(This is from Autumn 2023 but sat unpublished until now…)
There is no “perfect” way to ride from NYC to ESVA, Cape May overly complicates things. On my seventh trip, I tried something new. This time I took NJ Light Rail to the end of the line, Trenton, for a slightly shorter trip to Cape May. Maybe an hour or an hour and a half of time savings in riding, but notably an hour earlier start and allowing me to cut out the Jersey Shore commute which historically has not been my favorite.
The goal was to one-shot the ESVA trip rather than overnighting at Cape May because I couldn’t reach the ferry quick enough before the final boat. This new plan was going to give me a shot at it. This meant a +200 mile day. A daunting threshold, never before attempted. Sure, it’s not much further than say 185 miles… but anything less than 200 always feels like a long 150 mile day. Must be a psychological thing.
Surprisingly the weather was good for my spin down to the train. The NJTransit light rail only accepts bikes outside of rush hour which meant i had to clear Hoboken by 6am, and thusly a 430am train for me out of Penn Station. NJT also really wants you to ‘secure’ your bike, hence the string. I was the only one with a bike who did this.
Suburbs eventually give way to farms which give up and become forests…
Eventually the Pine Barens give way to Cape May, which is still very sleepy and mostly green. A couple of WaWa stops and an adequate average had me rolling down to the Ferry terminal at about 3pm. Had to wait about 45 minutes for the next boat but at least i wasn’t late. Time to chill in the sunshine and refuel.
Some liquids on the boat and a couple of catnaps while seated and i felt pretty good considering 100mi down. Exit at Lewes and the sun is starting to falter but still great late afternoon light. Beautiful trip through Cape Henalopen Park during magic hour and a nice ride down the peninsula. An area often plagued with headwinds but only nominal this time. This part of the trip was busy but not overly so. Seemed shorter considering the distance already put in. The first time I did this was after spending the night before in a gazeebo on the beach and then nuclear hot summer morning that mostly did me in. I feared this part of the trip for a few trips. It’s quite nice even with a little wind to chew.
It was solid dark by the time I passed through Ocean City. Lots of fat suburban types visiting ‘the shore’ and waiting to cross the street for many choices of chain restaurants, drunk on sugar and trans fats. Not bad people watching for what it was. That bottom end of Ocean City where it turns back toward Delaware proper can get a little crazy. Probably a good place to run two rear lights on the bike. Took the long bridge across and the walkway was littered with night time fisherman running multiple lines, smoking and hanging out. None were happy to accommodate me but there were no other options. The narrow ghetto of the late night fisherman.
A final refuel at the Wawa there on the other side. I was comforted by the thought that I could still hit gas stations on the ride down if i needed more liquid for the final sixty miles. At this point I decide to stick to the main road instead of the windy, lonely and desolate farm roads down the Delmarva peninsula. It was getting to be past 11pm and I didn’t want to have a problem in the middle of nowhere with no light and precious few resources. I was too tired to fuss with that. Main road. Well, the main road was plenty desolate that late. What they don’t tell you when you’re riding 10mi along the southern border of a swamp is that all the snakes like to come out and sit on the side of the road at night. I knew this was a thing in the desert but hadn’t really much considered it for this trip before. I know I rode over two of the critters and swerved away from a few more. My tiny front strobe light and a heavily cracked tarmac made much of the distance look snake laden when it was largely just striated with tar filler or broken seams.
It became clear that even on the ‘busy’ roads that few things were open after ten and almost nothing was open after midnight. The bottom fell out of my effort on snake highway and my speed dropped. This would have been about 170mi in. I’ve done that distance before but the thought of “home” still not on the horizon was sapping. When I took my one left turn onto the main n/s peninsula highway at Pockomoke City i was in familiar territory. Everything was closed but my legs recognized the miles and waypoints. I ended up rolling in about 3am with a decent average. No surprises at Swamp Palace and even though Snake Alley was my low point i actually just felt tired rather than decimated at 205mi.
The ride back. Out there somewhere.
