The Last Go-Round?

I worked the South Jersey Wheelmen's Jersey Devil Metric Century out of Parvin State Park on Saturday 9.21.24, the 45th edition of the club's Devil ride, a full century ride until about 3 years ago. 

The mid-September weather was really fine. I have ridden or worked this rain-or-shine event, always held on the third Saturday of the month, since around 2010, and there has not been a bad-weather day in that stretch. (A Covid-19 no-ride day in 2020, yes.)

Four Boy Scouts and two adult leaders showed up and signed up again this year, after spending the night in the nearby park campsites. The kids are working on a cycling merit badge, so we can be proud of assisting with that.

Still, attendance was down again year-over-year. I wondered if we would be putting on this event, the sole survivor of our club's three open-to-the-public rides, again next year, considering the longtime-trending-downward participation.

A lot goes into putting on such an event, in both time and money. Months in advance, insurance binders and state-park permits have to be obtained (and paid for), along with approval from the Quinton volunteer firemen to use their firehall as a food and comfort station.  Also leading up to the day-of is food procurement and prep, lining up who is responsible for what (parking, registration, food set-up, driving a SAG vehicle, manning the Quinton food stop). In the week or so before the ride, road-marking is done. This year a few of us went out on a pre-ride of the two courses (63- or 32-miles) on the Sunday before the public ride, looking for new road-work detours while testing the cue sheet and Ride with GPS file, plus double-checking the road markings. (And still, on ride day we found that some 3 miles of new chip-seal was laid down in the interim!)

All the volunteered time and effort gives our club an annual focus, maybe even the main reason for SJW to exist. It brings together a current core group of about 15 members (out of only 44 total, another downward-trending number) for a common purpose of putting on a good show for the riding public to enjoy, the last of its kind in the area. Even if the dollars don't work out, it may be enough in that it pays dividends in terms of club esprit de corps.