June 5, 2023 - Convent Station, NJ, to Hackettstown, NJ

Start: Convent Station, NJ
End: Hackettstown, NJ
Miles: 26.7
Feet climbing per mile: 86
Record of the day's ride: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/123652792

My initial plan was to take a train to Hackettstown in order to be able to ride in one day to the Jim Thorpe Camping Resort where I would spend two nights. But the earliest train to Hackettstown leaves Penn station at 9:09 and does not arrive until 11:28, which I considered too late to start a ride of 60 plus miles with lots of climbing. I therefore decided to spend a night in Hackettstown after taking the 10:46 train to Convent Station, arriving at 11:48, and then riding 27 miles to Hackettstown.

Convent Station is located at the entrance to Saint Elizabeth University, which used to be the College of Saint Elizabeth until 2020. From 1987 through 1990 I spent ten days every June and thirty days every July through August at the College of Saint Elizabeth in a training program for the Feldenkrais Method. So the first stop on my bike trip was O'Connor Hall, which served as the dormitory in which I stayed with 25 of my 80 classmates.

My next stop was Saint Joseph Hall, which contains the gymnasium in which our training took place.

While I was taking pictures a security guard told me that bikes were not allowed on campus. I told her that I would leave after taking the pictures. I emailed campus security to ask about their policy and received this response:

The reason is this is private property and the sisters don't want dog walkers or bicycle riders on campus.

It seems the Sisters of Charity are not so charitable to dog walkers or bicycle riders.

At mile 13.8 I stopped at the roadside stand of Parks Farms. I asked the woman working there what she had that could be a snack for me. Laurie suggested a peach, and said the peaches were peachy. When I asked her what that meant she said "juicy but not sweet". I enjoyed two of the peaches.

The approach to Hackettstown requires going over (or around) Schooley's Mountain. On three previous rides I rode up Schooley's Mountain Road which has a climb of a little more than a mile. The first time, in 2016, I walked most of the climb (Journal Square to Hackettstown-ridden 7/2/16). In 2017 and 2021 I was able to ride the entire climb (New York, NY, to Hackettstown, NJ and March 10, 2021 - New York, NY, to Easton, PA). For this trip I planned to take a different route which you can see below.

The route shown above is 5.8 miles long with 679 feet of climbing and a maximum grade of 13.5%. The route below which uses Schooley's Mountain Road is 4.9 miles long with 713 feet of climbing and a maximum grade of 11.8%.

It's hard to know which route would be harder. When I got to the start of the first route I checked Google Maps and saw that it said "Steep hill" for the first route and "Moderate hill" for the second, so I decided to take the second route that would go up Schooley's Mountain Road. But both routes have very steep hills!

As I turned the corner onto Schooley's Mountain Road, a young man in a passing car, probably in his 20s, yelled "Fuck you!". Why would he do that? Was he insulted because I would dare to ride up Schooley's Mountain Road and he knew that he would never be able to do that? Please post your ideas in a comment.

At mile 21.8, very near the beginning of the climb up Schooley's Mountain Road, I began a walk which lasted a little more than a mile. I was no longer in the condition I was when I did this climb in 2021.

I took the picture below as I walked towards the second curve in the climb. I don't think the picture captures how steep the road is.

I arrived at the Quality Inn Hackettstown shortly before 3:30. My room with two queen beds had a perfect place in which to park my bike.

I was puzzled by the sound coming from the toilet when I flushed it. When I removed the cover of the tank I saw a mechanism I had never seen before.

The page https://wdiecoflush.com/pages/ecoflush says "EcoFlush is an innovative toilet pressure assisted system that offers exceptional flushing performance when added to any compatible toilet. Featuring patented WDI technology, EcoFlush is truly a remarkable solution for improving toilet flushing efficiency while conserving precious water resources." I will probably install that system in my toilets if they are compatible with EcoFlush.

After my usual shower, shave, and change of clothes, I had dinner a short walk across the road at the Taphouse Grille. I found most of the music being played rather raucous for eating dinner, but my meal of French onion soup and a Steakhouse Burger was delicious and nourishing. The house steak sauce was especially interesting, like none I had ever tasted. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of dinner was that my waitress asked me "How is your soup, so far?". Never before had I heard "so far" from a server in a restaurant.

I usually feel completely refreshed after my usual shower, shave, and change of clothes, regardless of how hard I had ridden that day. This time was different. I had ridden only 27 miles, but I felt depleted even after dinner, and wondered whether I would continue with my plan or ride to the train station the next day and return home. The prospect of riding more than 60 miles did not appeal to me, and I thought that if I had felt like this at the end of a day on my 90-day trip in 2019, I would have declared the next day to be a rest day. I also wondered whether the inflammation I experienced last year was still affecting me substantially. I even wondered whether maybe my strong riding days were over.

I watched the second game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and was shocked to see that the boards and the ice were electronic billboards with advertising that would change and sometimes move even during play. I was glad that I had seen the Chicago Blackhawks at the Chicago Stadium when Bobby Hull set one of his goal-scoring records and there was not all that distracting advertising.

I went to bed about 11:30 with the thought that I would decide how to proceed after I had a night of sleep.

Next day: June 6th, 2023 - Hackettstown, NJ, to Jim Thorpe Camping Resort, PA

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