No Pig for You

 Province Line Road

20 February 2019

Once upon a time I would check the morning temperature, see that it was below freezing, and head to the gym. Somewhere in the last couple of years the temperature no longer mattered as much as whether or not the roads were clear and if I'd been out the day before.

Six other people must have had similar criteria because we started the ride from Twin Pines with seven people. Ricky started from home with me. Jim and Martin had driven to the park. Andrew had biked in from home. We were about to leave when Ken came bouncing across the field on his gravel bike. Minutes after we set out, Racer Pete caught up to us.

When texting me the night before, Ricky had strongly hinted that we should stop at The Pig.* We weren't getting any argument from Jim when I made the suggestion. The trick would be to get enough miles in with enough time left to stop for coffee before The Pig's noon closing time. That would give us a little over two hours.

I had no set route in mind. We started out by heading towards Province Line at Cherry Valley.

As we started up I signaled to Martin to stop for pictures of the dilapidated silo. Try as I might there's no way I can't see this as looking slightly obscene. Now you can't either. You're welcome.

I liked how we could see the sky through the holes in the roof.

When we caught up, Jim informed us that, at a dozen miles in, we already had over one thousand feet of vertical ascent.

Oops.

Sorry not sorry.

We went across the mountain at Ridge, down Rileyville to Saddle Shop, down Runyon Mill, over to Rocktown, and back up the mountain on Linvale. From there we went sideways on Mountain, north on Rileyville, and sideways again on Mountain Church.

At the bottom of Stony Brook in Hopewell I checked the time. We had more miles than minutes to reach The Pig at a reasonable hour.

Ken and Andrew left for home.

We tried anyway, ditching the leisurely pace for a high-end B to get back to Pennington. As we approached Main Street it was clear we'd missed our chance, so I led the group through the back of Pennington over to the Dunkin Donuts on Tree Farm Road.

It was toasty-warm in there, and not until we stepped outside again did I realize how cold it had been outside. It was cloudy now too. With no more hills in the way we hoofed it back to the park.

I was short on miles but it was too cold for more.

I'm going to have to figure out how to get to The Pig mid-ride on Sundays. Starting earlier, and more than two miles away, would help.

*Sourland Coffee; the explanation is here.