Category: bike ride

Bicycling to points south … in New Jersey

We try a new bike ride that takes us further south in New Jersey

Here’s a hat tip to the Anchor House riders … our Labor Day ride was a 57-miler that included the 2013 Cory’s Ride (named after a 15-year-old Anchor House rider who was killed on the last day of the 1998 Anchor House ride).

This took us from the edge of Allentown, which has been on many of our rides, past so many farms and fields of the Garden State as far as Southampton — about as far south as Cherry Hill. Definitely mostly new territory for us. It’s south Jersey, though, so it was essentially flat. (The hilly ride planned for Sunday was rained out. Such a *shame*… though I really need more back-to-back days in the saddle as the big East Coast Greenway ride approaches.) Continue reading “Bicycling to points south … in New Jersey”

Single-tracking along Pennsylvania’s Delaware Canal and the D&L Trail

Time to experience the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River.

d&l single trackWell, only some of the time.

But the trail on the Pennsylvania side of Delaware River (it’s actually along the Delaware Canal, which runs parallel to the river) is quite different from the one on the New Jersey side, to say nothing of the Delaware & Raritan Canal towpath from Trenton through Princeton and to New Brunswick. Continue reading “Single-tracking along Pennsylvania’s Delaware Canal and the D&L Trail”

Bikes, beer … and church? Discoveries in Delaware and New Jersey

Bike and beer revelations in Delaware and New Jersey.

Even I, who am hardly a beer drinker, know that bikes and beer seem to go together.

But church too?

Two experiences this month make me a believer. Continue reading “Bikes, beer … and church? Discoveries in Delaware and New Jersey”

The New Jersey version of Flanders fields

Sights from Sunday’s 45-mile bike ride.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow.

And in New Jersey, instead of poppies we found … fields of amaranth?

Also rows and rows of zinnias and coxcomb, but they weren’t as striking.

We also came across this historical marker as part of Sunday’s 45-mile ride to get me ready for a 385-mile East Coast Greenway adventure. Got to say, the connection to greatness in this case seems pretty weak as these things go. But I googled him anyway … he was born in 1686 and died in 1736. And he had a brother named Abraham to boot. (And a son named Abraham too, but it was John, his first child and whose grave says “Virginia John,” who leads to Honest Abe.)

Too much he-man strength

busted inner tubeTime to get serious about my training if I’m going to ride 385 miles of the East Coast Greenway over six days come October. So today three of us headed into the hills and tacked on an extra 10-mile loop to our usual route to give us 50 miles.

We were just about to start on yet another hill when I heard a strange clack, clack. No, it wasn’t the sensor and reader for my cycle computer touching. We looked a little closer and discovered my tire had bulged out on one side and was hitting the brake pad. How this happened somewhere after mile 30 and not at the start is beyond me, but the easy solution was to let out some air, get the tire back inside the rim and pump it back up.

If only!

First we struggled to get the mini pump to properly attach to the valve. We even tried with another pump. Then we struggled to get the pump off. Air out. We tried again. And we let out all the air. And then we couldn’t get any air in.

What had we done?

With all that wrestling to get the pump off, the guys (because it wasn’t me!) had actually pulled the valve out of the inner tube! This one was history. And we were miles and a long uphill and downhill from the nearest bike shop.

Fortunately someone (not me!) had a spare tube. Once again, no air.

bike repairIt turns out that one had a small cut, caused perhaps by tools tucked in alongside it in the under-seat bag. We could quickly patch it, which I did, but fortunately another someone else (again, not me) had a spare tube. By this time we’d had enough practice with the pump and — phew — at the end heard the satisfying “pop” as the pump came off cleanly.

Back on the road!

 

 

Following the footsteps of George Washington … and his spy

A historical and family-friendly bike ride from Rocky Hill to Griggstown, home of that “notorious Tory spy” John Honeyman. Or was he really a spy for George Washington.

Time for another history-themed bike ride in New Jersey.

Continue reading “Following the footsteps of George Washington … and his spy”

A bike ride from Portugal to India without leaving New Jersey

We ate our way around the world on this 46-mile jaunt through northern New Jersey.

Northern New Jersey may be the last place you think of for a bike ride: densely populated urban areas with way too much traffic (and potholes) to make a cyclist happy.

This East Coast Greenway adventure showed us we had it all wrong. And it highlights just what a melting pot this state is.

Continue reading “A bike ride from Portugal to India without leaving New Jersey”

Another section of New Jersey’s Lawrence-Hopewell Trail is done

We discover more of the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail on a 20-mile ride that includes a few miles on the East Coast Greenway.

One of my longer bike rides over the past week was along part of the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail, a non-quite-finished 22-mile loop off the East Coast Greenway just south of Princeton.

We usually take the D&R Canal towpath (part of the East Coast Greenway) for about 5 miles to the turnoff to Brearley House and then ride past the Lawrenceville School and through Mercer Meadows, a big county park — basically going clockwise on the loop. This time we decided to go counterclockwise because we knew there was a section through the Carson Road Woods that we’d never been on.

Before we got to that, though, we found another section that’s been finished — a sidepath along Province Line Road. It’s the red dotted line in the upper right of this map, and its completion means the trail is 88% done. (See the full map here.)

