Ben's Blog

Greenwood lake ride

I went for a ride with the Bicycle Touring Club of North Jersey on Sunday. It was hot and terribly humid. There were four of us: myself, a relatively new road biker named Mitch, the ride leader, and one other fellow. We left the Southern tip of Greenwood Lake around 8:50am. Three of us went ahead of the ride leader, and rode down Clinton road. The fellow who led us down Clinton Road then decided he had too much to do, so he left us (Mitch and I) waiting for the ride leader. We waited about 20 minutes, and then rode back up Clinton Road looking for him.

When we didn’t find the ride leader, I suggested we ride North and circle around near Greenwood Lake. I didn’t know the area, but I knew Greenwood lake was to the East, so I figured we would go North, then head East until we hit Route 17A, which goes across the Northern Edge of Greenwood lake.

In the end, we rode a little over 41 miles. I was pretty spent by the end, since I’ve only done four rides this season. Comming down the hill into waypoint #7 (see below), we hit 44 MPH. OUr overall average was 16.6MPH. Ride time (the amount of time during which the bike was moving) was 2 hours, 29 minutes.

Climbing the mountain right out of Bellvale was quite tough. I was in my 39×23 gear, and Mitch had 39×25, so he was able to spin faster than I could, so I had to either peddle faster than him or fall over. It was tough enough that I had to walk the bike in a couple spots. I’ve ordered a 12-27 cassette, so we’ll see how that goes.

It was my first time trying ClifBars. Not bad….

Since I came close to running out of water last week, I lashed a Nalgene 48oz waterbottle into my bike cage. I think I’ve found a cage that will hold it without having to be strapped in. We’ll see.

Here’s the map (Northwest is up) and profile:

Sloatsburg Ride

On Sunday, I set out around 11am from Sloatsburg to ride up to Greenwood lake. I was hoping to attempt to complete the ride I failed to complete in July of 2004. The idea was to ride from Sloatsburg up the East shore of Greenwood Lake, then back to Sloatsburg.

When I got to the general store at the North end of Greenwood lake, there were a bunch of cyclists there. Turns out they were doing a 200K (120 mile) Brevet called the New York City 200K Brevet. I decided to ride with them for a while. There were about 8 of us. I ended up with four others in the lead group. One of the guys got really bad muscle cramps so we stopped for about 20 minutes until the support car showed up to take him away.

We parted ways at waypoint #5 (see below). I rode back to Sloatsburg, and they went on, eventually returning to New York City.

Here’s the map (NW is up) and profile: