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.

Cheryl's Last Ride

This pass Saturday Blake led a ride out of the park and ride in Yardley. It was a 50 mile ride through the hills of Pennsylvania. We had the usually crew Jim, Laura, Blake, myself and Cheryl. The weather was perfect for the ride and the only really tough hill was Eagle Rd (Jericho Mt) which luckily we did towards the beginning of the ride. The main purpose of the ride was to stop at the store in Carversville. It's got good food, a nice place to sit and is a popular place for bikers to take a break. We actually meet some people from the Philadelphia bike club who were riding in the area.

Although I have done a number of rides with Blake in this area he did hit a few roads I haven't been on before. We did this route which I will probably steal some roads from the next time I ride in this area. At the end of the ride we all said our good byes to Cheryl who is moving to Florida. Although she may be back occasionally we are really going to miss her since she has been part of our insane bike posse for many years.

Down the Upside

 
 I have been exploring the area around Califon for over 5 years and have some really good routes that I use to lead rides a few times a year. There are so many good roads and ways to put a route together that you can ride here a 100 times an still not know it all. For this Saturdays ride around Califon I wanted to change things up a little and come up with route that felt a lot different than my normal ride. What I decided to so was to do a lot of the regular roads backward. Basically go up our normal downhills and down our normal uphills.

We ended up doing this route. When I first planned out the route it looked wrong and harder than the normal route yet as I looked at it there was no individual climb harder than are normal climbs. For example instead of climbing 440 feet up Valley Brook we climbed 450 feet up Black River Road. I did add a couple of new downhills and uphills but statistically the route did not look harder than normal. Of course actual physical effort may not match ride statistics. We have all be on 4000 ft vertical rides that were easy an other 4000 ft vertical rides that felt more like 6000 ft.

We started out from RVCC and I had a most of my normal riders. Laura, Jim. Blake, Barry, Cheryl and surprise guest Larry. We worked our way through Tewsbury and up Black River Road. I was concerned with Black River not only because I knew it would a long climb with a couple of steep spots but because last year when I came down this hill the road surface was really beat up to the point it was total gravel in some areas.

Luckily they had fixed or repaved most of the broken up areas the only problem was the actual climb. We have been down this road a number of times a when the road is in good shape it is a great down hill. It fact when you go down it and get to the bottom you say I'm glad we didn't have to climb that one. Well to be honest now that we were actually stupid enough to climb the hill I can say it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was long and steep in a couple of spots and about halfway up I switched into the bottom ring of my triple but I was never concerned about running out of gears to get up the hill.

Once we got to the top of Long Valley I did a loop around some of the local roads before our rest stop. We found one cool totally unexpected downhill (Coleman Rd) which was smooth, straight and traffic free. This one will be on my list of must do roads the next time we are in this area.

Our rest stop was in a combination deli/liquor/coffee shop that has a everything and more a biker needs for a good rest stop.

After the rest stop was an immediate 240 ft climb to get back to the ridge. This was another hill we had been down a few times and I wasn't looking forward to going up but again it wasn't too bad. From here we headed down into Califon and down Valley Brook a 440 ft drop that we normally climb. That felt really good. I then made a hilly detour around the north side of Califon before going through town.

Then a flat ride along the Raritan before going up Hoffman Corner. Hoffman Corner is a steep downhill with a good view. I wasn't really looking forward to going up it. It was steep but the first part was doable. I think what most of us forgot was that there were two steep downhills on Hoffman Corner and most of us forgot about the first one which is almost as steep.

We took a break at the top of the hill since some of us were feeling the strain of all the climbs. Unfortunately we still had some more uphill to go. It wasn't real steep but since this was towards the end of the ride when even the smaller hills felt hard.

Once we got to Suttons Rd however we had almost continuous downhills for 6 miles. We started on Sutton then down Guinea Hollow and lastly down Rockaway. Although I don't think I want to go up Hoffman Corner again I am going to find a way to do the Suttons, Guinea Hollow, Rockaway downhill together again because it was a blast.