I really like this farmland route up Delmarva until the final 20mi to Lewes and there’s just no way around it unless you take the coast which adds another 10mi and certainly higher stakes wind bet. Delaware is pretty notorious for labored roads with zero shoulder and entitled drivers. Beautiful day. Excellent ride up Delmarva. It became clear that wasn’t going to be a PR day because a shake out ride a few days prior informed me that even after two weeks i was still beaten up from the ride down. Add to that ten hours riding into a 15mph headwind can make you a little unruly. It also unfortunately put me an hour or so behind schedule and I’d missed my ferry.
At the ferry i started to dream of bail-out options. Could i find a room in Cape May, suburbs… Eggtown Harbor? I was dog tired with only 95mi in my legs and didn’t have that euphoric nap like i’d had on the ride down. What twisted my arm was the thought that if i stopped and stayed over night my second leg was still going to be longer than the first and i really wasn’t going to be in a better position. So i just sort of nose-downed and gutted it out for a while. A few benchmark “if i can only make it ‘there'” spots.
I had McDonalds at Cape May which was my first “warm meal” of the day. That increased my spirits a little. But it wasn’t until it got dark, later that i sort of settled down for the suck and just continued on. After about 25mi of the second leg I start to hit the outskirts of the Pine Barens again and that null wall of green helped to calm my spirits. I’d exited the easy bail out options and I was nose to the wheel now at my point of no return. One thing good about the dark is that nothing seems to change so pain and loneliness might feel like forever in a mile or like nothing in fifty. It somehow all feels the same.
Aside from being overtired, the second half of the day wasn’t bad. I was cranky and making the worst of a perfectly fine situation. Route and the weather were solid. Riding slower in the first half compromised me on my ride home which didn’t hit me until far later than it should have. I knew I was about an hour or so behind schedule for missing the planned boat but add my slow time to that and I started to panic about getting the last train out of dodge in Trenton. My map was off because i was not exactly on my planned route and that meant i wasn’t entirely sure of the mileage required. I found myself having to throw down the pedals at around 11pm to try to hit the 1215am train from Trenton. I got this.
Well, I didn’t have this. Despite sprinting the last ten miles, I got to the station at 130am and the next, first train in the morning wasn’t until 330am. There was nothing about Trenton in the middle of the night that invited a catnap. Dead Tired. And staring at the platform for two hours. This worsened when the morning train broke down about twenty minutes into its commute and had to be towed into a nearby station and we waited another half hour for a replacement train. Oh the glamorous life of an endurance commuter.
I crawled home from Penn to an indifferent Harlem morning. Like I was never gone. So happy to have done this. The ride back was about 220mi.
Bikepacking notes: i have the kit and baggage down pretty much. Added some cheap 2nd handlebar bag that i liked a lot. Fussed with the hand position a bit but that’s more a habit thing. My feet had horrendous hot spots from where they were over the cleats. Not sure if that’s new thing or just me not having put in enough miles. I’ve gotten really good at minimizing stops and just buying things and going rather than ‘taking a moment to rest’. Love that small L+M Blacktop light on strobe. Not a lot of light but it lasts forever and is fine. I’ve had a lot of problems with that brand so it’s nice to have a win. One thing i keep failing at is to bring a cap light or headband so that i can have brief off bike light should i need to perform a repair or something in the dark. I can use my front light but that feels a bit like a hack and there are many scenarios where a small alternate would be a godsend. Also, get some great glueless patches. I know they suck but it would be good to have a couple.
Among his less savory qualities, he's a poor sport, a sore loser and ill fitted for honest labor. He makes bad friends and worse decisions. Animals avoid him and children despise him. He's been known to drink to excess, carry on with seditious talk and leer at women. He's a coward, a card cheat and a known liar.
Mrs. Call's second grade class said perhaps all that needed to be said about Larsen.In a moment of vindication and possibly clarity, Call would add to Larsen's permanent record that he was a bit of a dreamer and that Larsen was "an excellent student but his grades trailed off in the final semester."True, Larsen was filled with promise and saddled as starry-eyed but one can't help but notice that Call's inability to chisel this raffish diamond-in-rough wasn't also a clerical trick to distance herself from the responsibility of the 'Nurture' debate.She also said he was "prompt".She wasn't wrong.
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