A Typical Tom Ride

Ridge Road near Vincentown, NJ

10 April 2016

Spring has decided to crawl back into bed, bending my daffodils, confusing my tulips, and pissing off ride leaders who'd rather not be watching snow fall this time of year.

Jack H appeared for Tom's postponed ride.  That's one sure sign of spring.  The other sign is when Chris shaves off his winter beard. He wasn't with us today, so I can't say for sure that it's truly spring.

Anyway, Tom led me, Jack H, and Jim into the Pinelands today. We had headwinds no matter which direction we faced. What we didn't have, which we usually do when Tom and I get south of Fort Dix, is rain.

As we turned onto Burrs Mill, the guys debated whether or not they're old. Jim insisted that, at their age, he and Jack qualify. Jack refused such categorization.  He and Jim chased each other for the rest of the ride the way my cats chase each other through the house.

Once upon a time, I think I knew what these flowers are called. I think they're mustard flowers, and if not exactly mustard, then mustard-adjacent.

After a rest stop at the only Wawa left in central NJ that hasn't been renovated, we headed towards Arney's Mount. Tom's plan was to take Birmingham Road. As we turned onto it, the road closing signs began.

"It's not closed," Tom said, as we rode on and on. Then we rounded a curve.

Um.

"There's that beam over there," Tom suggested.

"Oh, hell no," I declared.

I took some pictures of the Rancocas Creek while Tom consulted his GPS.

"There's a bike path," he said. It would keep us off of Route 530, which would be a good thing.

The trail looked like an old rail bed. For about a mile, we rode in hard-packed sand.

Yep, old rail bed.

Too bad Snakehead wasn't with us. He'd have loved the sand.

Too bad I don't have the Hill Slugs Waders Club punch cards anymore either. Today would have earned us two punches: one for the bridge and one for the sand.  We'll put it on Tom's tab.