I don’t have any photos, unfortunately, and it really seems like nothing glamorous —  basically a wide asphalted sidewalk right at the side of the road, with no little strip of green acting as a divider. But it’s a key connection on a road that’s busy at rush hour and where motorists go fast at any time. One person I know grumbles about the drainage grates running across the sidepath every so often … and I could do without the rocks around them (probably also for drainage — UPDATE: driving by, that looks like it’s been covered). But it’s a big step.

After all that excitement, we rode the trail on the edge of a Bristol Myers-Squibb campus to reach Carson Road Woods. It has five miles of marked trails, including one mile that’s part of the LHT. Our route felt more meadow-y than the heavily wooded Maidenhead Meadows trail, another new section (for us, at least) near the start (the green dots leading to the parking sign on the map).

After Carson Roads Woods we rode through a neighborhood to Rosedale Road, where we’d seen an LHT sign but had no idea where the trail was. Now we know — neighborhood roads, then trail.

Had we continued on the LHT, we’d have gone through the ETS site, using a trail we’ve previously ridden. Instead, we turned toward Princeton and then home.

All in all, a 20-mile day. Essentially flat, but definitely one for the hybrids.

Time to start training for the next East Coast Greenway ride

I opted for a flat training ride — and to find a way to a microbrewery 20 miles away.

Yes, I’m once again doing the East Coast Greenway‘s week-long fundraising ride, that one with the unimaginative name of Week-A-Year. This time it’s 385 miles over six days, from Wilmington, N.C., to Savannah. In October, so not killer heat but still hurricane season, as we learned last year. (Here’s the first pitch to please support it with a tax-deductible donation.)

I admit I wish it was a seven-day ride. The mileage is more than other rides, though we’re promised it will be flat. Hopefully with a nice tailwind. We’ve got 80-mile days going into and out of Charleston, S.C., and it would have been nice to split one of those in two, just to have more time to play tourist. But it is what it is. Sometimes you’re constrained by where you can get hotel rooms for all of us.

Flat or not, 80 miles is a lot. As are 385 miles (see the full itinerary here). So time to get serious about spending more time on the bike.

I didn’t feel like hills today, so I decided to figure out what it would take to get to this new microbrewery I’d read about last year called Screamin’ Hill. Not that I care about beer. But it could be a fun group ride sometime. (Just bring your own food — they have none. Not even pretzels. No permit.)

This place is only open Friday afternoon/evening and Saturday afternoon — the owners have real jobs, we were told when we pedaled by on a Sunday early this year (that ride was from Allentown, not from home, to kill time while the car was getting serviced).

Every craft beer has to have a story, and this is how this one starts:

“Screamin’ Hill Brewery harkens back to a time in America when life was simple, when farmers brewed with what was at hand from the year’s harvest.”

Whatever. I just wanted a ride.

So off I went, following the route we often take to go through the Assunpink Wildlife Management Area for more than half of the way. Then it was new sights. I hit the nine-mile Union Transportation Trail but gave it a miss since it’s not paved and I was on my road bike. I passed the Cream Ridge Winery. And a farm I know from the Trenton Farmers Market. And horses. It’s rural.

Turns out it’s just under 20 miles to the brewery. As good as flat. I tried a different route on the way back. The road to Allentown had more traffic. I’ll stick to the quiet option.

Add on a second, 12-mile ride to get some groceries, and I am feeling virtuous about my 52-mile day.

More of the East Coast Greenway in Maine, more ice cream

We hit part of the Eastern Trail in Maine and went off-route for hipster ice cream in Biddeford. (Hipster in the nicest way, of course.)

You might remember my not-so-patient wait for ice cream during last year’s week-long ride along the East Coast Greenway in Maine. Because of course you should eat ice cream while biking whenever possible.

We were back in Maine this month to visit friends. They said they’d be up for a bike ride …. so off we went on the Eastern Trail, another part of the East Coast Greenway. The section from Kennebunk to Biddeford is hard-packed, not asphalt, and in one spot a bit muddy after some rain. Glad we had the hybrids. It switched to quiet road through Biddeford and into Saco, where we stopped for lunch at a cute cafe with a deck. I, however, was more interested in ice cream. Not on the menu.  Fortunately the waitress was a connoisseur and pointed us in the right direction.

So once everyone was fortified with real food (and my “side” of pulled pork had to be the equivalent of a breadless sandwich — somewhere between a quarter pound and half pound), off we headed to Biddeford and and the Sweetcream Dairy.

Our Maine friends and their ice cream

Oh, hipsters. This place is a registered dairy and milk processing plant. Can your favorite place in Brooklyn, Portland or wherever claim that? It batch-pasteurizes its milk. Locally sourced, of course. Provenance on the website. Maine herbs and fruits. I’d say it’s mostly farm-to-table for the ice cream crowd. And located in a repurposed mill — more hipster points.

“Mostly” locally sourced because how do you get local chocolate? Lemon and poppyseed? Key lime? In that true hipster way, it was well-curated — no 31 flavors and all that. Yet I was tempted by so many — rhubarb sorbet, perhaps?

A couple of samples later, I picked the dark chocolate. But there’s a twist: It was vegan. So not me. No idea what the secret non-dairy ingredient was, but it was awesome. I went for the kiddie size and it was so rich, I really could have used one of the citrus flavors to offset that. (Wonder if they’d do a half-and-half in a cup?) A single scoop would have been too much.

Sweetcream, get yourself a sign to and from the Eastern Trail!

All in all, nearly a 20-mile ride. One day I’ll ride the rest of the trail, from Portland down to the New Hampshire border. Stopping for ice cream, of course.