92% of a hilly ride with tom h

After yesterday's fast, hilly ride, I didn't want another fast one... but Tom H had one in the book:

HILLS ALONG THE DELAWARE: Join Tom as he heads along the quiet roads and scenic hills along the Pennsylvania and NJ side of the Delaware River. Terrain will be hilly with a couple of tough climbs at a slow B pace.

Tom promised 45-55 miles, and I figured I could do that. So I headed out to Bull's Island at some ridiculous hour this morning to get there by 8:30, and came up behind Tom's pickup.

Six others came: Laura OLPH, Cheryl, Blake, Barry Y, Henrietta (who came out on yesterday's "fast boys" ride), and Ed, whom I've not met before. We set up, enjoyed the plumbing at Bull's Island (it was open! Yayy!), and set off.

Before you look at the route, you need to know that I forgot to turn off the GPS when I put the bike in the car. The last three miles of the linked route are an arrant fraud, as is the top speed, and (to a certain extent) the average speed. Laura and I did about 45.5 miles; the last time I looked at the GPS prior to packing the bike, my top speed was 37.0 and my average was 14.1. So here's the linked route, stupid mistakes and all.

We started off by heading up to Sergeantsville to see the covered bridge (Henrietta asked me a couple of times if these were the same roads we had done yesterday. HAH! As if I would know! That's why I have a GPS!). I remember suffering on Upper Creek, but I was able to keep going. I wasn't always out front (Blake and Henrietta were usually showin' me the way), but I had better recovery from yesterday than I would have predicted.

Hartpence was tough, but I remember the nifty, ripping downhill on Hickory Corner, and Milford-Mt Pleasant. Unfortunately, the camera batteries gave out, so I didn't get good pictures there. We crossed the river at Milford, and stopped in at the Black Eddy store, where I got replacement batteries while Cheryl and Laura fed their coffee addictions. I got some pictures there.

The off to climb the hill at Bridgeton Hill Road (Whew! No warmup! Just leave the stop and climb!). We rode the ridge in Pennsylvania, and when Laura stopped to get a picture, we lost the rest of the group. We came to a place where one road said "No Thoroughfare" (or something), and took the other road when we saw a shadow of a rider ahead. It turned out that the road we didn't take went into a state park, and that was where Tom led. Laura and I took Tory Road to Cafferty, and Laura was impressed with Cafferty enough that I wouldn't be surprised if there were a Hill Slugs ride that incorporated Cafferty before the pumpkins are ripe.

After some phone conversation with Tom, Laura and I went on to the pedestrian bridge at Lumberville to wait for the rest, and we swapped opinions about wheel construction and eleven-speed cassettes. Laura got some pictures of fauns going beneath the bridge (I'll link to 'em when she posts 'em, if I remember Edit: I remembered; see her blog post here), and we chatted with some other folks crossing the bridge until Tom and the rest of the ride showed up.

And then I put the bike in the car without turning off the GPS... but you know that part.

Pictures:

At Black Eddy:

(I like bike pictures.)

At the top of some hill or other:

Making sure this was the correct turn:

It was.

Laura taking a picture; we're about to get lost.

Re-connecting at the bridge: