The Last of the High Point Rides: Cape May County Weekend

Lake Nummy at Bellplain State Forest 

31 October 2015

We're tired, more tired than we think we should be.  The route was flat. There wasn't a lot of wind.  There were a lot of breaks in those 66 miles.  But we're tired anyway.  I blame it on having to wear leggings this time of year.

I'm sitting on the floor, leaning against my sofa bed, in one of the rooms at Biscayne Suites in Ocean City. Snakehead is my roommate; he has the bedroom, where the wifi connection is stronger, so he can work on a grant application.

Tom and Jim are sharing another room down the hall. Jack H and Dorothy (who did her own ride today), are somewhere else on this floor. Unlike other trips, we're not all hanging out together in somebody's room.  Maybe because we're tired.

Anyway.

Tom met me at my house at 7:30 a.m. I drove, for a change.  We met up with the rest of the crew in Bordentown, and from there we drove to Belleplain State Forest.  On the way down, we passed Mizpah Road, so I can cross another location off the Garden State Stomp list.

We parked next to Lake Nummy (Nummystown is in the Stomp, so close enough).  Tom and I had been here before for an early fall century, years ago, so we knew the terrain and the scenery (flat, monotonous).

I told Jim, "You'll get bored before you get tired."

Lake Nummy picnic area:

Goose prints:

Lake Nummy:

Roots and moss:

Kermit's Halloween costume:

The sky above the picnic area:

Plastic flamingos, because whatever:

An osprey nest near the Maurice River:

The mouth of the Maurice River, with the Salem nuclear power power plant in the distance:

At Ed's request, I'd given him some of the Halloween candy meant for our neighborhood kids.  We figured we could hand it out to everyone we'd see.  At the mouth of the river, we met a kid who was admiring our bikes.  After Ed gave him gobs of candy, I asked if he had a bike.  He said he did, a couple of BMX bikes. When I asked if he could do tricks, he said he could: wheelies, spins, and back flips.  So cool. I'm terrible at guessing ages, but I'll guess that this kid might have been 8 or 9.

This isn't the kid.  This is a juvenile gull:

This is a lighthouse:

At 20 miles we had a break at a Wawa, where I finally had a chance to take pictures of Ed's bike.  He's trying to come up with a name for it.  I'm insisting that its name is Love Child.  I mean, seriously, I'm sitting here on the floor, looking into Ed's bedroom, and he's got the thing next to his bed.  He wants to give his daughters a chance to name the bike. For now, it's Love Child.

A handful of dirt bikers showed up at the same time we did, so we compared adventures and temperature limits. There was an 80-mile event going on, which explained why we were seeing so many dirt bikers on the road and in the woods. Of course, we forgot to hand candy to these guys.

Ross texted me while we were there: "Bike is ready." He was talking about the new Miss Piggy, who, by default, will still be wearing the old Miss Piggy's tires until the new ones arrive, but would have new bar tape to compliment her new colors.  No, I'm not going to tell you yet.

"Wow!  I'm in Cape May for the weekend.  Can you send a picture so I can show the guys?"

If the ride we have planned for tomorrow finishes early enough that I can get home in time, I could go pick it up...

Meanwhile, there was still the matter of getting to the Cape May County high point.  Before that, we encountered a dirt road, because of course we did.

Here, Tom and Jim consult their various GPS devices to find a way out:

This is quintessential Pinelands:

The way around was on Railroad.  True to its name, we crossed tracks and came upon a line of old diesel engines that two men were restoring.  We chatted with one of them while the other continued working. When the engines run again, the're sent back to active duty.  The cabooses, he told us, are used for parts. Nobody runs cabooses anymore.

We forgot to give our Halloween candy to these men too.

Buckshutem!  We rode through Buckshutem, which means I can cross another one off the Garden State Stomp list.

Buckshutem is near the Maurice River. We'd been over the same bridge in the morning, but now the light was better:

We went back to the same Wawa for our second break. By now, Ross had sent pictures, which I'm not going to show you yet. I did show Jim and Tom.  "Eh," Tom said. "Mine's prettier."  

"Hey," I reminded him, "Beggars can't be choosers.  Besides, this was free."   I relayed Tom's response to Ross, who wrote back, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Or at least in the eye of the new owner.

