Stoked

On Tuesday I once again heard the call of the west (western NJ, that is!) and set off for another adventure near the Delaware Water Gap. This time, I focused on roads in and around Stokes State Forest.

It was the winter solstice - the morning after the lunar eclipse. Driving from home, I was beckoned westward by the giant moon, blazing bright - low on the horizon, just over the Pulaski Skyway.



My ride started right in the middle of Stokes, and within a couple miles I was in my element.

My route attempted to follow many smaller woods and fire roads - shown as double dotted lines on USGS topographical maps. Within Stokes, some of these old roads are maintained as multi-use trails. Others are not maintained... and some have been purposefully obscured or torn up to impede passage. More on that later.


On a "double dotted line" section of Struble Road, I was happy to find a fresh layer of fist-size rocks. This stuff might look hairy to a roadie, but it really wasn't bad riding. Further down Struble got a little creek bed-ish - much more challenging.

Many paved roads within Stokes were closed for the season to vehicle traffic. The hunters & pick'em-up trucks were nowhere to be seen. I liked the look of this sign. Dogsled trails? Must be good!


Just a short distance beyond was Degroat Road, which I planned to ride from the other direction the last time I was out here, but couldn't find... an omen perhaps. Google Maps shows it as a perfectly reasonable-looking road.



Topo shows it double-dotted, so I figured it would be an interesting three miles. The first segment, climbing north from Grau Road was a nice, wide rocky hardpack road... with some drainage issues.


The first mile or so would make a great luge run. It was fun finding my lines on that climb! I did walk quite a bit. Past the crest, the road was rough but free of ice.

After a couple miles, I got to a little pull-off area for a trailhead... and a rocky mound in the middle of the road signaling the end of vehicle passage.

"No problem," I thought. I dismounted, climbed over... and saw another mound... and another - a continuous wave pattern of four-foot-high overgrown mounds as far as I could see down the hill.


At first I portaged my bike over and around these things... then found it easier to walk though the woods. The crew that demolished this road really did a thorough job! So much for Google Maps.



For once I was happy to get back on pavement. Out on the hard road, I passed a big horse farm - a trotter was pulling a sulky around its oval track. Four horses were going round & round in an exercise ring - apparently the race horse version of rollers. Even with all the hike-a-bike, I was glad I wasn't home on my rollers!



At various points in the ride I encountered pockets of snow on the ground. One stretch though High Point State Park the road was pretty well covered. When the real snow comes, this will be big-time XC ski country.

Near the end of the ride I was pretty cooked; I'd been out for six hours in mid-20s, windy weather, without an indoor break. I was less than a mile from my car when I turned onto Kittle Road, a gated little dirt track. A couple hundred yards and I got to an overgrown barricade... uh oh.


The bridge was out... and not coming back anytime soon.

I walked down to the icy bank and gave some serious thought to fording the brook. If I had extra socks in the car, I might have given it a shot. Instead, I took a five-mile detour - the end of a long ride on the shortest day of the year.

Mind The Gap

A few months ago, on a long train ride to a Dutchess County dirt road ride, a friend planted the seed of curiosity: Delaware Water Gap. There must be some good dirt roads out there!

This week, with low temperatures and high winds conspiring against a long point-to-point ride, I did some research, plotted a route, and on Wednesday drove out to Peter's Valley, in the heart of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.

The first part of the ride focused on a five-mile unpaved length of Old Mine Road alongside the Delaware River, and a portion of 10-mile-long Mountain Road, following the Flat Brook a mile or two east of the Delaware.

The area is notably unpopulated. I was aware of its history: in the 1950s, the federal government planned to dam the Delaware and create a 30-mile lake in the valley. The Army Corps of Engineers bought out hundreds of land owners, but when the dam project was eventually dropped, the land stayed empty.



Still, this emptiness could be startling. The first hour of the ride, I passed three cars. Wide meadows that looked like they could be farmed, are not. From time to time on Mountain Road I passed abandoned homes.

