Bike Heaven

If there is a place that bikers go when they die it would be a place filled with quiet rural roads and endless ride possibilities. Everybody there would be a avid bike rider so you could always have people to join you on rides and swap stories with. Every day there would be 10 to 15 different rides to choose from that would take you pass beautiful lakes and rolling farmland with a stop for some chocolate scones or some other sinful treat. When you got back from a ride there would be a room full of treats as well as a massage therapist to help heal you tired muscles. Basically bike heaven would be a lot like a BCP trip to Gettysburg.

This past weekend was the annual BCP trip to Gettysburg. It is the one of the best bike trips you can take. This year 186 of us converged in the town of Hanover PA and took over two hotels. It is really cool to walk into a hotel and see bikes leaning against the wall the every one there walking around in spandex. You immediately feel like you entered a different reality where biking is the only things that matters.

This year Ron joined Al, Cheryl and I on the trip for three good days of riding. We drove out early Friday morning and were at the hotel just after noon and out for a 30 mile ride through the country with a stop for some coffee and scones. Saturday we headed out for a 40 mile ride to Maryland. We found some good roads down there last year so we wanted to explore some more. Right after we crossed in to Maryland we ran into a farmer who had just started herding his cows across the road from the barn into the field. When the cows saw us they stopped to check us out.

They were big and smelly but after staring us down for a few minutes they moved on to their field and let us pass. Once we got going again. rolled along to the town of Union Bridge and back. It was cold (around 50) at the start of the ride but warmed up  after about a hour. We had a few peaks of sun but it was mostly overcast. The weather didn't really matter as we rolled along through the farm lands for a nice 40 mile ride.

After the ride we took a quick shower and headed out to Gettysburg for some sight seeing. Ron had never visited the battlefield and I wanted to go back to see it again. The battlefield was crowded since the park had been closed for the past two weeks because of the shutdown.

Saturday night was dinner at a local restaurant and more socializing. Even though I don't know many people in BCP it is always fun exchanging stories with other bikers.

Sunday was colder (45) so it was time for the tights and toe warmers but it was a bright sunny day so it wasn't bad once we got going. The plan for Sunday was a hilly ride to an orchard. We breezed through a lake and headed to the orchard with a wind at our back. Although there were a few real climbs there was nothing I couldn't handle with the Feather.

We got to the orchard around 10 am but it turned out that it opened at 11 am on Sunday. We ended stopping at a "Rudders" which is a Wawa clone. The ride back was hillier than the ride out. There were no real tough hills just a lot of ups and downs so we were a little beat at by the end. A quick shower and snack at the hotel and the trip was over. It was another great bike weekend and like last year I wanted to stay longer. If you want a piece of bike heaven you should check out one of the BCP bike trips. 

Why We Ride

If you ask a biker why they ride they may say things like, I ride to exercise and stay healthy or I ride to challenge myself or some may even say they ride for find inner peace. I recently caught up with Michael and got a copy of his book. In it he describes some of the reasons why we ride including exploring new places, finding scenic views, and the joy of riding with a group of friends. These are all good reasons to ride and they are all true but they are also mostly zen bullshit.

Ask any biker to talk about their last few rides, like my ride to Delicious Orchards or Milford. Almost all of them will not only tell you about the roads they were on but will spend a lot of time talking about the places they stopped for food. Whether it was that cup of coffee or that great muffin they will describe it like it was their best friend.

Today as I was fighting a nasty headwind by myself on the way home. The thing that kept me going wasn't thinking about the scenic views of the turning leaves or the struggle of man versus nature or how pushing into the headwind was going to help me be stronger. I was thinking about that perfect cream fill doughnut that awaited me at home. I was thinking how good it would taste and how good it would feel to be off the bike eating it.

 So why to do we ride. We ride so we don't feel guilty about eating. End of story.

Opportunistic Exploring

At the end of the McBride ride Laura mentioned the possibility of riding to Cocoluxe for her ride this week. When it came time to plan her ride she chose to stay closer to home and do a double shot coffee ride. I don't drink coffee and I had to be up in Long Valley Saturday afternoon so since Cocoluxe had been calling me since Laura mentioned it I decided to do a ride on my own out of Peapack to do some exploring.

The last time I was in Peapack was when I did the El Capitan ride. Laura did a ride earlier in the year that I missed so this seemed like a good time to explore some new roads. I ended up doing this route which is a combination of some of my Schooley's Mountain Ride with a little be of El Capitan. The main point of the ride was eat some chocolate goodness from Cocoluxe and to go down Fox Chase hill again which was a cool hill I discovered as part of the El Capitan ride.

