Hill Slug Chronicles: Along the Delaware

Delaware River at Bulls Island

3 September 2026

Oh, hi. It's been a while. I got back from Maine this week. There are 13 blog posts stacked up behind this one, so let's get to it.

We're going all the way back to early August for this one. I was trying to think of what could tie a month of rides together when I realized that they all hugged the Delaware River.

The first was a towpath ride after a rainfall the night before. We started from Washington Crossing on the NJ side. Mike V was leading.

We went south to cross the river at I-295, then rode north on the PA side. There were puddles to be skirted, not always successfully.

The first great blue heron was worth stopping for.

Cardinal flowers, bright red, stood out from the muddy canal water.

A pile of turtles was too far away to try to identify.

We had to lift our bikes over a downed tree. Martin took this picture:

I noticed a funky fungus, "golden oyster mushroom," (thanks, iNaturalist!) on the trunk.

As we approached New Hope, the canal became choked with these yellow flowers, which might be "floating primrose willow."

Our rest stop was at the Vanilla Cafe. We were sweaty and muddy and they seated us anyway. I went into the bathroom to wipe myself down and left a trail of mud flecks behind.

While the cafe serves beautiful pastries, I don't recommend it as a biking rest stop. First, it's a sit-down place; second, it's expensive; and third, there's not much on offer besides fancy coffee and said pastries.

As we left, I noticed the ground-in flowers that had fallen from the pots on the side of the cement steps leading into the cafe.

As a sample of the muck, I took a picture of Fozzie's tail light.

When I got home, I hosed down the bike.

That Saturday, Tom led a ride from Bordentown to Roebling. He moved the start time up because it was going to be very hot again.

We detoured to the river because Tom always stops at the eagle.

Here, a "little free library" was instead a "little free bike supply cabinet."

Dave S had a hill hell ride scheduled for the next day. Our Jeff and I knew better and I signed up for his shorter, slightly less hilly ride from Washington Crossing (again). We started early to avoid the heat.

We ran into Ron and Ken and Chris in the parking lot as they were setting off for a towpath ride. Our destination was the French pastry place in Titusville at the end of the ride. I'd stopped by there once before, shortly after it opened, and determined that there was nothing in there that I wanted to eat. This day's ride confirmed that. Even the coffee was bad. But Jeff and I had fun not killing ourselves.

And the following Thursday, I was at Washington Crossing again for a towpath ride with Ron and Ken.

We stayed on the NJ side, which I prefer. The surface is better and the path is wider.

There was a great blue heron in the Wickecheoke Creek at Prallsville Mills.

We crossed the Delaware at Bulls Island.

Our rest stop was at the Lumberville General Store, where I stuffed my pocket with cookies to take home.

Meanwhile, I had listed a ride from Lambertville to Upper Black Eddy on Wednesday morning. By Thursday it was full at 10 riders.

For the first time, I experimented with a waitlist. We use Club Express, an online portal. There is very little information about how a waitlist works. I found out the hard way that it doesn't. If a rider joins the waitlist, they don't have the option to sign the waiver and enter their emergency information. Instead, if someone cancels and a spot opens up, they will receive an email telling them as much. The problem is, if they're not online the instant that happens, someone else can jump in and register.

Fortunately, I hadn't set the software to notify riders automatically, because there was no explanation in the help section of what the "notify" button would actually do. When I saw who was on the waitlist (two Lennys and an Alf), I decided to change the registrant number to 13, which I really didn't want to do, but it was two Lennys and an Alf. Then I emailed all of them to tell them to hurry up and register, which they did. But their registering didn't take them off the waitlist. When a fourth person added himself, I let him in, and when Alf canceled, I changed the maximum back to 13, which was already three people too many. I really didn't want 13 people.

Then, on Friday evening, a fastboy begged to be added. I replied that the ride was alreaday oversubscribed. He did that thing that snubbed people do, more or less telling me I was no good anyway. Whatever. Then another person wanted in. Again I said no, adding that there were already too many people and I didn't want to overwhelm the folks at Homestead. He understood and said he might take the route and start an hour later. I emailed the fastboy to tell him as much, and when, the next morning, another rider asked, I told him the same thing.

I should add here that the Team Social Security rides are always full the minute they're listed. They don't do waitlists. Apparently you have to know when the ride will be posted and get in there immediately. At least my ride took a day to fill.

Anyway, we started from Lambertville with two Bobs, two Lennys, and two Toms in the mix. We rode in two states, crossed two bridges, and had too many people.

One of my favorite roads in Hunterdon County is Gallmeier, starting from Everittstown Road. It's a descent that lasts a good long time before Stamets arrives to ruin the rush.

We crossed over the Delaware in Milford.

At the Homestead General Store in Upper Black Eddy, we lucked out, arriving between waves of patrons.

There were dragonflies in the canal, and they were moving fast. I aimed my phone at a patch of water and snapped a photo every time a dragonfly got close. This was the best I could do. They were probably common whitetails, from what I could see with my naked eyes.

We rode on the PA side to Uhlerstown and crossed back to NJ there.

From there, we rode along the river until we reached Fairview, because I hate Horseshoe Bend and I hate Spring Hill even more. Fairview is a slog, for sure. I told Heddy and Our Jeff that if they could climb this, they could climb Cadillac Mountain in a week.

We reconvened at the top.

Tom had plotted a route that would get him away from Route 29 in Stockton; my plan had been to take Lower Creek all the way down, because it's Lower Creek. I'd found his alternate on ridewithgps and downloaded it. When we reached the covered bridge, I gave people the choice.

There would be more hills to get away from traffic, or people could play in traffic. Our Jeff said, "I'll play in traffic. I have a good lawyer." Some people went with him.

I led the rest of us up Covered Bridge Road. At the top, I suddenly remembered something from Spanish class in high school and felt compelled to explain it: "I had a teacher from Venezuela. Somebody said 'it's a piece of cake,' and we had to explain to her what that meant. After that, she would tell us, 'it's cakes.' So we're done with the big hills. From here on, it's cakes."

We rode up to the Sandy Ridge church, and down Mount Airy Road. Tom had wanted to turn off on Seabrook, but I directed him to Lambertville Headquarters instead. At the bottom of Seabrook, which has questionable paving, is a turn onto Brookville Hollow, which means slowing down and then climbing an annoying hill. By taking Lambertville Headquarters, we would reach Brookville Hollow after all that mess.

Everyone got back at more or less the same time. Heddy and I went to Luminary for something to drink. Then we followed Blob to Oh Wow Cow, because it was his birthday, so we bought him an ice cream cone.

The next day, I was back in Lambertville again for another Ron and Ken towpath ride, this time to Frenchtown. The late summer flowers were putting on a yellow show.