weekend rides

Saturday, Nov 21: Laura OLPH planned a ride notable for two things: the route, which went about 25 miles from Pennington to Lambertville (normally that would be about sixteen miles, but direct is never what we're about), and the fact that we got to see some folks - Mighty Mike, Robert, Celeste, Winter Larry - whom we haven't seen on Hill Slug rides in quite some time. Also notable about the route was the unusual way we left Lambertville: by going up 179 to Mill Road, then across to Rocktown-Lambertville. There wasn't much traffic, and this seemed much less demanding than any of the usual routes (although that may just have been novelty. Unless you float down the river, you've gotta climb pretty much any way you leave Lambertville). While this route included a number of roads we ride often, we did a number of them in the opposite direction. That, and the good group, made this ride fun; I hope we do this route (or some variation) again soon.

Some pics: First, Celeste and Laura both had their lovely blue bikes: I was afraid one or the other  would have to go home and change, or something:

Today, eight or nine of use went out with Jeff H from Cranbury. Over the summer, he'd led a really fast ride (listed as a "B", but actually faster), on some busy roads with little shoulder. He's mostly learned better; the pace was manageable ( you can see on my ride page), but he still takes some busy roads (he seems to like a stop in Englishtown/Old Bridge, near the auction, to which there doesn't seem to be a bike-friendly road). That said, this ride was generally on much better-for-bikes roads than the previous I rode with him; I'll give him an award for Most Improved Player.

Raj was showing off his excellent new Colnago:

We found a road closed on the way out... but we got through.

On the way back, there was ANOTHER closure, but Chris knew we could get through this one.

The group split just before we found this closure. Jeff went to chase the others, and a few of us made out way back.