It’s a busy time of year, but I still managed to get in an overnight bikepacking and music trip. I have to make time for these things. I’ve been too much in the company of humans for the last few months and I’ve lost touch with the infinite thread that keeps me grounded, that I only find with sustained physical effort in natural surroundings.
So, I used some of the routes from the good folks at Marty’s Reliable Cycle and I pedaled about 70 miles from Morristown to Stokes State Forest. I was mostly on the Patriot’s Path for the first part, which runs the gamut from flowy and smooth to abusive and punishing. Here’s some of the flowy stuff:
Here’s some of the abusive stuff:
That kind of singletrack is a blast on a normal mountain bike, but it’s tougher when you’re loaded down. Here’s my rig:
That photo also shows why some of that singletrack is so slow. Deadfall! Lots of it! We had some big storms this winter and the trails are a mess of deadfall. Some of the riding was on the order of pedal for 30 yards, unclip, lift bike, repeat, repeat, repeat. Slow going, but still way better than doing paperwork . . .
It was also slow going because of the mud:
I often had to walk around that stuff because I didn’t want to destroy the trail and because it’s nearly impossible to ride through it. Here’s my front tire, getting sucked in:
At any rate, I had a blast, as you can tell from this photo:
I just love being out there. I didn’t do any singing this time, but I spent a lot of time listening to the woods and the creatures that live in them. The sounds are just incredible, and so varied, and so nurturing, and so inspiring to me as a composer and improviser. I spent 40 minutes sitting in the dark after the sun went down, out by the lake at Stokes Forest, listening to the frogs. Their individual chirps mass into a drone of phenomenal complexity and ever-changing sonic color. Extraordinary. I fell asleep in my sleeping bag, totally exhausted, my ears ringing with frogs, feeling refreshed and inspired.
The next day I took a slightly shorter route back, for a total of about 135 miles. I only climbed something around 6,000 feet total, so it was pretty mellow, but still a nice outing. Bikepacking in New Jersey is pretty cushy because of the abundance of services, but the singletrack is tough going sometimes. At any rate, I’m super excited about my Sonic 8 adventure this summer in Vermont, and I think I’m basically on track with my training.
Payton MacDonald 