The weather was a little cold and foggy but since the ride started with a climb up Potterville Rd I warned up pretty quick. In 10 miles I was Rockaway Rd working my way up the hill. I ran in to a Morris County Freewheeler group that I rode with for 5 miles before splitting off to head into Hacklebarny.

One of the new roads I explored was Pleasant Hill Rd. Although there were a couple short steep spots it wasn't a bad rode and had a couple of cool downhills as well as some nice views of a small river and surrounding marshland.

The ride did not have a lot of flat spots so there was a lot of ups and downs, mostly ups but the last part of the ride has some cool down hills down South Rd and Old Mill Rd. The last down hill as Fox Chase Rd but when I got there was a sign that said the road was closed. As most people know I usually don't pay attention to those signs since there is usually a way to get around most road construction when on a bike.

In this case the road was closed past where I turned off so it wasn't a problem and I was able to enjoy the downhill into Peapack and a nice stop at Cocoluxe to satisfy my chocolate fix.

Odds and Ends

I haven't posted in a while because I been busy. After my bike vacation I went on my usually family vacation to Cape Cod. I usually bring my bike up on vacation and do a few rides. Cape Cod has a really nice rail trail and if you combine that with some of the back roads you can find some good rides past lighthouses and scenic beaches. This year I left the bike home and did a little hiking instead. We stay by the town of Wellfleet which is one of the natural harbors there and they have a cool hike on one of the peninsulas at the edge of the harbor. It's about 5 miles, mostly in sand, around the marshlands and beaches. It was a very scenic walk with a lot of cool dunes along the beach. You can see my pictures HERE from the walk as well as a whale watch and aquarium we visited. Although I have been to Cape Cod 10 or 15 times I always find something new so it is always a good vacation.

The project that has kept me busy after I got back my vacation is our bedroom remodel. I wanted to just paint the ceiling because of a leak we had 6 months ago and it is one of those projects that sort of snowballed into a full bedroom replacement. The rug was15 years old and wasn't that good to begin with so we decided to replace that while we were painting. Our bed has also seen better days so we might as well replace that. And while we're at it the furniture in the room is over 30 years old and would look like crap next to a new bed and rug so what's a few more dollars while we at it. So between moving the old bed upstairs as well as some of the furniture then doing the painting and generally cleaning up the room before all the new stuff arrived it has been a bit of work but it should look really nice when its done.

Between vacation and the remodel I have managed to get a few rides in. Before the Cape Cod vacation I did my annual Lake Nockimixon ride. It was a good ride except for the fact that the ranger in Peace Valley woke up a little lake and didn't open any of the parking area's so we had to park in a near by school. There was also Jacks derailleur which somehow ended up being bent into the spokes of his back wheel in the first mile so he couldn't come with us. The main thing that made me happy about the ride this year was I made up the short but steep 20% grade this year with out having to stop because my front wheel was coming off the ground.

I also did the Ride for McBride again this year after the vacation. It was much nicer this year since it didn't rain. I did the 50 mile loop with Laura and crew and you can read about the details on her blog. 

I didn't put any rides in the book for Sept or Oct but will probably being doing some ad hoc rides. Not sure where I'll be going but there is still time to get some interesting rides in before the winter cold sets in.
 

Weekend Around the Hudson

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This years trip had two destinations, the Berkshires and the Hudson Valley. After spending a couple of days in the Berkshires we headed to Kingston to do some riding around Rhinebeck. On Saturday we took a ride to Olana which was the home of Frederic Church one of the major figures in the Hudson River School of painting.

We started the ride from a recreations center in Red Hook and slowly worked our way through some back roads towards Olana. The terrain was a little gentler than in the Berkshires but was still mostly rolling hills. It was another perfect weather day and we have some nice clear views of the hills around the Hudson Valley. Except for Rt 9G the roads were mostly traffic free and in decent shape.

The only real climb of the day was up to Olana which is on a hill overlooking the Hudson. Cheryl had warned us about this hill since she had done this ride before. At first it didn't seem that bad but it got steeper the closer we got to the top. I actually switched down to the triple about 100 ft from the end.

The climb was worth it because we got some good views of the Hudson as well as the Moravian style house built by Frederic Church.  After we took a look around we when back out on the road and made our way back through some more back country roads. We passed by a lot of farms mostly growing apples and peaches.

By the time we got back to the start we had done 44 miles and were back before 1pm. After a quick shower back at the hotel we decided to head to Hyde Park the home of FDR. The ride to Hyde Park should have taken a half hour but Rt 9G was backed up because of the Dutches County Fair. This was probably also the reason that it was hard to find a hotel room in one of the nicer hotels.

