill (Red Cliff Rd) because it was a steep hill and could be covered with debris but it turned out not to be that bad. Despite the reputation of this ride it is actually always an interesting ride that I enjoy doing so it will be back again next year maybe with a little surprise.

The Power of Water

This week we were reminded about how powerful and destructive water can be. A little rain is good for the soil and cleans the air. A lot of rain can cause flooding and some property damage. Then there is what we had last week which was a biblical rain storm with a small tornado thrown in. Some parts of NJ got 6 to 7 inches of rain over a few hours. Almost every river in NJ was over the flood stage especially in the west side of the state which got the hit with the worst of the storm. 

I was lucky because where I moved to only got about an inch of rain and some wind so there was no flooding or trees down in my area. This past Saturday I did Laura's ride out of Pennington. She didn't send out the route ahead of time because she wasn't sure which roads would be open. We made our way through Pennington and up Stony Brook. There were signs of how bad the flooding was as we passed over any bridge or by any stream. There were trees and debris on the side of all the bridges and along the streams. The roads were mostly okay except for the occasional tree debris, sand or gravel on the road. There was one bridge at the top of Stony Brook where part of the asphalt had been washed away but is was still passable by bike, although we had to walk part of it. 

The worst damage we saw was by the covered bridge outside of Sergeantsville. We tried to go down Covered Bridge Rd to get to Lower Creek Rd but had to stop towards the bottom because we were told by a home owner who's house had been flooded and damage that it wasn't passable. 

After stopping at the bagel place in Sergeantsville we headed down to the covered bridge from Sergeantsville and saw some of the damage. The covered bridge was closed and was actually damaged. Lower Creek Rd was closed because most of it no longer exists. Lower Creek Rd is now just Lower Creek. Laura got some good pictures of the damage on her blog. 

We were able to complete the ride without having to make any more detours although there were more signs of the flooding. This time I finished the ride with the group so the repaired spoke and wheel held. I credit this to the power of the Holy Kickstand as I have been performing a blessing before each ride to try and ward off mechanical problems and injuries. I'm working on getting a new set of wheels for the Synapse as the Holy Kickstand can not fix poor maintenance or worn out parts. 

On Monday instead of heading to the All-Paces I did a solo ride from my new place. I'm still exploring the area and tried out some new roads trying to find the best and most traffic free way to get to different places. 

Today I wanted to do a loop to the Manasquan Reservoir. It had rained Sunday night into Monday morning so the roads were wet but by the time I got to the reservoir the clouds were starting to clear. 

After the reservoir I headed back home on the roads we usually use on our way back from Belmar. A couple of the turns felt wrong because I made a left where I usually make a right. I know I moved to a new house but I don't think my bike is use to that yet. 

One of the reason I stayed close to home was because our community had and Labor Day party. There wasn't really much to it. Just a two piece band playing some 80s music and a couple of food trucks by the pool. The band wasn't half bad and the food was decent so it was a good way to unwind from the ride.  

I am enjoying the facilities in the community. My wife and I usually hang out in the pool a few times a week especially after my after work ride. The pool is usually not that crowded and we have been there a few times where we were the only ones in the pool. It's mostly used during the day so when we go at 5-6pm there are only a few people left. So although water can be destructive it can also be relaxing after a long ride.

Sometimes Things Break

 

I try to keep my bike in good shape so that I don't run in to any mechanical problems while on the road. I usual have only 1 or 2 flats a year and have only once in 30 years not been able to get the bike back to the starting point. But every once in a while things are going to break. 

Today I did Laura's ride out of Pennington. When I pumped up my front tire before the ride the pin inside the value shot out when I took the pump off. I threw some tubes in the car and change the tube before the ride.

 Laura planned a 50 mile 2600ft ride. I felt pretty good as we were doing some climbing. There were 10 of us on the ride including most of the regulars. I was looking forward to a good social ride and catching up with everybody. 

At the top of Mt Airy Rd something didn't feel right with the back wheel and it was rubbing the brakes. I thought the wheel fell out of the drops but a quick looks showed that I broke a spoke. In fact the spoke was not even attached to the wheel and some where on the road. 

The wheel was not only rubbing the brakes but also the frame. As Bob will tell you a wheel rubbing a frame can do some real damage to a carbon bike. Jim was able to true the wheel up enough to keep the wheel from rubbing the frame and so with the brake open at back I decided to head toward Wheelfine to try and get it fixed. The rest of the group continued with the ride. 

It was about 4 miles to Wheelfine and although I felt the back wheel wobbling under me I made it without a problem. Michael was there and there is no body better to fix a broken wheel. He is also an interesting person to hang out with and so we had a good conversation as he fixed the wheel. He ended up putting in a new silver spoke which contracts with the other black spokes but I don't care how it looks. The wheel is probably better now than before and I had no problem making my way back to Pennington. 

It wasn't the ride I was expecting to do and I ended up doing half of it on my own but some times now matter how well you keep up your bike stuff is going to break so you just have to find a way to fix it and make your way home.

The wheels on my Synapse were not the best wheels to begin with so I will probably be looking for new set of wheels as when one spoke break other could follow soon after.

Exploring Some New Roads

 

After 30 years of riding I have ridden almost every rideable roads in New Jersey (and quite a few that were unrideable). However New Jersey has a lot of nooks and crannies so its always possible to find a few roads that I haven't ridden yet. 

The area where I moved to is close to a lot of roads I use on my Rova Farms Ride so I am familiar with most of the roads by my new house. Since I try to ride once or twice a week after work I will be doing more short rides in this area. To make sure I can have some variety on my nightly rides I decided to try all the roads in the area so that I can always quickly put together a ride of any length and difficulty. I try and use my after work rides for training to keep or get in shape for my weekend rides. I usually do between 15-25 miles and try to find some small hills to get my heart rate up. 

From my old house I had a really good variety of roads and could do anything from quick flat ride to a hill ride with almost 1000 ft of climbing in 25 miles. There are less hills where I live now so it will be a challenge to find more than 500 ft of climbing. 

From the new house it takes almost 2 miles to get out of my community and I have only a couple of ways out so the first and last couple of miles are going to be mostly the same for any ride from my house. However once I'm out I don't have to cross any main roads like route 130 as I had to do from the old place. There are a good number of quiet flat roads around the new place and I'm enjoying exploring some new back roads and finding my way around the local neighborhoods. Most of the back roads are low traffic and the busier roads usually have a wide shoulder. I just need to do some more exploring to find some hills to climb.

Now that it has been a few weeks since we moved in we are now more settled. We still have a lot of unpacking and organizing to do but the office, living room, bedroom and kitchen are set up so enough to live comfortably so we can now unpack the rest at our leisure.

Now that I'm past the hectic part of moving I can get back to my normal weekend rides. A couple of weeks ago I did a ride out of Yardley so I could get back to doing some hills. We did this route which was close to 3000' of climbing. I also tried a new way up the hill from Yardley to Tyler State park where we climbed the toughest hill in the park which felt just as hard on a road bike as it was in the winter in with my heavier mountain bike. 

It was good to get back into the hills but this past week I kept it flat as it was a hotter weekend.  After a few weeks of no dirt roads or bridge outs we actually had two on the ride in the Pinelands but both were easy to get through. 

It felt good to get back to some regular rides and get some routine back in my life after the move. The new house doesn't feel like home yet but some of us are getting use to the new digs.