Mountain Road has one principle water feature, Buttermilk Falls. At 75 feet, it is the highest waterfall in New Jersey.



The road also provided numerous supporting water features, in the form of wide slushy puddles. These were surrounded by piles of icy chunks and an outer perimeter of frozen splash.


I got pretty good at skirting around these.

Later in the ride, I explored some woods roads in Stokes State Forest. Much technical climbing and descending (at least for someone on a road bike with 32c tires) - and many of those big puddles.

Oddly this was the one part of the ride in which I encountered people: hunters, with orange vests & long rifles. Lots of 'em. This was Bear Week in NJ. I was glad to get the hell outta there!

The area also has quite a few abandoned roads. In plotting my route, I was of course hoping to encounter as many of these as I could! But looking at Google Maps, you never know quite what you're going to get.



My plan was to take Ridge Rd to Van Ness down to Old Mine. Seems reasonable, no? From other map sources, I had an idea Van Ness might be unpaved or unmaintained... but I was not expecting this!



The road was overgrown but quite easy to ride. I followed it down to a partially-frozen pond.


Parts of the road along the pond were submerged; I had to portage my bike and step carefully! Past the pond, the road seemed to disappear, and I was off on a bushwacking adventure among tall grass and pricker bushes.


I used the compass on my Garmin and followed an overgrown trail northwest, hoping to eventually cross Upper Ridge Road. I was glad when I got there!






So things had worked out a little differently than planned, but that's OK. I don't feel like it's a real scout unless I've had an adventure or two.




Near the end of the ride I rolled through Walpack Center, with its handful of white clapboard buildings and, not surprisingly, no people.


I just scratched the surface of the area's unpaved roads. I'll be back...

Are You Ready for the Country?

I sure was. I waited out the rain Tuesday & Wednesday, and was rarin' to go Thursday pre-dawn. Destination: Morristown, NJ. The plan was to roll west on Jockey Hollow, revisit a few favorite spots from last week's ride, and scout some new terrain. I was eager to visit my pals out on Trimmer Road in Califon!

I knew to prepare for a cold morning, so I bundled up. Wheels hit the road at 8:15, and it was... cold! Lots of frozen puddles. When I was out here last week, maybe every third horse had a blanket. Today... EVERY horse had a blanket. If I were a horse, I'd demand two blankets!



Early in the ride, I cut through Trump National. Today it was bleak and windswept - actually seemed kinda bleak last week, too. The road was being graded; fortunately there was plenty of old, bumpy road for me to ride on.

A few miles later, I was not so lucky. One stretch of Hacklebarney Road had a fresh layer of soft dirt gutter-to-gutter, with just a few tire tracks for me to navigate. Wish I had the Michelin Jets mounted...

I checked out Pickle Road - mainly because it sounded cool! I also had some intel that there would be some dirt and a climb involved.

The sign indicates the attitude of the first (paved - boo!) half-mile of the road. Up top, it's scenic, hardpack flat & rollers.

At Mile 48, I got to the creatures of Trimmer Road. Emu! Who knew? Last time, I missed these guys; there were three or four of 'em. They made a funny sound - kind of a low-pitched, hollow-sounding burp.

Across the street from the emus were some really small donkeys.

They were very interested in the Red Bike.


I think they may never have seen downtube shifters - imagine?

The goats, donkey and llama I visited last week were just up the way - doing fine, all munching on fresh heaps of hay.

I made my way into the village center of Califon. Had to check out the bananas at Rambo's. Lookin' good!

Downstream from Califon, the Raritan River was raging (as were all the rivers I saw on the ride). Last week, along this stretch I probably passed a couple dozen anglers; today, just two.

I turned east and finally had the wind at my back! Wrapped up the ride in Gladstone; grabbed a sandwich & beer for the train at the New Gladstone Market. Good times.

