The Scenic Sourland Cruise

Click Here for More Pictures
With quiet roads and scenic vistas the Sourlands is one of the nicest place to ride a bike, as long as you don't mind a few hills. Although there are a couple of tough hills in the Sourlands most are in the 100 to 200 ft range and not too bad if you have done a little hill training.

My ride this week started by the canal in Rocky Hill and went to Sergeantsville and back. At this point in the season most people are in good shape so I decided to put some of the tougher hills on the route.

I had a good crowd (9 people). Henry and Irene were there which I was happy to see. They are a lot of fund to ride with. They had just gotten back from Anchor House ride so it was good to catch up with them.

From the canal we zig zaged north west for about 7 miles before starting the climb over the Sourlands. The first hill was Dutchtown Zion which is one of the hardest hills in the area. Its a 380 ft climb that gets steeper at the end so its was a rude way to start the ride. I try to do this hill once or twice a year just to see how I'm climbing. Although the hills last week to Merrill Creek were tougher I was riding my Miyata with a triple then. This week I was riding my Feather which is a lighter much better bike but doesn't have the low gears my Miyata does.

I learned two things climbing Dutchtown Zion this year. First my max heart rate is 190. Second I am in pretty good climbing shape this year. Although I maxed my heart rate out it recovered quickly and I felt pretty good when I got to the top.

A couple of years ago I did this hill and went Anaerobic (meaning I pushed to hard for too long). When you go anaerobic you are basically using more energy than your body can produce. You can only do this for so long before your body shuts down and you have to stop. It's good to go Anaerobic for short periods to help improve performance and strength. This is the idea behind interval training. But if you stay Anaerobic for too long you are going pay for it. When I went Anaerobic on Dutchtown Zion a few years ago, I made it to the top but had to rest for about 10 mins before I could continue. Since then I have learn how to train better so this doesn't happen again.

From Dutchtown Zion we made our way to Hollow then grinded our way up the Sourlands. Once we got to top will followed the ridge west toward Mt Airy. The weather was nice so I stopped to take a few pictures along the way.

After going through Mt Airy I took the long way up the the next hill towards Sergeantsville to explore a few new roads. This ended up being a little hillier than I thought but it wasn't too bad. Instead of going directly to Sergentville for a rest here I decided to take a detour down to the Covered Bridge because I hadn't been there this year yet and it was only a few mile detour.

After 31 miles we made it to Sergeantsville for a much deserved rest stop. This is one of the nicest places to stop for a break. They are very friendly to bikers and have good food (including dumplings and spring rolls). I opted for a Blueberry muffin because I don't think dumplings would sit well for the next 20 miles.

From Sergeantsville we made our way to Dunkard Church which is a pretty relatively flat road. Henry and Irene decided to drop off the ride in order to go at a more relaxed pace. I gave them the queue sheet so they won't get lost. When we turned off Wertzville Artie and Marty decided to take the shorter way back so we were down to five.

As we continued along we meet up with a biker traveling from Georgia to Connecticut. He asked about a couple of roads so I gave him the NJ bike maps I had with me. The last big climb of the ride was Lindberg which is never fun. After that it was some well deserved downhills and then some mostly flat miles to get back to the start. We ended up with about 55 miles.

Merrill Creek 2008

Click Here for More Pictures

Merrill Creek is a reservoir in north western Warren County. This area is a beautiful place to ride as long as you don't mind climbing some hills. When I say hills I'm not talking about little 100 or 200 ft climbs I'm talking 400, 500 and 600 ft climbs. Michael showed me this route last year and really enjoyed it which is why it made the book. This is a challenging ride that starts off deceptivly easy.

We start off from Frenchtown and headed to Milford. From there we rode along the river up to Rieglesville. Along the way we saw the Anchor house riders coming the other way on the last day of their trip. We managed to pick out a lot of people we knew including Henry, Irene, Bob, Barbara, and a few others.

We left the river by Creek Rd and started a little climbing. We had a little accident at the corner of 519 and Municipal when one of the riders fell while trying to turn around after missing the turn. Other than a little road rash he was non the worst for were. Luckly the owner of the house on the corner drove by just after the fall and helped put a bandage on his elbow to cover the wound.

We continue on toward Stewardville and took a good look at the top of the hill where Merrill Creek is. After passing through Stewardville we finally reached the first serious climb Montana Rd. The route seems deceptively easy at the start because we start along the river which is relatively flat and even when we start heading into the hills they are mostly short 100 ft climbs. When you get to Montana Rd which is the road that takes you up to Merrill Creek you realize that this is going to be a challenge.

The climb up Montana is really not too bad its just long. The road climbs 620 in just under two miles. The grade is mostly constant except for a few little bumps. When I climbed this hill last year I had to stop for a few minutes about halfway up because my heart rate was maxed out and I needed a rest. This and a couple of other tough hills I did last year made me realize that I could use a little more aerobic training. I have started doing interval training during the week this year and I am happy to report that I felt much better on the climb up Montana even though the weather was hotter. I did stop about half way up again but this was to take pictures not because I needed too. A number of other people stopped along the climb also which is the smart thing to do. Long times are tough even if they aren't really steep. Even if you are in a comfortable gear climbing a hill your heart rate is going to creep up and eventually max out (Unless you are a highly train professional rider). The smart thing to do is to stop for a few minutes and let it recover because if you push too hard you just going to end up feeling sick and maybe puking you guts out. I know this from expericence.

Once we go to the top we regrouped and rode over to the Merrill Creek Reservior. Last year when I did the ride we didn't stop at the reservoir so I wanted to go back this year to get some pictures.

The reservoir has a good visitors center with a good view of the Merrill Creek. We stopped for about 15mins. I took a few pictures and took a look around the visitor center. Its small but has some nice exhibits on the animals in the area. The best thing about the visitors center is that it is air conditoned which felt really good after climbing the hill in the heat.

After our brief stop at the visitors center we headed back out along the ridge and eventually down the moutain. I got a couple of good pictures along the ridge and then had a really good time going down the mountain. It's 640ft of downhill. It's intense but fun. Of course half a mile ahead was another 350ft + climb that surprised me last year. This year I was knew what to expect so it wasn't as bad.

We then started heading to Bloomsbury over some "Rollers". Michael has a slighly optimistic definition of rollers because some of them required me to use the small chain ring of my triple to get up them. The views are nice in this area and I manage to take some more nice pictures.

In Bloomsbury we made a stop a the usual general store. It was a much needed rest since it was really starting to get hot. I really needed some gatoraid because I knew there was one more major climb coming and I didn't want to cramp.

There are many ways out of Bloomsbury most of them up hill. We chose to go up Tunnel Rd. Although its a 500 ft climb its probably the easiest 500 ft climb you can do since it is 2.5 miles long. It is still a tough climb mentally and physiclly because it just never seems to end. I was really glad when I got to the top because I was starting to get overheated and needed break. At this point between the heat and climbing most of us were pretty beat.

The payoff for climbing Tunnel is that you get to go down Sweet Hollow one of the best downhills in NJ. Its a three miles of shaded scenic costing that made up for some of the climbing.

Although the ride had not reached Death March status yet it was still pretty hot and we all wanted to take the shortest way back at this point. This lead to our decision to take Javes Rd even though it said the bridge was out. I had been on Javes about a month ago and the bridge was closed but still passable. This time when we got to the bridge it was in the middle of being demolished and not passable. Because nobody wanted to climb back up Javes we decided to ford the river which is pretty shallow. It wasn't too hard and the cool water felt good on the feet.

Javes got us to the town of Milford and then it was an easy 5 mile ride along the river back to Frenchtown. The ride ended up being around 59 miles. Its a tough ride but a really good route so I'm glad I did it. I will be doing a similar ride at the end of August because I enjoy this area. I just hope the weather is a little cooler.

Burlington County Cruise

On 7/12 I had a ride in the book for a 50 - 60 mile ride through Burlington County. I ended up with a pretty big group, 12 people, despite the fact that Laura, Mike, and Cheryl weren't there because they were doing the MS ride the next day.

Leading a group of more than 5 or 6 people can be a little challenging but I'm lucky because I have a good core group of people that ride with me. They are all experienced riders with good road manner. They make leading easy and fun because they help me keep the group in line.

Riding well in a group means having good communication. It's important that each member in the group call out hazards and cars up and back. This insures that there are no surprises.

The other part of riding well in a group is paying attention and not doing anything stupid. Although most bikers worry about getting hit by a car, the truth is are that most bike accidents are caused by other bikers or hazards on the road.

For the first time in the last few weeks weather wasn't a problem. There wasn't any chance of rain and it wasn't going to be opressively hot. We started out from Bordentown and headed east through Crosswicks and on to Walnford and Hill Rd. Hill Road is a series of 7 little hills and after the first one its really not too bad. After a few more little hills we made our way through Cookstown and the backside of Fort Dix and then into Browns Mill.

We had a quickstop at the Wawa at about 22 miles and then continued on through the top of the Pine Barrens and pass some nice farmlands. The roads in the area are nice and flat and the riding is easy. This is a pretty area to ride through although its hard to capture a picture that does it justice.

