May 4, 2024 - Milford, PA, to Ramsey, NJ
End: Ramsey, NJ
Miles: 58.9
Feet climbing per mile: 77
Record of the day's ride: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/173635916
After rising I had a hot bath. I checked out of the motel about 10:15 and headed to the nearby Café Wren to have a cup of tea and piece of banana bread. From there I took a route that avoided Milford's main street and which led past Barckley Park.
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| Barckley Park |
I again crossed the Milford-Montague Bridge and then headed towards Port Jervis along River Road. I wondered why one of the horses had his eyes completely covered. It seemed that the horse still knew I was there.
At mile 10 I turned off River Road onto Route 6 which I had never ridden and on which I would soon begin a 3-mile climb. I never needed to walk but the moderate traffic and the sometimes inadequate shoulder had me wishing that I had taken the route 4alt Milford, PA, to Ramsey, NJ which would have avoided route 6 and included a steeper climb I might have had to walk. After the 3-mile climb there was a descent of one mile that took me to County Road 1 with a beautiful surface and almost no traffic. The descent continued for another 3.5 miles.
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| County Road 1 |
Along the way I saw a pile of logs and thought of my grade-school classmate Dave Nadolski who collects lumber while living in a forest in southern Illinois.
I wondered what sort of building was the one in the pictures below. Is it a barn?
At mile 22 County Road 1 became Pine Island Turnpike with substantial traffic. Again I wished that I had taken the route 4alt Milford, PA, to Ramsey, NJ which would have also avoided Pine Island Turnpike.
When creating my route I had wondered why the RideWithGPS heat map showed that almost all cyclists took a one-mile detour at mile 25.9 rather than continuing on County Road 1. After dealing with the traffic I was glad for the respite offered by the detour on Little Brooklyn Road.
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| Little Brooklyn Road |
I turned left at mile 28.7 to stop at Shannon’s Eyes on the Pies.
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| Shannon’s Eyes on the Pies |
First I had a small chicken pot pie...
...and then followed it with a piece of flourless chocolate cake, very dense the way I like it.
I told Shannon that I thought she would do very well if she were to open a store in Manhattan. She said that many people had told her that. John, who took my orders for the pot pie and cake, said that if I had gotten the medium pot pie rather than the small, I might need a ride up the hills. In response I sang for him some of my altered lyrics for the intro to I've Been Everywhere:
I walkin' my bike up a very steep
road
When along came a car with
barely a load
The driver asked
"Would you like a ride?"
I said
"Thanks, but if I took it, I'd feel so bad inside"
After leaving Shannon’s Eyes on the Pies I was on Pine Island Turnpike for only one mile, at which point I turned onto the peaceful Dekay Road.
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| Dekay Road |
At mile 32.3 I saw a large field with many solar panels. You can see a satellite view of the field here.
Starting at about mile 37, the surface of the Warwick Turnpike around Upper Greenwood Lake was bad enough that I wondered whether local taxes ought to be increased in order to maintain the roads. From there until about mile 55 the riding was unpleasant due either to the poor quality of the roads or the heavy traffic.
I arrived at the Ramsey Route 17 station about 6:00 and caught the 6:13 train that arrived in Penn Station about 7:30. After a short walk I was home.
* * *
I rode from Milford to Ramsey rather than to Hackettstown or Port Jervis because there are no trains from Hackettstown to Manhattan on weekends, and because of weekend track work there is currently only bus service between Port Jervis and the Ramsey Route 17 station, and I wasn't willing to trust that I'd be able to put my bike on the bus. I had thought that riding to Ramsey from Milford might be a good option even on a day when trains were running from Hackettstown, but I would never choose that option unless I could find a much better route than what I rode on the final day of this trip.
The peak-end rule from behavioral economics says that we evaluate an experience based almost entirely on the peak experience and the end experience. But despite the unpleasant riding I experienced on the final part of my ride on the final day of this trip, I evaluate this trip as a distinctly positive experience. Somehow I have discounted, although not forgotten, all the unpleasantness at the end of the trip.
On this four-day trip I rode a total of 185.5 miles, an average of 46.4 miles per day, with an average of 83 feet of climbing per mile. That's a fair amount of climbing but not so many miles per day. I felt stronger on this trip than I did on my trip in early April so I know I'm becoming more and more physically prepared for my cross-country trip this July through September. I've already created a plan for a three-day trip with two nights of camping that I will take in the next few weeks. I expect that will be my final multi-day trip before I fly to Portland June 30th.
Previous day: May 3, 2024 - Cherry Ridge, PA, to Milford, PA
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