We drove to the hotel in Ocean City, cleaned up, walked to an Italian restaurant for dinner. While we were waiting for our food, I got a text from Jack.  At 7:15, he'd already run out of candy and was wondering if we had anything more.  Whoops.  I wondered how much longer he'd have had if I hadn't taken some with us today.  We agreed it was time to turn off the porch light. Some years we get lots of kids; some years we don't.  Most years we're not even home until most of the youngest ones have come and gone.

After dinner we headed to the boardwalk.

After hours off-season might be the best time to be out here:

Every shop we'd passed so far was closed but one: a salt water taffy and fudge shop, the kind I was never allowed into as a kid. So, of course, we all went in and bought taffy, even though we all know it tastes like plastic.

Even on foot, we can't get away from this:

 This is the best I could do without a tripod nor a lot of time:

A sample of the boardwalk's tacky:

The best bike of the day:

Ed is laying out his clothes for tomorrow: full Kim's Bikes kit, with matching socks, and a jacket that matches Love Child.  He's making the rest of us look bad.

We'll have to remember to hand out our candy tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I'm going to sign off.  It's a rare event for me to get a blog post up before Jim.

Autumn Ride to Cassville

Assunpink Creek at Mercer County Park's East Picnic Area 

24 October 2015

Tom redeemed himself today by taking us on a mellow ride in the flatlands. Even with the extra miles that Jim and I added by starting from my house, Tom didn't break anybody, and none of our bikes broke down either*.

The best scenery appeared before the official start of the ride, on the bike path through Mercer County Park to the East Picnic Area. Tom and I went back to the bridge right away for pictures.

Tom had ridden in from home, as had Marc.  Barry was the only one with a car.  The temperature was in the high 40s.  This is the time of year when I'm always wearing too many layers and not enough pockets. As it turned out, the day did get warmer but he clouds rolled in. We never needed to shed much.

The fall colors are probably peaking now.  Already, some trees are bare and others seem to be going from green to brown.

Our rest stop was in Cassville, at a gas station turned antiques and sandwich shop. We ate inside, among old board games, glass, toys, and unidentifiable metal objects.  The parking lot looked like a yard sale.

We took a few minutes to look at Saint Vladimir Russian Orthodox Church:

After that, we rolled home with a tiny tailwind.



(*Speaking of broken bikes, Cannondale is replacing Miss Piggy's frame with a 2015 or 2016 Synapse. I don't know yet what the new one will look like, but there's a chance the frame will still have some of that frightening green in it.  Of all the well-known Muppets, Miss Piggy is the only one who changes outfits; therefore, the new frame shall retain the Miss Piggy name.)

Parade of the Heavies

17 October 2015

It's mid-October, well into the time of year when I no longer care about distance or difficulty.  It's the time of year that I run my silly rides:  Rojo's to Rojo's; the Stampede tour; and, today, the Parade of the Heavies.

The parade was small: Jim met me at my house, and we scooped up Sean around the corner. We rode to Pennington, where John K was waiting. Snakehead ought to have been there, but family duties called. Gordon had expressed interest, but he often works weekends.  There are a few others I'd hoped to see, because they come out on Hill Slug spring rides on their finest vintages, but, in the end, it was just the four of us.

That makes naming the winners easy:

Most Vintage Components:  Sean's Purple Haze

He bought the frame for $250 on eBay and did it up with parts from his 1971 racing bike. "The scar on the shifter matches the one on my hip," he says, proudly.

Purple skewers aren't exactly era-appropriate, but style is important too.

Our bikes had two things in common today.  First, all were metal (for a change!), and second, we all had the capacity for down tube shifters.

Sean went so retro that he had quite a time stuffing his bootie-covered shoes into his vintage toe cages.

Kokopelli is the head badge:

Newest Retro:  Jim's Krakow Monster

Jim built the Monster in the spring, over the course of a few days.  We see it a lot on rides when he needs to slow himself down.  The components are all new, but Jim made the effort to stay away from the latest in componentry and materials.  You won't find a speck of carbon on the Krakow Monster.

Most Battered: John K's Serotta


It's titanium, but it's from the 1990s. John isn't trying to keep his Serotta pretty or technically hip. (Kermit, my Waterford, is of similar vintage.)

Most Sparkly: Gonzo

I don't know how old Gonzo is.  I got the frame on eBay in 2003, and it was already well-worn back then.  Gonzo could be older than Kermit.  We'll never know.  I'm not trying to use vintage parts, but the front wheel and drive train are from Kermit, who was built in 1997. The rear wheel is the one I just made.

