schnauzers.ws

I had a plan today. Since I was off from work, I would go somewhere to ride that I have never been to. Of course, I still wanted to keep the distance reasonable, so I Google mapped my directions to Round Valley State Park. The directions said an hour and a half, but I was figuring more due to morning rush hour traffic. The park which is named after the reservoir it surrounds is located above Trenton in the middle of the state. It’s the Piedmont Plateau region which is known for rolling hills and rocks. That was also part of the plan. Bring the new bike to the rocks.

After loading up the car, i was surprised that the trip only took 1:15 even with traffic. Wow! It’s as close as the Deleware trails I have been riding. The other surprise was hills. Yes, climbs over 200′ for a change.

The weather was a little gloomy when I arrived, which was unexpected. But no rain.

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Around 11:00 I found myself bored, so I figured time to go for a ride. I didn’t feel like going very far, so I decided to head around the corner to Mount Laurel State Park. This is the latest adopted trail system by NJMBA-DRC and although they have not worked on it yet, it gets a lot of use by joggers. It may only be 20 acres with a trail thats 2 miles long, but those two miles are either up or down with lots of technical challenges thrown in. Six miles here (three laps) is a workout. The logovers are huge and frequent and there’s even a couple of rocks, which is very unusual for this area. This will be my alternate workout during the week once the days get longer. One night road, the next dirt.Trailhead right to a climb:

Click read more for more photos.

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Allaire State Park, NJ

Given some of the recent events that have taken place in my biking life, I decided it would be a good idea to just get away on my own and release some of the angst that has been building these past few weeks. I figured a ride on my own would allow me to concentrate on my own riding technique and not have to worry about others around me. Don’t get me wrong, I like riding in a group, but I just needed to chill out a bit. This way I can go as fast or slow as I want and not have to worry about anyone else. I chose Allaire State Park because it was far from the rest of the world, I know the place well, there are some very steep short climbs that would challenge the SS, and I could shoot myself out of a cannon on the flat twisty sections.

It was 24F when I hit the parking lot and just a few cars. The sun was warm as it starts to do with spring coming, so it really didn’t feel all that bad. The wind was starting to pick up though as was called for, so I knew it would feel a lot colder when I was done and sweaty from the ride.

I start off hitting the usual suspect downhill to the river. I love the drop-offs that the poorly designed water bars have created in this section. Fun stuff and not too hard on the body even on a hardtail SS. It seems more fun on a 26" bike though as the 29er wheels don’t fly as high. I make it to the bottom and this section that is usually mushy, is frozen solid. Very nice!

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2/5/06 – Wharton State Forest, NJ

We met up with some of the Delaware Trailspinners to show them some more ridable (even when wet) terrain. There were eight of us heading out with Jeff and I leading the group around this huge forest. The sandy roads were damp, but ridable. We ride up Quakerbridge Road to the red trail entrance. Things were a bit chewed up from enduro riders which made the already soft sand worse. But we kept going.

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