The Toughest Road Climbs in NJ

herbn said:
just out of jersey, not really accessable by riding, but you could drive there and do repeats. Six hundred forty something vertical feet in 1.5 miles,ten would be 6400 feet in 15 miles ,well 30 miles if you count the coasting.
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What climb would that be?
 
oops

most important part:) "stag hill" officially it might be mountainside or mountainview. It's up at the end of nj17 where it blends into the thruway, you have to u turn and come back towards jersey, it's exit is for the very first gas station,it splits in three the middle goes back under 287 and up into the mtns.
 
I just found a site that had been lost for a number of years. KOMcycling had the stats for climbs all over the world. Years ago, I spent many hours on the site looking at stats and comparing them to anything I could find locally.

The original web site had much more content but is gone. Here is where some of the content can be found:
http://bikeraceinfo.com/kom/kom-index.html
 
breakneck rd

anyone can point me out which side to start(or more painfull way)
is it from CR 515(hidden valley) or from wawayanda rd?
i'm planing to do it on MTB and at very earlier hrs (around 5am-6am)

thanks
 
liong71er said:
anyone can point me out which side to start(or more painfull way)
is it from CR 515(hidden valley) or from wawayanda rd?
i'm planing to do it on MTB and at very earlier hrs (around 5am-6am)

thanks
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Starting at 515 in Vernon would be uphill. Starting by Canistear and waywayanda would be downhill.
 
Norm, are these average of gradients?
I recently climbed Drakestown from River road,
that double hairpin road seemed like more than 6%,
and Mt harmony is only 4%, wow, here I thought I was
ascending some decent climbs...but maybe I just suck! : D

So far I've done all on the list except 1,4,6,7 and 20.

Norm said:
After this weekend's ride, it struck me that we need a list of road climbs in the state. It would be cool to try and do something similar for off-road riding. But I think the road is a lot more tangible since you can map out a lot of the climbs to get some sort of baseline.

So here are some climbs that I would throw in the list of tough NJ climbs. I hope to be able to maintain this list over time as I ride more of them.

This is in no particular order

Fiddlers Elbow
Iron Bridge Rd
Bloomsbury Mountain
Ludlow Station (the sister of Iron Bridge)
Skyline Dr-Ringwood
Federal Twist Rd-Byram
Skyline
Brookvalley Road
Shire Road
Lommason Glen Rd/Buckhorn Dr./Castners Rd.
Breakneck
Millbrook
Barrett
Pickle
Steele Gap
Mine Rd?
Mt Pleasant (Columbia)

There are more up north I'm not familiar with. But I'd be interested in checking some of them out.

The Standings

  1. Adamic Hill (347 over .53 miles, 12.4%, 5.3 mph, 6:00)
  2. Warrenville (352 over .58 miles, 11.5%, 6.4 mph, 5:16)
  3. N Four Bridges (337 over .56 miles, 11.4%, 6.7 mph, 5:04)
  4. Zellers (477 over .9 miles, 10%, 7.2 mph, 7:29)
  5. Washington Ave (410 over .82 miles, 9.5%, 8.2 mph, 5:58)
  6. Pinchers Point (452 over .92 miles, 9.3%, 6.4 mph, 8:35)
  7. Beacon Hill (272 over .59 miles, 8.7%, 8.8 mph, 3:59)
  8. Vosseler (245 over .54, 8.6%, 8 mph, 4:04)
  9. Black River Rd (404 over .91 miles, 8.4%, 8.8 mph, 6:13)
  10. Schooley's Mountain (517 over 1.4 miles, 7%, 9.5 mph, 8:48)
  11. Pembrook 2nd half (281 over .77 miles, 6.9%, 8.6 mph, 5:22)
  12. Schoolhouse (453 over 1.31 miles, 6.6%, 10.3 mph, 7:38)
  13. 512 Califon (339 over 1.02 miles, 6.3%, 9.7 mph, 6:20)
  14. Drakestown (399 over 1.26, 6.0%, 10.6 mph, 7:09)
  15. Morning Glory (284 over .94 miles, 5.7%, 10.7 mph, 5:16)
  16. Pembrook full climb (380 over 1.23 miles, 5.6%, 9.4 mph, 7:49)
  17. East Fox Chase (318 over 1.12 miles, 5.3%, 10.1 mph, 6:39)
  18. Bissel (534 over 1.92, 5.3%, 10.6 mph, 10:51)
  19. Claermont (313 over 1.19 miles, 5%, 10.1 mph, 7:01)
  20. Campbell-Peachcroft Rd (501 over 2.04 miles, 4.7%, 11.2 mph, 10:55)
  21. Mount Harmony (393 over 1.83 miles, 4.1% 11.5 mph, 9:35)
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bonefishjake said:
zeller is nasty especially when combined with mid valley road. i'm actually surprised that norm didn't go at it that way.

and, as nasty as those switches are, i think the ones on bottom of drakestown, coming from river road, are worse.
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YES! I agree Jake! That climb seemed brutal to me. Right off the bat, the grade was fairly steep. It became a little easier as it went on. Short but tough imo.
 
Here’s my local climbing loop.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/182120162

Highlights include:

Middle Valley and Zellers
Mt Lebanon
Turkey Top
Mountain Top
Forge Hill
Iron Hill

4K Garmin Ft of climbing in 36 miles..

Of all those climbs, Iron Hill is the toughest. Not coincidentally its the last climb...
 
Nice!
111 feet of ascension per mile.
I was thinking about that today in fact.
Yesterday I rode to Randolph and wound up with 68 miles and 6900'

or 101' APM. Personally, I feel that this is a better indicator of how hard
a ride is compared to the overall distance. I was talking with my neighbor,
she did the GF 106.5 mile route with 8930' of climbing last Sunday.

I told her that was about 83' APM and jokingly said my ride was tougher at 100' APM! She didn't get it....:hmmm:
 
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Got one for the list...
I descended it and I should have climbed it instead.
It's on the 'to-do-list' :D

Waughaw Rd in Montville I believe.
About 1.1 miles long, with a couple of good twists.
Fairly steep, with a section of 23%. Looks like 400-500' gain maybe.
 
ChrisG said:
I was gonna mention Zellers; if I remember correctly, it has a great switchback which will just about induce a wheelie.:getsome:
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Chris, that section is actually Middle Valley before Zellers.
Oh yea, that switch back section is steep! Must be like 15% or more.

I climbed up both about 2 weeks ago. I think Middle Valley is tougher than Zellers, shorter but steeper.

Geo
 
p9group said:
Got one for the list...
I descended it and I should have climbed it instead.
It's on the 'to-do-list' :D

Waughaw Rd in Montville I believe.
About 1.1 miles long, with a couple of good twists.
Fairly steep, with a section of 23%. Looks like 400-500' gain maybe.
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According to Strava, Waughaw: 0.9 mi, 7.6% avg, 378 delta, steepest 25% to 26%
 
Waughaw is hard, but Fiddler's & Iron Bridge are just in another league entirely.
 
jmartz said:
Waughaw is known to some as HillZilla. It is brutal and destroyed me.
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I'm lucky enough (or unlucky enough), to ride that once a week when I'm into my road riding. It never gets any easier. When you finish with that climb, ride back down and do Stoneybrook from 202 to thoroughly destroy yourself.
 
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