The powder coat, of course, is new.

We might be hitting peak leaf color in the next couple of weeks. This is the western end of Woosamonsa Road, where it meets Bear Tavern Road:

Pleasant Valley Road at Pleasant Valley-Harbourton Road:

Protesting PennEast meets Halloween decoration season on Hewitt Road:

The ride included a planned stop at Wheelfine Imports.  Sean had never been inside.  We lost him in the back, where the clothing is.  He emerged with a wool Campagnolo jersey.

Michael pulled down some wooden rims and expounded on the craft:

Part store, part museum, part fire hazard, Wheelfine Imports is for people who appreciate (OK, Pete G, "fetishize") bicycles as a form of art, and who have a lot of time to spend inside. Because, when Michael senses that you're taken in by it all, he'll start talking, and you'll want to listen.

I was eyeing the rims on the far right*.  Then he told me the price.

Alexauken Creek Road:

We stopped at Rojo's in Lambertville.  My original intention was to go to Owowcow for ice cream too, but it was too cold for that.

Union Street is always good for Halloween decorations.  This house didn't disappoint:

The one across the street maintained the theme:

We were just about moving again when John heard much barking.  On a side street was a fundraiser for a local animal rescue group: a Halloween costume contest.  For dogs.

No self-respecting cat would put up with this.

Just ask Russell, who you can almost see through the reflection in Sean and Dale's front window:

I had been hoping more people would come out for today's ride, but, in the end, the small group was the perfect mix.

*Disrepair Update:

I had an eye exam on Friday morning. It involved checking my retina behind the now mostly healed scratch, which meant another pupil dilation, which meant I'd be useless in the lab until it wore off (and two weeks of steroids now, because the swelling hasn't completely gone down). So, I tossed Miss Piggy and Beaker's prima donna rear wheel into the car and headed over to Pennington after the exam.

"This one lasted four months," I told Ross, as he knelt down to inspect Miss Piggy's front derailleur.  "The thing is," I said, "I can put it where it belongs, but I'll never get it to stay there."

"I'm calling Cannondale," he said. "Hey, Pete, get some pictures of this." He'd read my mind: What if it's the braze-on, part of the frame?  

"But it's been five years," I said.

"Doesn't matter."  

"Five years and we couldn't fix it," I agreed.

I had another question: What could he show me in a reliable, fixable, not-too-expensive wheel set? I told him about the Mavic Helium Anniversary Edition rear spoke that broke over the summer and how it had suddenly gone out of true last week.  "I don't want to be riding on a wheel I'm constantly worrying about. I'm going to take it up to Michael to see what he thinks." 

Ross has a couple of possible wheel sets in the shop, including a pair from Mavic (not again!) that has a more standard spoke setup and blue spoke nipples.  "It'd look good on the Tommasini," Pete said.  Good memory, that kid; the bike hasn't been in the shop since August of 2014.  

"Don't buy anything yet," Ross advised. "Let me ask around and see what's out there." 

I bought a tiny frame pump for Gonzo and left Miss Piggy at Hart's.

Up at Wheelfine, Michael motioned me to follow him to the back, where he popped the wheel into the truing stand.  The good news is that he was able to straighten it out.  The bad news is that the spokes have stretched to the point where they can't be tightened any further, and it's going to go out of true again.  "It depends on how much you can stand," he said.  "These things used to go out after three thousand miles.  Not anymore." I'm at something like 1800 miles.

"Take a look at these," he said, and pulled out a pair of rims laced with round, black spokes. They looked new and classic at the same time.  "Each spoke is four dollars," he said.  The set would be $1500.  "That's too much for me," I told him. I've never paid that much for wheels; the most I've paid is $900 for Kermit's Fulcrum Race 3 pair, and that was painful. 

The rims I noticed today would run $1250.  "Still too much," I said. I'm sure that I'll find something, and, failing that, Michael could build a set that would be both zippy and traditional. Or I could attempt to build a set on my own. I'm not sure I have the patience for that, even if Sean were to agree to let his wheelbuilding tools live here long-term again.  On the other hand, if we have a winter like the last one... Maybe if Michael told me what parts to buy, I could start them and he could finish them for me...  Maybe I need to stop blogging and eat dinner, because I think this blood sugar deficit is making me think loopy things.