What Tailwind?

 

Mount Airy

18 May 2025

If I'm going to lead a ride from Pennington to Sergeantsville, I don't have to think about planning a route. I've done the ride so many times I can make it up as I go along and still get us back to the start in about 45 miles.

This time, I decided to try something different. I picked roads I haven't been on in a while or that I usually ride in the opposite direction. I map first and check elevation gain when I'm finished. This one was, by Ridewithgps measures, slightly more than my usual default of 50 feet per mile*. Thinking Saturday would be a washout, I left all the hills in there.

Saturday wasn't a washout (although we all needed washing after it was over). That meant three of us would have tired legs on Sunday.

The forecast was for cool temperatures, clear skies, and a steady 14-21 mph west wind, gusting to 30 mph. I used my ride to Twin Pines, into the wind, to gauge how the rest of the day was going to feel. 

JackH and Pete, who were with me yesterday, were at the start today. We were joined by Blob and John K. Pete asked, "How was the ride up?"

"Challenging."

"Really? I didn't feel anything." Because he had a tailwind, or he was lying.

We left Pennington the usual way. Things got different when I didn't turn down Wargo. Instead, we took Titus Mill all the way to Route 31, and Woosamonsa to Route 579. We turned down Harbourton-Mount Airy, rode down Pleasant Valley to Valley, and then I dragged everyone up Woodens Lane.

I've only been up that hill a few times. What I remember is the upper part of an old car buried in a driveway at the top of the hill. What I didn't remember is that there are two hills on Woodens, so I kept looking for the car and not finding it until the very end.

We were spread out on Woodens. My radar showed a car approaching from behind. I looked in my mirror. There was nothing behind me. Not a car, not a person.

That was it for the big climbs for a while. We went down Dinosaur Hill for a change. When we began the descent from South Hunterdon High School towards Mount Airy, I had to pedal to stay upright. John and Jack said they were getting blown sideways.

I hadn't brought my camera with me. The sky above the farm was too good to skip, though, so I dug out my phone. I think my phone might be capturing color better than my little Canon PowerShot does.

There were a few cows in a back pasture. If I'd had the Canon, I'd've taken a picture of them, because my PowerShot does optical zoom up to 40x. You can almost see them here, if you click on the photo. They're the little dots in the center, below the tree line.

The newest iteration of the Covered Bridge market is an Italian deli. John K pointed to the canolis. I warned Blob not to have a quiche moment. The biker ahead of us in line ordered one. Good for him if his stomach can handle it. 

When I asked for a cortado, which is on the menu, the woman behind the counter wanted to make sure I knew it would be a shot of espresso and (she held out her fingers to at least an inch) milk. I don't know how to make a cortado, but I do know that if there's more milk than coffee, it ain't a cortado. "Have you made one before?" I asked. A good cortado tastes like coffee, not milk.

"No," she said.

"I'll have a drip coffee then," I said. She looked relieved.

Before we left, I checked the bike rack for jumping spiders, but, because Heddy wasn't there, no spiders were either. 

I took a quick video of the wind in the trees to document our day.

I usually stay off Rosemont-Ringoes Road on the way home. Today I promised a tailwind for the length of it. That didn't work out. I watched the grass being blown every which way as we headed east-southeast. 

We turned onto Boss into Ringoes, past the very empty and signless Carousel Deli. Maybe we got a push along Wertsville Road before we turned up Linvale. 

At the top of the mountain, JackH said, "This route looked good on paper."

That was before we climbed our last double-humper hill, Woodsville Road. "I hate that hill," JackH told us. Having been up New Road too many times recently, I stayed the course. It wasn't so bad. I think the wind might have shifted towards the north, because the ascent felt easier than it ought to have. 

We went down Mine Road. The last time I did that was forever ago. We only had to pause slightly as we crossed Route 31; there was no traffic in either direction. When has that ever happened?

Emerging from the woods on Pennington Rocky Hill Road, the wind smacked us in the face on the way to Pennington, which would have put the gusts out of the southwest. That, or the crosswind was so strong as not to have mattered which way it was actually coming from. 

Anyway, we all made it back to the start without having toppled over. I finally got a tailwind on the way to my house. 

My legs felt much better than I'd expected them to. Slow as I am, Janice really is built for the hills. That's what I geared her for, and my sky-high handlebars set my weight towards the back, which helps with climbing and destroys me on the flats. 

I'll do this route again someday, as long as it's not hot. Meanwhile, JackH knows he's put a bug in my ear about planning an epic ride up in Warren County. It's been a long, long time since we've cruised down River Road north of Riegelsville. 

(*I ended up with 55 feet per mile, margin of error stuff.)