Ripping Off the Bandage

Rocktown Road

12 March 2025

"Might as well get this over with," I told my regulars when I let them know I'd posted a ride for Saturday morning. I'd put in enough hills to get us past 50 feet per mile, a cruel thing to do on a blustery day. The forecast hadn't shown 25 mph gusts when I'd posted the route.

This is a NOAA forecast. Enjoy it before NOAA is disappeared.

Several Slugs were out of town or out of the country. Plain Jim thought me out of my mind. Rickety, Pete, Our Jeff, and Brad were willing to brave the elements.

My ride from home to Twin Pines is northwest, which was directly into the wind. It was a slog. 

"I might cut the ride short," I said when I got to the parking lot. "Let's see how we feel." 

I leaned Janice against Jeff's car and sat on the ground to remove the toe warmers from inside my shoes. A gust of wind nearly blew Janice to the ground.

Pete reported that at least the wind hadn't blown over the porta-potties at the other parking lot. The last time we were up here, folks had to use the bushes.

We started the ride heading into the wind across the open fields of the Pole Farm. "Imagine what it's like out in Cranbury right now," I said. We got into the trees a few miles later and the wind didn't seem so bad.

We were sheltered all the way up Stony Brook Road and over Snydertown Road. Near the top of Rocktown Road, there are open farm fields, and we felt the wind again. 

We crossed Route 31 at Rocktown Road. Jim refuses to come on any rides that go this way*. I don't think it's as bad as all that, but his animosity will make me more creative next time.

When we reached Mount Airy, of course we stopped for the cows. There were only a few this time, and they had their heads in the round trough of hay.

"Are we stopping at Onion Coffee?" Pete asked as we reached the bottom of Alexauken Creek Road.

"We are now," I said, because that's what I'm going to be calling Union Coffee from now on.

The place was packed. It never disappoints. In Heddy's honor, both Rickety and I got cortados.

We had a tailwind, finally, as we climbed up Rocktown Road.

The trees on Dinosaur Hill sheltered us from the crosswind. At Rock Road, I took a vote. "I'm thinking I want to stick with the planned route," I said. That would mean one more hill and five more miles. If we cut the route short by going straight or left on Rocktown, we'd be riding in traffic on Route 579. My planned route would get us off of that. The consensus was to stick to the route. We turned right.

Pete was convinced we'd have a big climb out of the valley on Woodens Lane. I was pretty sure there wasn't much of a hill at the other end. I ended up being right, and Pete took a picture at the top, to remind himself, I guess, that the road only sucks in the other direction.

We took Pleasant Valley-Harbourton Road to avoid the worst of Pleasant Valley.

Route 579 was as busy as ever. We weren't on it long.

We finally had a tailwind for the last few miles back to Pennington. It didn't help my average much. We barely made the listed C+ pace.

The moon was out.

I let the tailwind push me home.

 (*I totally get that. I stopped going on Winter Larry's rides because he would either end up at the Chateau de Ptomaine halfway, or at Battleview Orchards 15 miles into a 45-mile ride. This was back before we would post our routes, so I would never know my fate until I got to Cranbury.)