60F on December 13th! I could end this post here, that’s how nice of a day it was, but I won’t. If I did, I would not be able to share today’s fun ride on a mixed bag of terrain. Will, Eric, and I rode out of Action Bikes and Outdoor in Milford a little after noon. I over dressed, again (the only one not in shorts). We headed out to Milford Road, and climbed up to Conashaugh Road. With the pavement behind us, we rode the trail on Long Meadow Road and onto Zimmerman Road. Zimmerman is a mix of gravel and dirt, and leads right into the old Zimmerman Farm. It was the home of noted artist Marie Zimmerman (1879-1972). It was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1979.
At the farm, we ran into Norman and Jamie. They were having a lot of fun on their awesome Fat Bikes. Zimmerman Road dumps you onto Rt. 209 for about 200 feet, then back up Zimmerman Road and into the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.
We climbed up and over a dirt section, and across 2 dried up river beds that sat a bit lower than the trail, and our bikes had to be walked. I was never a fan of hopping off the bike, but on a day like this, it just adds to the mixed bag of terrain we enjoyed.
We came back to Rt. 209, and crossed over onto the McDade Trail. We rode the gravel for a few miles, and had to come back out onto the pavement for a mile and back on the McDade before reaching the Dingman’s Bridge. A wooden surface bridge that actually has a toll of $1.00. A Toll taker stands out in the middle of the bridge, between both lanes, and continues to turn around to take the toll from drivers travelling in each direction. It certainly takes you back to a simpler time.
After crossing over the Delaware River into New Jersey, we turned left on Old Mine Road, and cruised down to Van Ness Road, a dirt and gravel road that leads into a section of single track, past an old baseball field in the middle of the woods.
We then came to a climb that appeared from about 200 feet away to be a dirt wall. At the top, my legs burning by now, the road went back into single track for a couple of more miles of ups and downs. Then we came out onto Jagger Road. Turning left, we descended down to Old Mine, and hung a right towards the Milford Bridge. On The Pennsylvainia side we went down Metz Road past the old ice house and onto River Road, a short gravel section with a steep climb back up to 3rd St. A Quarter mile and 10 minutes later, we were sitting in the Frisky Goat Coffee House (in the same building as the bike shop), happy to have ridden this incredible route when it usually is covered in snow by now!
ridingmilford.com 