Our second stop was a an unplaned stop at a bakery that I forgot was on the route. Its on Smithville Rd just north of Woodlane. Its a great stop and we ended up trading some good stories with some other bikers.

From the second stop if was about 18 miles back to the start and with a tailwind it was an easy ride. Lisa and Alex split off at Chesterfield. They had ridden in from Plainsboro so they could make the ride a century.

We ended up with 58 miles at a 17 mph. All is was a big group it ended being a very orgainized and fun ride.

Anti All Pace Ride

Weathermen suck. If they are lucky they get the forecast right 50% of the time which is probably more luck than skill. Don't even get me started on the accuracy of long range forecasts which are a joke. Still when I'm planning a ride I look at the weather forecast anyway just in case it might be right. For this July 4th I decided to put together my own ride instead of doing the clubs All Paces ride because the rides are getting too large and unorganized and I wanted to do some different roads.

I was encouraged by the weather forecasts for the 4th because all of them said that any rain would be in the late afternoon. So I was a little mad at the weathermen when I woke up and saw dark clouds covering the sky. The radar shows approaching rain. In fact it showed rain over my house so I'm thinking I'm going to have to cancel the ride. Then I look out the window and it's not raining and the roads are dry. There's no rain so what do I do.

I get a call from Joe who wants to know whether the ride is on or not. I look at the radar again then look outside. The radar shows rain coming but it looks light and scattered. The roads are dry. I know I'll be pissed if I cancel the ride and then spend the morning looking out the window at dry roads that I could have been riding on. I tell Joe the ride is on. If it starts to rain we might get a little wet but it shouldn't be bad. This was the right decision because there was almost no rain and we ended up having a good ride. The moral of the story is that it is better to take a chance and get a little wet than to cancel a ride and be pissed if it doesn't rain.

I won't ride if it is definitely going to rain but I have become less likely to cancel a ride when there is only a chance of rain.

The ride started out of Etra park and the plan was to do a 50 loop to Farmingdale and back. I ended up with 8 people on the ride. The usual Hill Slug gang along with Herb and the Joes.

I had a nice surprised when Mike M brought out a cake and the group sang "Happy Birthday" to me. I'm not big on birthday celebrations but it was a really nice gesture from a group of people I really enjoy hanging around with.

From Etra we headed east taking the short way to Farmingdale. I wanted to get ahead of any rain coming hoping by the time we headed back it would be more scattered and we could pass through it quickly. The roads were really empty so riding was fun and we set a quick pace. We hit a few drops of rain here and there but it never really rained.

When we got to Farmingdale we tried to stop at the Bagel store but it was closed for the 4th so we ended up at the bakery.

On the way back from Farmingdale I took the scenic route around the Manasquan reservior. After we crossed Rt 9 we took Georgia Rd in to Turkey Swamp and kept cruising along at good pace. For the first time we actually saw two very large Turkeys at the end of Nomoco. I stopped to take a few pictures but none of them came out good.

From Turkey Swamp we headed through Millstone on Back Bone Hill and then back to the start. We ended up coming in at 17.2 mph and did just over 50 miles. Since the ride started at 8AM we were back by 11:30. It felt unusual to be done this early but it was a good way to spend my birthday.

Pine Barrens Metric

After doing mostly hills for the pass few weekends it was a nice change of pace to head south through the Pine Barrens. This was a metric century that I had it the book. It turned out to be a popular ride. I got a number of emails and phone calls before the ride. This was a long ride on a hot day and although I try not to discourage people from coming on my rides I like to make sure the know terrain and speed that I plan to do. You don't want a rider to get in over their head and not be able to complete the ride.

I ended up having 9 people on the ride. It was most of the regular crowd plus a couple of new people, Lisa and Alex. This route was a combination of a Medford Lakes ride and a Pine Barrens ride that I did for the book last year. It started in Columbus just off 206 and headed mostly south towards Medford Lakes. On the way we passed Smithville a town that use to be an industrial village and produced woodworking machinery and high-wheel bicycles in the late 1800s. The land down here is mostly open farmland and is very pleasant to ride. We moved along at a good pace.

After going through the tip of Medford Lakes we headed out 532 which is a long 15 mile stretch that would bring us to Lebanon State forest. We stoppped at a little general store in Tabernacle. This is a popular place to stop for most of the bikers in the area and even though it was empty when we got there with in about 10 minutes a large group of bikers.

