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.