Yeah, No.

Pennington-Harbourton Road at Bear Tavern Road 

24 February 2024

"I want to let you know," the rider said, "that I'll be passing everyone on the hills."

My reputation preceeds me.

Today was cold and windy. It started with dreary, damp roads. I'd come up with a short route that stayed out of the Sourlands. The plan was to ride the 35 miles and chow down at Terra Momo afterwards. There would be rollers and one long climb.

I hadn't counted on the dirt road, wet from rain and everything, that connected an office park with the Captial Health complex. Ridewithgps let me map it with a solid red line. I plowed right on through, nine people in tow, only six of them knowing that this was typical Hill Slugs shenanigans. I know I ought to have taken a picture, but I was too busy being amused.

Right after that, my GPS confused me and I had to double back a dozen yards on Scotch Road, not a pretty sight. 

We went down to the Delaware River, stopping briefly at Washington Crossing park to use the overheated restrooms.

I'd used Jacob's Creek Road and Washington Crossing-Pennington Road to get there. These roads had more traffic than I was comfortable with. And, at the turn out of Jacob's Creek to Washington Crossing headed west, there's a surprise hill that Ridewithgps says has a 7.9% grade. It doesn't last long.

The bigger climb was Church Road out of Titusville. It's a grind in stages, with jaw-dropping real estate to distract from the bumpy chip-seal pavement. We got spread out. I had time to get a couple of pictures of the sun breaking through gray clouds.

At the top, I apologized for the route. "I'm usually much more rural and hilly," I said. Then we turned north onto Bear Tavern and had to deal with traffic again. I think that road has become busier over the years. At least we had a wide shoulder.

We turned onto Pennington-Harbourton Road and I got a few more pictures.

We zigzagged east, then did that heinous Route 31 crossing at Woosamonsa where the choice is to get across the road without a light or ride the wrong way up the shoulder for a few hundred yards to the signal at Titus Mill. I did the latter, thinking everyone would follow me. They didn't. They were on the other side of the road. 

That was the end of the traffic, anyway. The rest of the route was me finding a dozen miles between Pennington and Pennington. 

One and done for this route. 

Seven of us hung out in Terra Momo for a while. 

As for the rider who claimed KOM status before we saw our first hill? Wishful thinking.