Even with the traffic we were able to get to Hyde Park before the last tour at 4pm. We had a slightly wacky tour guide who was both funny and informative. After the tour we spent another hour in the FDR library and museum which was really well done. We could of easily spent more time but we were getting hungry so we headed off to a dinner at a diner. Then is was another ride through the  Dutches County Fair.traffic to get back to our hotel.

Sunday was the last day of the trip and we managed to squeeze in another ride. Before the trip I was concerned about riding 4 days in a row but it wasn't a problem. I wasn't sore from riding for the past three days and actually felt pretty strong.

Sundays ride started from the town of New Paltz which was on our way home. The main destination for this ride was the Walkway over the Hudson which is an old railroad bridge by Poughkeepsie that was turned into a walkway. Since it was yet another picture perfect day weather wise it would be a good day to go see the view.

This ride, by design, would be the easiest ride of the trip was only 36 miles and had only 1700 ft of climbing. It wasn't a flat ride by any means but rolling hills were gentle and reminded me a little of Lancaster. The ride started with nice flat ride along the Walljill river. It was in the low 60s at the start of the ride and I almost put on my arm warmers but after a few miles I decided I didn't need them.

After just over 5 miles we rode by a nice covered bridge before having our only real climb of the day up Dashville Rd. It wasn't real long but it was steep. From there we hit some really nice wooded roads and actually meet a local biker who was on her first ride after a bad fall. Its always nice sharing stories with other bikers. We road with her a few miles before she broke off and we headed for the walkway.

To get to the walkway we had a out and back loop from Rt 299 which conveniently had a Hess station with a good store in it. Halfway to the walkway were were able to jump on the Hudson Rail Trail which was a nice paved path. The actual Walkway over the Hudson was pretty impressive and really well done. It was a little crowded so we had to zig zag around people, kids and dogs but it was a really cool view.

We rode to the other side of the Hudson and back and meet some more bikers from New York who had took the train to Poughkeepsie. I took a few more pictures then we headed back towards New Paltz. We had some nice long downhills approaching the town through some more apple and peach farms before a ride along the Wallkill river. Before we knew it we were back in town and at the cars. We had planned to have a nice lunch in New Paltz but we weren't really that hungry and wanted to get home so we just got in the car and got out of there.

We hit a little traffic on the ride home but it wasn't that bad and we were home a little after 3pm. All in all the trip worked out as good or better as planned. All the rides we did were good, we had no mechanical problems, we saw a lot of cool things on and off the bike and we had great weather. If I did it again I would try to get a better hotel in Kingston and not go during the Dutches County Fair but otherwise it was a great trip.

Day 2 The Berkshires

Day 2 of the bike vacation found us still feeling good from the previous run up Greylock. Today we headed down to the town of Great Barrington for a ride around the Berkshires. I had gotten most of the roads for this ride from the Road Biking Massachusetts book. My original plan was for a 50 mile ride but I shortened it to 44 miles and took out a few hills to make it a little easier. I was a little stiff from the Greylock ride but after about 10 miles was feeling good. This ride was mostly rolling hills with only a couple of steep spots. The ride is a south/north loop between two mountain ranges. The weather was perfect. It was in the mid 70s, light winds and scenic views in all directions. After climbing Cooper Hill, which was the toughest hill of the day, We had some really views of the surrounding landscape. We then had a 5 mile loop that brought us into Connecticut and pass Ashley Falls (we didn't actually see the falls since they require a hike to see them).

 From Ashley falls we headed north pass Mt Everett, one of the tallest mountains in the area, before finding a deli in South Ergemount for a break. We continued on pass some nice farmland and some rolling hills.We hit a couple of unexpected dirt roads along the way. The Road Biking Massachusetts didn't mention anything about the dirt roads but neither of them was a problem since they where very hard packed dirt that lasted less than a mile before turning back to asphalt.

The last part of the ride was the hilliest part as we went around a mountain's called Tom's Peak. The climbs were in the 3% range so not too bad and we past by some interesting houses that were definitely own by artists as there were some interesting sculptures in the front yards.

We had some nice down hills as we headed back down into Great Barrington and back to the cars. After the ride we headed to West Stockbridge for lunch on our way to Kingston. There wasn't much to the town but we manage to find a new cafe that had some amazing salads and sandwiches. It was a nice find.

Two hours later we were in Kingston at the Roadway Inn. This was your normal sub standard hotel but was good enough for a couple of nights. After checking in and getting settled we headed into Kingston for dinner. The outskirts of town reminded me a little of Paterson NJ so I was concerned that we won't find a place we would want to stop to eat but once we got to the water front it was much nicer. We ate at a Italian restaurant that had really good food then stopped at a Stewards for ice cream before heading back to the room.

So today we had a good ride, two really good means and ice cream. All in all a good day. 

Mt Greylock.

