Ramblings from Moe Mountain

JimN

JimN

Captain Wildcat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Kaleidopete said:
There was another MTBNJ rider on some of the same trails today! @JimN . Quite a surprise, we missed each other
literally by minutes on the ridge!
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I showed two of my teammates those trails this morning, and if I didn't have to stop and add sealant to my tire, we definitely would have run into you on that yellow trail near the water. There are some absolutely amazing trails in that area, and it's great to link them together with Waway for a nice, long ride :)
 
Kaleidopete

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
Today I went to the Mcdade trail in Pennsylvania. It is supposedly a 31 mile trail running from Milford Beach in Milford, PA. to the Delaware water gap. It says multi use, which is a little misleading. I arrived at the parking lot around 7AM. Headed down the trail which looked as I expected, a gravel trail about eight feet wide. After a few hundred feet it turned to leaf cover with some challenging climbs and dips. This seemed better than I had hoped for. The trail closely follows the river on one side and RT 209 on the other side. Then I came to some rather boring farm fields, but there was a very pretty rock cliff running alongside on my right. The trail entered a nice wooded section and I was having a great ride. Until the spot that said “rough trail ahead”, I thought I can do that with my Mountain bike, as I disregarded the “no bikes sign”, I mean what are my alternatives, go back? Why would they say at the trailhead bikes permitted and then change it once you’re on the trail? So the trail was “rough”, which was just fine for a while, I was now about four miles into my ride. Then the trail really went to shit, very hard hike a bike up a marrow section. I bashed on. It got worse, I was now in a section of a stair like walkway made from 6x6 wood with dirt, climbing up about 15 feet. I saw my opportunity to exit this trail by scaling a loose cinder trail up to the road which was about another 15 feet up. Whew! I made it, got over the guardrail and onto the road. I headed South along the road figuring I’d see a spot to re-enter the trail. This happened about a mile down the road. A large sign was roadside saying Mcdade trail. So in I went and rode about another half mile when I came upon many hunters. We were all friendly and I continued on. About another half mile I came to another sign “rough trail ahead”, they weren’t kidding, here was another hike a bike section and I decided not to fall for it this time. I retreated to the road and called it a day. I rode back to a spot I could re-enter the trail and back to the parking lot. I’m not sorry I did this ride, I always would have wondered what it was like, I just wish they had planed this trail better. It goes from way to easy to way to tough. When I got home I revisited the website and maps, it looks to me like there are many breaks in this trail, where you have to get off and onto the roadway and then get back on later. One website say’s it’s a 22 mile trail and others say 31 mile trail. Even some reviews say “this is not for bikes, way too hard” while others say it’s just fine. But none of the reviewers did the whole trail, only short sections. I was hoping to do 16 miles today and the remainder another time, but that ain’t gonna happen! Maybe I’ll start from the other end sometime and see what it’s like

an easy start
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fields and cliffs
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looking like fun!
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getting tougher
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back to the road after climbing
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back to the start
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Kaleidopete

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
Made a visit to my friends annual Thanksgiving event at the Fugawe trails. Mike Sigety, if you know him, he's a great, rider.
Lots of riders I don't know, but a few that I do know. About 20 showed up. I'm glad they had good weather for it.
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photo stolen from Mike
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Kaleidopete

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
It was a great morning to be out riding in the park, the trails were still dark at 6:15AM, but I saw a red fox running away.
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As daybreak came on I happened to look up and see Jupiter and Saturn in the morning sky, a rare occurrence. From another site: This December, Jupiter and Saturn will put on a show for skygazers that hasn't been seen in roughly 800 years. Astronomers are calling it the Great Conjunction of 2020. On December 21 — coincidentally the winter solstice — the two largest planets in our solar system will appear to almost merge in Earth’s night sky. My photo (stinks)
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Then it was on to the Laurel trail for a ride, I didn’t plan on riding up the whole trail, just as far as felt comfortable. But….I just kept going and going and just couldn’t quit, it was quite challenging in the snow and ice. I made it the whole way up without even a dab. Great fun. The ride back down was cool too. Then I finished out my ride with some easier trails and some road. A very satisfying twelve mile ride today.
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Kaleidopete

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
Last day of the year 2020. Got my last 100 minute ride in this morning in the rain @ 38°.
That finishes out my year with 366 consecutive days riding this year, can‘t do any better than that!
I rode about 4700 miles this year, with 666 hours riding time, hmmmm, does that mean something?
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My last ride this year.
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jackx

jackx

Well-Known Member
Kaleidopete said:
Last day of the year 2020. Got my last 100 minute ride in this morning in the rain @ 38°.
That finishes out my year with 366 consecutive days riding this year, can‘t do any better than that!
I rode about 4700 miles this year, with 666 hours riding time, hmmmm, does that mean something?
View attachment 147019
My last ride this year.
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Awesome stats, Pete! You have WAY more miles and riding hours than me and probably most people on here. I bet you are #1 on this site with most consecutive days riding!
 
Kaleidopete

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
Mtbdog said:
Great Job Pete! If I'm not mistaken does this make it 2 of the last 3 years you've done the year! Crazy man! One question, how do we get you back from Bulgaria? LOL
Respect!
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Actually 2018 was all 365 days, 2019 I missed 4 days, so 361 days, now 2020 all 366 days. No trainer, all outdoors.
What's weird is I never paid for velloview, but today I decided to. Before I paid for it it showed the 366 days and 366 streak.
Once I paid, now it says I'm short about 5 days, no idea why. My one thought was that during the NJ parks closing I did my rides.
but I had them hidden so as not to show I was being an outlaw. So maybe that's it. Anyway, I know what I did and that's it.
 
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Kaleidopete

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
trailhead said:
Its good you found cycling!
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Yeah, it started out with hiking because I like being out in the woods.
Then I tried Geocaching for a while, and that's when I found an old bike in the woods.
All it had was one speed out of 10 working, but I liked it anyway because I could explore farther
by riding level and downhills. Then Geocaching started pissing me off and bicycling became more
enjoyable. So I bought a new bicycle, and that's how it happened.
 
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Kaleidopete

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
Another nice cold and frozen day and I was riding on the Double Pond trail, which is usually flooded in spots,
even in a drought. Most trails have gotten pretty bad from the heavy rains that made nasty washouts.
Double Pond being in that category. I was very pleased to come upon the flooded spots and find them
frozen enough that I could ride right over them with no problem. Great fun instead of the twisted rocky
ride around those spots. Until…..I saw a branch down across the icy spot and decided to hit it straight on rather
than try and navigate around it which could cause me to slide out. Bad choice, went down like a ton of bricks.
Ice studs work sometimes, not this time. I took some lumps, left knee hit first I guess and then my head hit hard,
glad I had the helmet on. I could tell right away I got some lumps. No problem getting back up and riding off though,
just a little shaken. Still a great ride today, lots of fun, even with the extra excitement of crashing.
I thought I wasn’t going to do that anymore!
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