The were three of us lucky souls that decided to climb in the mountains in the Sourland Mountain range. We have ridden some of these roads before but we extended the route to include some tough climbs.
Along the way we were on some beautiful country roads. One of my favorites is Cider Mill Road because it has a steel bridge that crosses the Raritan River and makes you feel like you are a million miles away from the civilization when in actuality you are only several miles from a number of retail concerns.
The Cider Mill Road Bridge
A silo from one of the farms on Cider Mill Road
As the photo taker I rarely am able to take photos with myself in the photo but I was able to catch up with my two riding buddies, Blake W and Laura C, and take a photo of them a bit further up the road.
Cider Mill Road with a view of the countryside and my riding buddies
We didn't do any major hills at this point (Stony Brook is not that hard just long) and continued on our way through the country roads until the next bridge which was on Higginsville Road just before a short but steep climb. The climb comes after this bridge.
Farm on Higginsville Road
Our rest stop was at the WAWA on Summer Road. It's always busy at this convenience store but it's a welcome rest stop for cyclists.
I did manage to make it into some of these photos!
Fully hydrated we headed back down Summer Road into Neshanic before one of the big climbs of the day....Zion Road. This road has been feared by many cyclists because of the length and the never ending false tops. I was too busy climbing to think about that or to take any photos!
We continued up the Sourland Ridge on Long Hill ....another long climb, although not so steep, to the top where it intersects with Lindberg Road. We were now at the top of the ridge. We made a left onto Lindberg until the split in the road and took the left onto Provinceline Road. Anyone who has done this section of Lindberg before it forks at the top knows the steepness of the climb. It gives you a false sense that it is not a hard climb but it certainly is a difficult one because there is no momentum to be had before the climb. Most times my average speed climbing this section is 4-5 mph! It just enough to stay clipped in without falling over and off the bike. You may ask why we do this road?? Well the short answer is that there is the most beautiful scenery on the downhill after that climb. I wish I could snap a photo but because of braking and a sharp turn in the road before continuing that decent all the way to Route 518 it would be unwise and almost impossible to stop for a photo. Cars do use this road and it's unsafe to stop along this decent.
We headed into Hopewell Boro and decided we had enough water in our bottles and enough energy in our legs to forego a rest stop at the Brick Farm Market or Boro Bean. We made a left after cycling through town onto Crusher Road and a right on Pennington-Hopewell Road to head back to Pennington and back to the ride start.
We ended up with 44.4 miles and 2,949 feet of climbing. Not bad for a day's ride. The awesome scenery takes your mind off some of the tough climbs for sure.
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