Monday Washington Crossing Park, NJ Ride

Monday June 29th

I have been looking for hills rides since I returned to NJ and have found several that would fit my slow turning legs.  Remember I have been in the flatlands of Florida and need to be brought back up to speed with the regular hill riders.

Joe Bucci had a ride from Washington Crossing State Park in NJ at 10 AM.  It was the perfect ride for me....and several others.  The weather was perfect too.

The ride leader, Joe is on the left sporting the latest Princeton Freewheeler's Jersey and matching gloves.

Here is a little bit about the park.

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/parks/washcros.html

For the Floridians who have not visited NJ yet, this is the site where Washington crossed the Delaware from the PA side to the NJ side.  In fact, there is a re-enactment every Christmas Day so if you are ever in the area it is worth seeing.  They dress in full garb and the actors look like the real people!

Seven smiling faces left the park and climbed up Church Street to get to the Sourland Mountain range.  It is the area that the hill climbers frequent most often.  One of the roads....which we did today.....Poor Farm Road...in 18% at the top.  It's a real leg burner for sure.

We continued on over the range and on the other side of the mountain range to Amwell Road.  Two winery's....both pretty good...are in this area.   I joked with Joe that we should do a ride someday to both wineries and get a sag home.  There would be lots of smiling faces despite all the climbing that was done to get there for some wine tasting!

http://unionvillevineyards.com/

http://www.oldyorkcellars.com/


Our rest stop was at the Carousel Deli in Ringoes, NJ which is a favorite stop in that area. 

We got back on our bikes and headed back over the Sourland Mountain range with more hills than we did coming over to Ringoes.    I asked the group to stop at the corner of Lambertville HQ and Sandy Ridge to take a photo or two.

One of the small climbs was Mt Airy Road in Lambertville.   Here is what we saw....

This is a working farm that has been at top of this hill for many many years.  We usually stop at the top to say hello to the cows ( but really to catch our breaths)

We have several more hills to climb including one that was a 12% grade at the top.  We turned the corner and started to head back to the start but I had to stop to take just a few more photos.

These ox's are all over the area.  Each one has it's own character which is reflected in how it's painted.  One of the past PFW members painted a full scene of Washington crossing the Delaware.  That ox was sold at a nice price and proceeds went to charity.  This ox is next to a farm stand.

We arrived back with 38 miles and 2500 ft of climbing.  It was a great ride.  I hope to do more of this ride in July as Joe has agreed to lead on Monday's from this park at 9 AM.  Come join him.  The sites are worth the climbs.   Thank you Joe.