Wet Roads Cancel

A lot of ride leaders will add the phrase "Wet Roads Cancel" in their ride descriptions but I usually don't. Its not that I will ride on wet roads that could be dangerous but there are different levels of wetness some which are rideable. That was the case this past Saturday.

It had rain on Friday night but was clearing by Saturday morning with the roads drying. When I got up I checked the weather. It was going to be cold and cloudy but there was no more rain on the radar. It wasn't going to be the nicest day and the roads were going to be damp. Other ride leaders had decided to cancel the rides but I decided it was safe enough to ride.

We rode from Bordentown and met at the Peter Muschal School which for the first time was crowded with some event so we ended up parking at the high school across the street. After collecting some people in the other parking lots we did an old route through Roebling. I haven't done this route in a couple of years so it was a good change of pace. I had 9 people since I was the only ride that didn't cancel.

It was a cold but the roads were mostly dry and the route was flat so it was a easy 40 mile ride and since it is almost winter it is good to get a ride in any time you can.

Cocoluxe Redux

They made me do it. Laura and Cheryl. I had no intention of going back to Cocoluxe this year. I had been there a month ago and sent Laura and Cheryl a picture of Cocoluxe basically telling then I went to Cocoluxe and you didn't.  They then told me they wanted me to lead a ride from Cocoluxe. I said fine maybe early next year but no they wanted me to lead a ride from there in November. I didn't really want to because the weather is getting colder and my legs are getting weaker but I agreed to anyway. And I'm really glad I did.

Saturday ended up being a beautiful day, sunny low 60s and the fall leaves in full color. We had a big group (11) with most of the usual people and a few new ones. It was a nice group and although it was a hilly ride we all stayed together and there weren't too many complaints. There are a lot of beautiful roads in this area and with the fall leaves at their peak it was a great day to be riding.

There were a lot of ups and down in this ride and by the end of the ride Jim kept asking if this was the last hill which I kept responding yes to. Apparently even though I kept giving him the wrong answer he kept asking anyway.

The ride ended back in Gladstone. Even through we had a quick stop on the ride I ended the ride at Cocoluxe for some baked goods. It was a good way to end a ride and may try to do this again on some other rides.

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

Click Here for More Pics

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.