Jersey Journal

On Tuesday I set off with the Red Bike on my first-ever New Jersey dirt road scouting/adventure ride. 

The day started with a trip through the Great Swamp in Morris County. Now this is a proper swamp - pancake flat - unlike that crazy stuff in Roxbury, CT. 



I was glad to see they take their traffic enforcement seriously... although I didn't notice any patrol cars out hunting speeders. Nor did I see any vehicles or people at all as I rode through the swamp: plenty of blue jays, though.

Next up was a cluster of dirt roads in Bedminster and Chester Townships, with names like Spook Hollow and Hacklebarney Road. Good stuff.

The surface of Hacklebarney Road alternates between lovely hardpack and sections of horrible patchwork asphalt. 

Why do they do this? Even the rockiest, most washboard-y dirt road is more fun to ride over than this crap. Fortunately, the paved bits were brief, and the road had other nice features, like this old grist mill.

My next destination was the valley formed by the South Branch of the Raritan River. More good stuff, with steep roads up the ridge to the west: Naughright Rd (not bad, actually) and Schooley's Mountain. 


Downstream, I passed lots of old stone works, and on Trimmer Road encountered some very friendly goats, llama and donkey. 



Wish I had some carrots in my jersey pockets.

(I did have a banana, but wasn't about to part with it; these guys looked well-fed!)

Trimmer Road led to Hollow Brook, a lovely climb alongside a rocky stream.

A little further up the road, I passed two gentlemen with leaf blowers, clearing the way.

This is New Jersey, after all.

I took the Columbia Trail down to Califon and grabbed lunch at Rambo's Country Store. 

Fantastic old-timey operation, and they make a mean ham sandwich... plus they had a whole row of bananas displayed on hooks in their produce section. My kinda place! 

After lunch I continued south on the trail to High Bridge, then headed east, up and down the ridges on lots of bumpy, rocky roads - many with a distinctive red tint.


Out of the hills, I cut through Trump National golf course on Copperthwaite Rd (didn't see The Donald, alas) and finished my ride at the Far Hills NJ Transit station. 

89 miles in all, with 25 miles of unpaved roads and 8 miles of crushed rock & hardpack on the Columbia Trail... the Red Bike and I were ready for a bath!

Swamp Thing

A quick glance at a Roxbury, CT roadmap gives you some clues about the town's topography. 

There aren't any high summits marked, but there are a bunch of "hill" road names (Good Hill, Sentry Hill, Painter Hill), and a couple short, dead-end "mountain" roads. 

At the north and south ends of the town, there are also "swamp" roads: Battle Swamp and Flag Swamp. 

Where I live (NJ), "swamp" means "flat." Think Meadowlands, or the Great Swamp. In the twisted world of Roxbury, however, even the swamps have an elevation profile like the stripe on Charlie Brown's shirt.


The town also has a bunch of roads with cool, unusual names: Bear Burrow Road, Hoop Hole Road. Transylvania Road is a nice mile-and-a-half of rocky hardpack. 
 
I thought Moosehorn Road must be so named because it goes up and down like an antler. Seriously.

(It actually crosses the Moosehorn Brook, which on the map looks kinda like an antler - not that you'd pick up on that as you blast down before hitting the gut-busting climb.)

My Thursday ride visited these and some other favorite spots in Litchfield County.

That bridge they're working on? The workers said they're almost done painting.

This time, I approached the bridge on dirt roads from both sides, but my route didn't require me to do the balance beam act again.



I checked out the length of Judd's Bridge Road, which descends precipitously to the Shepaug River from the west...


... then runs along the east bank of the river before climbing away.



I rode north and west to Mud Pond, near Gaylordsville: very peaceful in the fading afternoon light.


I got to Pawling with enough time before my train to pick up a sandwich at Vinny's Deli. 


Very happy about that. It's pretty low-key on the outside, but don't let that fool you: they do good, good stuff inside.