| STATS | DAY | MILES | CLIMBING | CALORIES |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DAY | -56 | 78.48 | 3838 | 6161 |
| TOTALS | 3 | 207.76 | 11712 | 16491 |
Today started with a wispy fog across the valley as the rain from the night before evaporated. Morning temperature was in the mid 30's and the birds were singing. It was a glorious morning for a bike ride.
A Glorious Morning
I had invited the crowd but no one could make it. Keith, Abdel, and Thor had limited time, Sue was out of town, Greg had a morning commitment, and Terry had to work. Oh well, another solo ride for ole Brad. I chose a route that would give me a mixture of flat, rollers, and a few climbs. The first climb of the day was up Jackson Valley which is one of the most beautiful valleys around these parts. There is a nice creek that cut the valley and I just had to shoot a short video of the water and sound. Just fabulous.
Jackson Valley in the morning.
Continuing up Jackson Valley, then down the other side of the ridge into Independence Township. After a short jaunt on Rt. 46 I headed out Aphano Road to do the Shades of Death Loop. Just before I turned off of Alphano Road, I ran into two of my Homies, Keith and Abdel, who were out to get some miles in, even if they weren't the same miles as I was doing today.
Keith, Abdel, and the side of a house that looks very surprised!
We had a nice chat, snapped a few pictures, and continued on our way. They were doing the Alphano SOD loop the opposite way so we passed each other later pretending that we did not know each other.
There are several legends of how Shades of Death Road got its name. How Ghost Lake got it's name is in the same boat. The sun was perfect for a nice picture.
Ghost Lake on Shades of Death Road.
From here I turned to the second major climb up Mountain Lake Road which takes one into the town of Mountain lake. I covered this stretch in an earlier blog.
Road names have always interested me as quite often they either indicate where the road goes (e.g. Mountain Lake Road), or it is named after a historical luminary figure of the area. Well this road name caught my eye for all the obvious reasons. Who was this guy and why did he get a road named after him?
I would love to know the story behind the guy that this road is named after, or, maybe not!
After that happy diversion, I started the 25 mile stretch of the ride that follows the rivers. First along the Pequest River into the town of Belvidere, then along the Delaware River from Belvidere to Philipsburg. This stretch of road is quickly earning a spot as one of my favorite stretches - Follows the river for about 20 miles, nice rollers, NO TRAFFIC.
I was getting warm and decided to stop and take my wind breaker off and snapped the following picture of the Martins Creek Power Plant that sits on the PA side.
View of the Martins Creek Power Plant.
While I was standing there another cyclist road up and asked if I was OK to which I said ya to which he said "you heading down River Road?" to which I said ya to which he said you want company to which I said ya. (Ya, I know, I say ya a lot) So I met Steve, another 50 something cyclist out for 65 mile solo ride as his riding buddies were not available. We chit chatted all the way to Philipsburg. Steve was from Columbus Ohio in the Pharma industry when he was transfered to NJ. After a few years he fell victim to downsizing and now works for kitchen remoldeling company which he says was the best thing that ever happened to him. When he lived in Ohio he often road the Hilly Hundred during the same years I did. He was riding a mid 80's 'DALE and also has a Canondale tandem that his daughters have out grown and his wife won't ride with him. Wow, amazing how much you can have in common with someone. When we got to P'burg, we wished each other well and went our separate ways. You meet the nicest folks cycling.
After climbing out of P'burg, I worked my way through Stewartsville to Bloomsbury. At this point I had over 50 miles in and was getting hungry. I stopped at the Bloomsbury general store and had a lunch that couldn't be beat:
Yum!
Next town was Asbury. I believe today was opening day for trout fishing as there were crowds fishing at every river access point I road by. Here the folks are lined up shoulder to shoulder on the bridge across the Musconectcong River by the Asbury Graphite Mill.
Hey, it's nice day, lets go stand shoulder to shoulder
on a concrete bridge and look at the water go by.
(if you click the picture, you can open a bigger version)
(if you click the picture, you can open a bigger version)
The ride is finally over. Door to door about 6.5 hours. The good news for me today was my back did not hurt as much as in the past, and I still had some legs left in me at the end.
Look Mom, I road a long time and can still lift my bike up
By now you are probably wondering what's with the title of this Blog. Just before Ghost lake on Shades of Death Road I was JRA (just riding along) and I popped a spoke on the rear wheel. It would be another 50 miles of a wobbly rear wheel with weak brakes.
Here is the tail of the tape:
