The Holy Kickstand Sees Us to Round Valley Reservoir

Round Valley Reservoir

4 June 2016

We were supposed to be riding in Delaware this weekend. Tomorrow's rain put and end to that. 

Instead, Tom suggested we meet him Saturday at the Griggstown Causeway at 8:30 a.m. for a 60-mile loop to Round Valley Reservoir.

Griggstown is 15 miles from my house, so I got up way too early for a weekend and pushed off at 7:20 a.m. Jim was pedaling back and forth along the causeway when I arrived with plenty of time to spare. I did what I always do when there's time.  I took pictures.

Tom drove past, and we followed him to the farthest parking lot from the canal. After a few minutes, Bob N pedaled in. Having cursed two of our regulars and banished a third to the southern hemisphere, we had no other takers.

Bob had never ridden with Tom before, so when Tom announced that he was going to bless our ride, there was some befuddlement from Bob while Jim and I were cracking up.

From his car, Tom pulled a plastic kickstand wrapped in blue and white cord (carefully wrapped by Tom's wife). "This is the Holy Kickstand," he explained. With a flourish, he attached it to his bike -- his Feather, I should add, so, already the blessing might have been suspect, as the bicycle-damaging curse involves both of us riding our Cannondale Synapses.  Our rain curse is more of a metal frame thing.

Anyway, the blessing:

"Tom and I will be fine," I explained to Bob and Jim.  "It's one of your bikes that's going to have problems."

Removing the kickstand from his bike, he held it with one hand while reaching for his Camelbak tube with the other.

"This water," he said, "has been filtered."  He doused the Holy Kickstand, and then shook it over our bikes.

I was surprised when he put the Holy Kickstand back in his car. I'd have thought we'd need it with us at all times.

The route would take us counterclockwise around the reservoir. The main attractions of this direction, apart from the reservoir itself, are the shorter ascent and the three-mile descent from the top of the reservoir on Stanton-Lebanon Road.  The main disadvantage is that most of the hills are in the second half of the ride.

We stopped at Jerry's Brooklyn Grill in Whitehouse Station for a quick snack before climbing up to the reservoir.

This being Miss Piggy II's first trip to Round Valley, I took a picture of her at the eastern berm:

I can get a few good pictures if I hold the camera against the fence and shoot through the links.

Finally, after years of trying, I got pictures of the berm that come close to showing how wide and steep it is:

At the boat launch, we could see how low the water level is:

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!  I tried not to grab the brakes on the way down.

We passed right by the Stanton General Store. It's still a pizza joint. I'm waiting for it to turn back into a general store that sells muffins the size of my mountain bike cassette. That's not gonna happen, is it?  *Sigh.*  (It's been six years.) We went to the Wawa on Summer Road at Route 202 instead. 

Then we turned onto Higginsville, where we could see the eastern side of the hill that holds Round Valley Reservoir.

At the bottom of Higginsville is the Raritan River.

To get home, I had to get out of the Raritan watershed and back into the Delaware watershed. My plan was to break off from the group on Lindbergh Road, where it meets Ridge, and take Rileyville Road down into Hopewell. I wasn't looking forward to the long slog out of the Hopewell Valley.

We regrouped at Ridge Road. "How many miles do you have left?" I asked Tom.

He checked his GPS. "We have ten miles left."

I looked at my computer and did the math. If I were to follow them back to Griggstown and then go home, I'd be adding 25 miles to the 63 I already had, finishing with 88 miles. We all agreed that it wasn't worth finding 12 more miles to make a century. I was too tired, sticky, and hungry for that. If I were to split off now, I'd have 15 to go, and 78 miles for the day. Good enough. I said my goodbyes and moseyed along the top of the Sourland Mountain on my own.

Halfway up Hopewell-Princeton Road, which isn't half the slog I thought it would be, I remembered that, with tomorrow's rain, I'd have to mow the lawn this afternoon. I had to detour around the closed part of Carter Road, which added a few more miles than I'd planned for. Good thing we have a small yard. The chore helped, I think, to stretch my legs, because I'm not at all sore right now.

Tom, Jim, and Bob got back to Griggstown without incident. The curse has been broken. For now.