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Mount Greylock is the highest point in Massachusetts (3491 ft) and a popular place to get a view of the Berkshires. The state park that contains Greylock has a lot of great hiking trails as well as a road to get you to the top where you can see the landscape of the surrounding three states on a clear day. Most normal people take a car to the the top to see the view but if you are a biker that likes to climb, Greylock is usually on your list of mountains you want to conquer.

This year my annual bike trip took us up to the Berkshires with the goal of climbing Greylock. I had been thinking of climbing Greylock for years and had looked at the profile of the climb. Basically you start at 1600 ft and 8 miles later you are at 3491 ft so you have to climb just under 2000 ft. If you look at the route we took you can see the profile of the ride. The climb comes in two parts. There is the profile of the first 3 miles where you ride up past the visitors center. This part starts out steep in the 10-12% range then levels off to around 5-6% before flatting out for a couple of miles. The last part to the profile to the summit looks like more or less a constant 6% climb.

I spend a lot of time planning rides and looking at elevation profiles to decide how hard a ride will be. I knew that ride up Greylock was doable. What I didn't know how hard it would really be since I don't do long climbs on a regular basis. Each ride and climb has its own character that can't be measure by elevation gain or grade. In order to understand a climb you have to experience it. I know this sounds a little zen but as those of us that ride know there are hills of the same grade that feel totally different. That is why we climb, not to prove that we can are strong enough to do a tough climb but to gain an experience and understanding of what if feels like to conquer a hill. The truth is that climbing Greylock was a very enjoyable experience that wasn't as hard as it looked.

The climb up Greylock started from our 2 bedroom condo in Jiminy Peak where Cheryl, Ron and I started. As we turned out of our condo complex onto the rode we had an unexpected climb for about a mile before heading down into the valley. Along the way we picked up an former Princeton Free Wheeler DaveF who drove over from Saratoga where he lives now.

We didn't have much of a warm up before we entered state park and started the climb up Greylock. As the profile suggested the first mile and a half was a little steep and although I spent most of the climb in my triple I didn't really have to strain that much to make it up to the visitor's center which is 2 miles into the climb. I know Cheryl and Ron where concerned with the length and steepness of the climb but ground up the hill with out much complaint.

Eventually we all made it up the visitor's center where DaveF was parked. He has been a little under the weather so he decided to end his ride here and just sag in his car the rest of the way. After a quick break we continued up the hill which varied between 3-6% for the next couple of miles. After this we had a down hill followed by some flatter sections.

Then we hit the last 3 miles to the summit. This was a more or less constant 6% grade which was a grind but we all settled into a comfortable pace and worked our way up. Alone the way we stop a couple of times to enjoy the view since it was a clear day.

Dave rode ahead in his car and took pictures of us on the way up. I don't have any of the pictures that he took but will post them when I get them.

The last half mile to the summit was a left hand corkscrew that gave us full view of the surrounding areas. Like all high scenic views there is no way to capture the detail and vast landscape on the type of camera that I was dragging up the hill. Trust me through it was a spectacular view.

At the summit we took the required picture by the sign showing we all made it up to the top then spent a few minutes walking around the admiring the view before heading down hill. Before the ride I was actually more concerned with the downhill then the climb because it is steeper and from what I had read the road really wasn't in good shape.

Luckily for us that had recently repaved the road so it was a smooth downhill ride for the most part. The only problem was the BEAR! we saw just below the summit. The bear was in the shadows on the side if the road so it looked like a large garbage bag until we got closer. It was a small brown bear that quickly disappeared into the woods as it saw us so I could not get off a picture.

The north side of the mountain that we descended is a little steeper than the way we came up with some hairpin turns of 17%. Our hands did get a little tired of squeezing the brakes on the 7 mile decent so we stopped once a few miles from the bottom to rest our hands and let our rims cool off.

Once we left the park the road turn to crap with a lot of pot holes but the grade wasn't as steep so it was bearable. We got a great view of the top of Greylock as we passed by a lake. When I saw the view I couldn't believe that we had actually made it up there.

We stopped in Willamstown for our break in a nice coffee shop. We ended up being there a while as we wanted to catch up with DaveF.

The hardest part of the whole ride was the last 10 miles back to the condo. It was mostly up hill but that wasn't the problem since it was a very shallow grade. What made it hard was at that point I realized that my legs were a little shot from all the climbing. It was also in the mid 80s and sunny so it felt hot.

All it really meant is that we were a little slow getting back to the condo. The weather was still nice so after a brief rest we headed out to the unheated pool, then the heated pool and finally the hot tub to sooth our tired legs.

By the time we got back from dinner I was feeling no worst than I do after a normal hilly ride. In fact I think I actually felt better than normal since I now can say I've been up Greylock and it wasn't that bad.