Just one more ride to add. After the Manhattan ride (The Cherry On Top), I was picked up at the hotel by my older brother Ed. We packed up the car with my bike and luggage and sped off to his home in New Jersey. He lives in a beautiful lakeside community called Fayson Lakes. A great place to live and raise a family. Every year, Ed and his Wife, Rose, host a fishing derby for the kids. Prizes are awarded based on size, number and combined weight caught within age categories. The derby is being held this Saturday and he can always use a helping hand to set up the operation. I am staying for a couple of days to lend a helping hand.
The area is a beautiful location for cycling as well. Some roads are narrow without much of a shoulder and other roads are remote and breathtakingly beautiful. I set up a 30 mile out and back to Denville. The route is at the bottom of this blog setup as a figure 8.
The route starts out crossing a dam that forms the largest lake and is currently home of many Canadian geese and their goslings. The temperatures were cool and the winds were calm as I crossed the dam about 8 AM.
I popped out on to Boonton Ave. A rolling road without much of a shoulder that has a nice rolling action so that you drop down a bit to pick up speed and stand on the peddles to get to the top of the next hill only to repeat the sequence over and over. On occasion, you will hear a large truck behind you and then pull off to the side to let them pass. Cars on the other hand can easily maneuver around you.
There are many opportunities to leave more traveled roads and head off to quiet roads the travel around additional lakes with only occasionally crossing paths with people walking their dogs.
School is still in session and it's a weekday, but you can imagine the lakes in the summer with kids in the water and sail boats and paddle boats dotting the lakes
The lakes will often freeze over in the winter and the summer activities will give away to winter sports and ice skating.
The turn around point is in Denville about 15 miles into the ride. Denville is a small community with an main street lined with small upscale shops. A stop at Church Street Bagels is mandatory.
I find cycling to be a very sensory activity. As you ride your muscles and lungs strain as you accelerate and climb up the hills. You feel the wind as it washes over you arms and legs. Your mind calculates distances to the next turn when to accelerate or decelerate through the turns and skin is cooled as your sweat evaporates as you coast down the hills. Your ears are listening to the sounds behind you. Is it a car, or a truck or maybe a school bus? What's it's speed and do they have enough room to pass you safely? You feel the vibrations of the bike as it rolls along the road surface. Sometime smooth over an newly paved road, sometimes harsh vibrations over an older road and sometimes jolts as you roll over frost weathered roads that will require replacement soon. Don't forget about the smells of newly cut lawns or blooming flower and bushes as you pass by. On occasion you will pass through a microclimate where the air is rushing down a valley or a forest and it will suddenly turn from warm summer temperature to a stream of cool, cool air enveloping you. I cannot comprehend any activity that subjects you to as many pleasurable sensory experiences as cycling.
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