The last 6 miles of the ride was mostly flat until the last climb back up to RVCC which always sucks. Doing the normal roads backward turned out to be a decent route. I don't think I would do this exact route again but I now have a different perspective on some of our regular roads and how some of the combination work together so I have some more choices when planning rides around Califon.

Happy 4th of July

This past weekend was the July 4 holiday. As usually it was filled with a couple of rides and a family barbecue. This year was a little unusual as the holiday was on Friday instead of Monday. The plan was to ride Friday the 4th, go to the family barbecue on the 5th and ride again on the 6th. My plans changed when a passing hurricane came through on Friday. The hurricane when further out to sea than expected and we didn't get much rain but there was the imminent threat for most of the day.

I still wanted to get 2 rides. So on Saturday I decided to ride up to the family barbecue in Long Valley from my house. It would 58 miles and only hilly in the last 14 miles. I figured if I took my time I could do the ride and still feel good enough to lead a hilly ride on Sunday. The ride to Long Valley was nice except for the constant head wind which I had for the entire ride. It wasn't a very strong head wind but it was something I felt through the entire ride and definitely slowed me down.

After I crossed Rt 22 I started getting into some real hills. I was riding my Feather because most of the ride was flat and there were no real steep hills that I couldn't power my way over in the Feather. The weather had heated up since it was mid afternoon but as I approached the hills I felt the cool air rolling off the hills. I climbed up Rockaway the Guinea Hollow and I think the temperature actually dropped a few degrees.

Having the hills at the end of the ride was tough. I usually don't have a problem keeping hydrated but the wind and the length of the ride were getting to me. At the intersection of Frogtown and Valley Brook there as a short steep hill I had to stand up on. After standing for one pedal stroke both legs cramped up. I had to click out quickly to avoid falling. Both legs were cramped and I couldn't real bend them for a few minutes. Luckily I was only 5 miles from the finish but there were still a few hills a head. I managed to make it but I came close to cramping again at each little hill.

I spent the family barbecue trying to re hydrate so I could survive my Sunday ride.


On Sunday morning I felt sore but good enough to do the ride. I had 7 people on the ride besides me. It was the usually group with a couple of new people. This route was a route that Blake came up with a few years ago while I was breaking in my Synapse. Its also the ride I fell on with the Synapse on its 3rd ride. It is a good route so I wanted to do it again. This time with out the fall! (You can read about the ride and fall here)

This rides goes up the to the ridge on the NJ side and then down through Milford before crossing the Delaware and climbing some hills on the PA side. Its a really pretty ride if you don't mind the hills. I tweak the route this time to include Hickory Corner Rd. This is a great downhill the only problem is that you have to get to it which involves a long semi steep climb. It was worth it but I was glad I had the Synapse and the granny gear.

We had a nice stop in Black Eddy before going up Bridgeton Hill which is a 12-15% grade and a tough way to start after a stop. We had some more ups and downs before heading up the long shallow climb that is Dark Hollow on our way to Stover Park and the site of my previous fall.

Laura stopped to take a picture right before we took the road into the park. I thought she was close behind but when I took the road into the park (which has a "No Outlet" sign on it because only walkers and bikers can get through on the road) she and Jim went other way down a dirt road. I was concentrating on not falling and didn't notice them missing until we got to the other side of the park. I waited but they didn't show up and eventually they called me telling me they took a wrong turn. I gave then an alternate way back since it would have taken them a while to back track.

I do feel a little bad that they missed the turn as I try to make sure I don't loose any body on the rides. However the truth is I don't really like them much any way so I wasn't that concerned that I lost them. I mean look at the picture of Jim below striking a pose. He's got a face you just want to slap. And every time he is on the ride I have this constant ringing in my ears.

Besides they ended up having a cooler downhill than we did in the way back so I think loosing them made the ride better for all of us.

Of course I'm only kidding about being happy loosing Jim an Laura because I'm not the type of bastard that would post such derogatory things on a public blog. At least most people don't think so.