Almost Spring

 

Mount Airy

8 March 2026

Last Sunday I did a solo ride in the late afternoon with my GoPro mounted on Janice's handlebar. Of the 30 miles I recorded, 22 became a Rouvy route that, if you're a subscriber, you can find here.

In order to submit a clean ride, I need to be by myself or out in front. Nobody wants their butt to be part of a permanent Rouvy video. I had mounted the camera for the ride I planned to lead yesterday, but, given the size of the group and the murky skies, I removed it before I headed out.

I'd promised a mellow ride with what I thought was an accurate measurment elevation gain. We got the former, not so much the latter. I have a route from Pennington to Lambertville that I like so much I'd already used it twice before yesterday.

The usual cadre of fast climbers was absent, and a few others hadn't been out in months. That left me in the front of the pack for almost the entire ride. I regretted not having the camera, cloud cover be damned. This means, of course, that I'll be wanting to do this route again, under blue skies, either by myself or with people who are willing to stay behind me or be so far ahead that they'll be out of camera range.

Almost all of the snow was gone. The roads were damp from overnight rain. The temperature was in the mid 40s, which felt balmy compared to the February deep freeze. 

There was a slight wind out of the south. I think that helped us climb.

We did the usual stuff: Stony Brook to the ridge, then over to Rocktown to cross at Route 31. There were traffic-counting tubes on both sides of Rocktown. Either a giant development is coming in (not likely), or some sort of traffic calming measure is planned (please please please). Plain Jim took the safe route down the shoulder of 31 to cross at Rocktown Hill Road. The rest of us waited forever for a break in the traffic. 

We did stop briefly for the Mount Airy cows. "If you search my hard drive for 'Mount Airy cows,' I said, "you'll get hundreds." I'm doing a search now, which only has photos since I bought this laptop in 2021. I am very wrong. It's only 27, plus these 5.

If I had brought my camera, I'd have recorded the jack-knifed tractor-trailer that had wedged its rear wheels into the dirt between Mount Airy Village Road and the sharp incline leading to the Mount Airy cows. We were able to ride around it and the cop car to get to Queen Road.

We got spread out on Alexauken Creek Road. A lot of us like to dally there. It's one of my favorite roads.

Union ("Onion," as Pete calls it) Coffee was crowded and well worth the short wait.

We climbed out of town on Rocktown, as usual, where there was some discussion of whether Garmin would call this one hill or two. At the top, the consensus was two. Dinosaur Hill was the third of the four remaining. 

At Rock Road, I went west instead of the usual east, and when we learned that Dave H had never been into Wheelfine, we took a quick detour. With 7 of us in there, we filled the place. 

Woodens Lane from top to bottom is a scenic way to get back towards Pennington. We skirted the hell that is (Un)Pleasant Valley by cutting off at Pleasant Valley-Harbourton, which is also pretty.

Route 579 now officially sucks. We weren't on it for long. It was a straight shot back towards Route 31 from there. 

I put new lenses in my sunglasses last week. I'd found a cheap pack on Amazon. The one I popped in is polarized. When I look through the glasses into my rear-view mirror, car windows look green or purple. So did Dave H's helmet, and I wondered how he'd managed to find a dichroic helmet. One side was purple, the other green, with a center orange stripe. When we stopped at the intersection of Tree Farm Road and Route 31, I asked him about it. "It's black," he said, confused. And indeed it was, when I looked at it straight on. Back in the Twin Pines parking lot, I held his helmet behind me and saw a shimmer of green. Cool! I can trip while I'm riding!