From the rest stop we continued on to through Chadworths to Lebanon State forest and got to ride through some real pinelands. Henry ended up having a flat along the way. Lisa wanted to observe to learn how to better change a tire so we gave her a lesson. Stopping to change the tire made me realize how hot it was starting to get.

We continued on and started to head back north from Chadworth. Just before we got to Browns Mill Alex had a flat so we demostarted how to change a flat again. At 50 miles we made our second rest stop in Browns Mill. From here is was mostly straight north back to the starting point. We ended up having to make a slight detour around Fort Dix that I hadden planned on but it really didn't any extra miles to the ride.

The ride ended up being 63 miles. We averaged about 17 mph which was a little better than I was expecting given the heat. This was a good group of people today nobody was pushing the pace and nobody was dragging. It was a good route and I really enjoyed the ride but by the end it was getting really hot and I'm glad it ended when it did.

Bloomsbury Boogie

Click Here for a more pictures
This Sunday 6/22 Larry had a ride in the book that he said should not be missed. He even sent out an email reminding people of the ride and how picturesque it would be. So I decide to take the drive and check out this ride. Even though the weather called for possible scattered showers I checked the radar and there was just one small shower just north of Flemington. This would make the roads a little wet but there should be no problem riding.

I got to the starting point and found a few other people there who were looking forward to the ride. There was just one thing missing on this not to be missed ride, the ride leader LARRY!.

We called him and he said that he didn't think the weather was going to be good enough to do the ride so he didn't bother coming. I didn't see anything major on the radar when I looked so I still wanted to do the ride especially now that I was at the starting point. So I asked Larry for the route and he gave me a quick turn by turn description. Luckly I had the NJ Bike Maps with me so I marked off all the turns. I knew about 80% of the roads that we were going on so I figured I could get us to Bloomsbury and back.

The first part of the out of Flemington is a slow climb of 260 feet which lasts about 2 miles. It wasn't steep but was long and a tough way to start the ride. We then rode along the ridges above Frenchtown and down towards Holland. There were no major hills here but just some constant ups and downs. Some of the down hills were pretty fun. The roads were a little wet here and we felt a few drops or rain but it wasn't a problem. We ended up on one of my favorite roads Sweet Hollow. Its a beautiful winding 3 miles of downhills.

Unfortunately Larry's route took us up this road to get to Bloomsbury so It wasn't as much fun. The climb up wasn't bad actually. There was a tough part when we made a left on Mylar and had to climb 340 feet but it wasn't any worst than any of the usual Sourland hills. Once we got to the top I ended up taking a wrong turn and ended up coming down a really steep hair pin turn as part of a 720 foot down hill. There were times when I had my brakes on full and I was still doing 20 miles and hour. That's one hill I'm never going to climb.

We stopped in Bloomsbury for a break in a nice general store. The weather had gotten better and I called my wife for an update. She didn't see any storms on radar so we were good to go.

We headed out of Bloomsbury toward Rieglesville and ended up riding along the Delaware to Milford. We made a quick water stop in Milford then started climbing again. Larry's route had us going across the river and riding along 32 but that would have meant more hill than I think most people wanted to do. I headed up Javes and Rummel a route Laura uses to get back to the ridge above Frenchtown that minimizes tough climbs. Most of the people on the ride were from Larry's Cranbury rides so they aren't use to climbing.

Once we got up to the ridge we ended up on 519 for quite a ways. This road has a lot of ups and downs so I took it slow. Most of the people were tired by the time we got back because they are not use to climbing but the last part of the ride was a 2 mile downhill that we climbed at the start so it was a great way to end the ride.

Larry's route with my slight modifications was a good ride and I can see why he likes to do it. He has a lot of nice road here but I think I can improve on it After all my rides last year for the book I learned a lot of roads in this area. My ride, with Michael, to Merrill Creek especially showed me some better roads that Larry's route could use to get to Bloomsbury. I think I will try to see if I can come up with a good route from Frenchtown that would use a lot of the roads of Larry's route is a slightly order to put together a nice 50 loop.

Flag Day

I had a hilly ride in the book on Flag Day out of Neschanic Station. It was a hot day and I wasn't expected a big turn out but I figured a few of the regulars would show up. I ended up having only have one person show up who I didn't know.

I was a little afraid to do a hilly ride with someone I didn't know but she turned out to be a good rider. The ride when pass Round Valley then up to Oldwick and back on some roads that I haven't done before. The toughest hill was Deer Hill which was a little steep but doable. It wasn't fun after a little more climbing we were treated over 2 miles of nice winding down hills. By the time we were headed back along River Rd it had gotten really hot so the last few miles were a tough. It was a good route and with a few minor changes I won't mind doing it again.