Wild trolls and great pizza: A bike ride around Mount Holly

I’ve now bicycled to 16 of the 18 new trolls in Burlington County. Plus Big Rusty.

I’m loving Burlington County’s Troll Trek — a local riff on Thomas Dambo’s Big Rusty, all made from reusing materials that otherwise would have ended up at the dump.

Continue reading “Wild trolls and great pizza: A bike ride around Mount Holly”

A weekend of back-to-back training rides

Sunday’s 30-mile ride left from Burlington City, NJ

Today we headed to Burlington City and met up with friends to do this ride, mapped out by NJDOT.

Burlington City claims a number of New Jersey firsts, but I am looking forward to the day the Delaware River Heritage Trail gets this far south and eventually connects to Philadelphia via Palmyra as an alternate route on the East Coast Greenway.

One cool highlight of our 30-mile loop: The factory town of Smithville, where the American Star bicycle was built in the 1880s. In that era of penny-farthing bicycles, this one apparently had the small wheel in the front, rather than the back, apparently to prevent you from tipping over. Not that the sculpture in the front reflected that.

smithville nj

But with the World Cup finals beckoning, a tour of the mansion and the truth of the design will have to wait for another visit.

Another fun site, this one in Mount Holly. Cute name, huh?

Mount Holly NJ

The bottom line from this weekend: Heat and back-to-back days is a tough combination. Last weekend I did two spin classes and a 30-miler. Thankfully a weeklong ride in October won’t be as hot. But I need to build up that endurance.