Gibbstown-Springtown URR rando ride again

Rode a rando route solo yesterday (26th straight month), Gibbstown-Springtown Underground Railroad, and happened to pick a day when the wind really favored me; it was mild in my face going South in the first half, then picked up a bit to become a nice tailwind on my return.

Still, I struggled, with my legs protesting the effort, which surprised me, as I had gotten a lot of miles in during January. Maybe it was the amount of up and down today, or the fact that I didn't get a lot of sleep last nite. Or maybe it was my lowered tire pressures, as I was trying 65/55psi, rr/fr. Dunno, but coming back thru Swedesboro with less than 7 miles to go, I did an unusual thing: I stopped for a big slice of pizza at Mama Francesca's. It was great, I ate it standing up and I felt revived.

I saw an eagle in a tree watching over a distant pasture along Kings Highway. Thought I captured it in a picture, but I must've aimed at the wrong tree.

Heard a big bunch of blackbirds carrying on near the Salem County landfill on McKillup Road. They were trash-talking, I guess.

At home later, I got a call from riding buddy Geo, who said he saw me riding as he drove by. Cool. As it turns out, the last time I rode this route, it was with Geo!

Map, route profile and pics here:

Gibbstown-Springtown rando ride - A bike ride in Gloucester County, NJ (ridewithgps.com)

Gibbstown-Springtown NJ 107km randonneur ride 7.10.2022

 I rode with rando George B on this Underground Railroad route (#4391) on a nice summer Sunday.
George is a stronger rider, so I was riding above my normal pace, getting a bit of a workout and keeping up my Saltstick capsules intake to avoid cramping.

Lots of nice country along this route. We enjoyed seeing an eagle take flight from the ground along McKillup road.

George has done a lot of randonneuring, and tells good stories, such as riding thru the night until he started hallucinating other riders coming up behind him.
Or when he thought he had gone over the time limit on a ride, and, riding along at a leisurely pace, was surprised to find people cheering him across the finish line with only seconds to spare.
And the route where his nature break is usually bothered by attacks of green-head flies.
And there was the time he was cold from riding, and at a bar full of bikers ordered hot tea.
Good times. Thank heavens for rando-nesia. 

Now 7/12ths of the way to my second P-12.  On the Spesh Roubaix. 

Pics and route profile here:  https://ridewithgps.com/trips/96111012

Underground Railroad in South Jersey 117km randonneur ride 4.01.2022

Today I was the first to officially ride a new 117km Permanent I created and submitted. It was recently approved by RUSA as route #4411 (kinda like that number).

Temps were forecast to be in the 50s, so I wore shorts, which was okay, but I was glad I wore latex gloves under my fingerless ones. The route is mainly north-south, but the 10-18mph west winds pushed me around quite a bit, slowing my pace considerably. It had my cue sheets flapping up over my GPS at times, and apparently it was the reason I couldn't vocally enter Notes on my phone. On the plus side, I was able to work on my elasticity by spending a lot of time riding in the drops, trying to cheat the wind.

There was a lot of overcast, but at times the sun was out and it was glorious; the country roads looked great with plenty of signs of spring. At one point I caught a glimpse of something gleaming below, and looked down to find the sunlight was bouncing off my chain rollers. Nice.

Happy to report I didn't encounter the nasty cur on Compromise Road that chased me recently (and got an attack-stopping water-bottle squirt in the face for his efforts). I did see a couple friendly dogs with their owners, with whom I exchanged brief pleasantries. 

Saw a yard full of maybe 15 wild turkeys and a small field with a similar number of guinea hens. Saw a hawk soaring just overhead, and a great blue heron coming in for a wet landing, until it saw me and turned the maneuver into a touch-and-go takeoff.
Used a new app to identify a saucer magnolia coming into bloom.

Made my first-ever stop at the little store in little Canton, because I heard they were nice people, which I found to be true. Bought a Coke and (coincidentally?) had a serious case of the pees, so by necessity I discovered a number of new spots for nature breaks. One involved making a last-minute decision to turn off the road onto some damp ground; in a bit of a late-ride brain fog, I didn't get fully unclipped and went down, softly but quickly, which gave me my first chainring tattoo in a while.

I am now 1/3 of the way to my second P-12. All in all, another good day on the bike (Spesh Roubaix, solo).

Route map, elevation profile and pics here: 

https://ridewithgps.com/trips/86129088

EDIT: This route was used as a New Jersey Randonneurs Populaire on 6/19/22 (Juneteenth).

Gibbstown-Springtown Underground Railroad 107km randonneur ride 3.05.2022

Unusual for me to ride on a Saturday, but I wanted to be the first to officially ride the route I recently submitted to Randonneurs USA, which was just approved Thursday. Named Gibbstown-Springtown Underground Railroad, it has lots of good-riding country roads (and some nice long stretches), along with URR historic value. Until I read the book Parallel Communities (by Dennis Rizzo, The History Press), I had no idea the URR was so active 'down Jersey.' I have at least two more URR-related routes to submit for RUSA approval soon.

The ride started out pretty cold (wind chill 29F at the start, but up to 40F by the turnaround point in Springtown/Othello), and my hands felt cold inside of latex gloves inside of light leather gloves, but they warmed up after several miles. Headwinds weren't bad until they picked up across some open fields an hour before the turnaround point, but they were glorious tailwinds coming back.

Saw my first daffodils of the season pushing up thru the leaves while I took a Clif-bar break by the cemetery at Head of Greenwich.

Saw a Burger Fence truck and thought of buddy FFrank's line, A dog would eat right thru that!

Solo, on the Spesh Roubaix.

Route map, elevation profile and pics here:

https://ridewithgps.com/trips/84230634

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad 200k Eastern Shore

After considering it for over a year, I went ahead and contacted a fellow randonneur who has a Permanent route that covers a lot of the ground that Harriet Tubman crossed when she ran her piece of the Underground Railroad, moving slaves Northward toward freedom. The route has a number of stops where I would have to learn Tubman / URR information from historical markers in order to answer questions on my brevet card as proof of my having passed thru there. I expect to find the history and the exploits of this remarkable woman fascinating.

After having received permission to ride the route (solo, at this point) as an official Randonneurs USA 200k Permanent, I went ahead and made two-nite motel reservations at the place some of my fellow club members will be staying at the same time while they spend several days riding around the Chestertown MD area. So while we won't be riding together, we will be able to socialize the evening before and after my ride.

My ride is set for Veteran's Day 11/11/19; to pay tribute I will display a little US flag on the back of my bike.

Now I've got to keep up my recent training so I have the best chance of a sub-10 hour ride, because the daylight on that date in that area is shown as only 10 hours and 12 minutes. If I start early, have no "mechanicals" and experience no heavy weather, I should be OK in that time window, as the area is flat.

The route owner does warn of at least one free-range cyclist-biting dog, plus the possibility of wet roads if the tide is high (it is low country in some places). This could be exacerbated by the full moon. Fingers crossed.