You must preregister here ASAP   with the GSWA (there is a max capacity), there is a $10 donation required.   Have a credit card ready, I found the page very easy to use.   I hope you can make it out!   All pertinent info on the hike is here.

Anyone not registered for the hike, but still wanting to ride; lets ride together after the hike.  Meet up at GSWA Conservation Management Area, 1 Tiger Lily Lane, Morristown, NJ. around 8.  This is a pretty nice ride straight down James St. in Morristown, if you want to park in town, or I bet you can find parking near Tiger Lily Lane if you need to.

Well grab your shoes, and grab your balls
And lets head to those heavenly halls
Sit on down and grab a beer
Because bowling time is pretty near
Tortured men forget their pain
When they head to the bowling lane

Let’s go bowling
Let’s go bowling, got a

Let’s go bowling, for a free game
Let’s go bowling
Let’s go bowling, let’s go bowling
Let’s do it now

Because wrestlemania’s fine by me
Monster trucks are a sight to see
A cultured like that’s nice and all
But there ain’t nothing better than a bowling ball
You know the sport that God would choose
Is the one with the three-tone leather-sole shoes

Arrogant worms. Lets go bowling

Update! 

The first werewolf bike n bowl was really fun. Four of us met up, and after coffee & bike banter we headed out to the traction line (an abandoned trolley line) for an easy but chilly ride to Madison. We pulled into the strip mall and lo and behold, something you don’t see everyday, a truly rare bird…. A huge bike rack! We excitedly stuffed our wheels into the old-school rack and locked up. Even though it was league night we got a lane. I have’nt been bowling in 10 years and it showed., but in our midst is a truly talented bowler. He rode with his bowling ball on his rear rack, along with a custom ball wipe rag, his shoes were passed down from generations of great bowlers. He confidently bowled a couple of turkeys, 4 strikes in a row! He crushed us all easily. The pizza and drinks were very good. No one gawked at us too much but I think we did look funny decked out in orange & green velcro strapped shoes combined with our deep winter cycling wear. After a couple games we welcomed a new lifetime member and hit the road back home howling.

What do you think?

The towns of Rockaway, Wharton & Dover grew up around the Morris Canal, I really dig the old canal, so we will visit a couple of the remaining canal features in each town.

There is a long but not very steep hill for a couple miles when we leave Rockaway, it will be a great warm up. Richard Mine Rd. will get us howling as we zip towards Wharton. Near downtown Wharton, we can check out a really nice park where we can ride the Morris Canal’s towpath along a water filled section, passing a lock and loop back on an old railroad bed for a nice 1 mile or so off road session. The trail conditions are usually very nice and smooth most of the way. Super skinny race tires and some caution are likely to be ok. Back on the road we’ll make our way down into downtown Dover for refreshments. I’d love to have a drink at The Hop to check out their black & white photo of a hundered or so nude cyclists, only 1 drink though please, because I hear the place is frequented by undesireables.

It’s a nice spin back into Rockaway. Bring lights!  I hope you can make it.

Update: 

I crested the old inclined plane (its obliterated under a parking lot) in Rockaway, took a sip of hot tea and zipped towards the town clock to find 7 other riders ready to go. I was 10 minutes late, forgot my cue sheet, had a cold I was recovering from and I was tired and chilly. As I chatted about the route, a lifetime member said he knew an old railroad bed that may be just the ticket to bypass a slightly nasty rt. 15 crossing. Great! I love learning of new byways, backroads & trails. Everybody was pretty psyched. My mood brightened as we shoved off.

We passed under rt. 80, directly through a small playground and made our way up some mellow hills to Richards Mine Road. We checked out a few neighborhoods decked out with some really good holiday lighting. We zipped down past a small santa in a helicopter display blaring some music towards the street. My sore throat & stuffy nose didn’t mind the cold air, it actually felt pretty nice. We detoured left onto a dirt path and followed it under rt. 15 and howled, the old railroad bed was perfect for getting us across the highway safely. The moon was high and bright overhead. We had to stop for a while to fix a flat, the culprit was a long nasty metal wire poking through. Back on the path, but now its paved, after passing over a small bridge that paralelled Main St. heading straight towards downtown Wharton. We made a right off of Main St. and after a few bumpy blocks made it to Hugh Force Park.

We cruised along the Morris Canal towpath that leads through the park. The canal, full of water, is on the left and the Rockaway River is on the right. We passed Lock 2 East that is in the process of being dug into! Apparently in 1924, they filled in the lock with dirt and called it done. The lock walls, gates and some of the machinery sat buried since and is just now being unearthed. Very cool, but not much to see at night. We followed the towpath until its interruption at an old railroad bed. We hopped on the railroad bed and followed that back to a rough bumpy trail back down to the parking lot. I saw a lifetime member losing his balance and holding a tree for support as he rounded a bumpy bend, I through for sure he’d go down but he happily stayed upright somehow. Good job!

Leaving the park, we again crossed Main St. and followed a great road downhill through quiet neighborhoods. We passed some more great xmas lighting and the coolest car I’ve seen in a while. We crossed rt 46 and followed Blackwell Street into downtown Dover. We again found the old Morris Canal near a plaque describing a horrific accident involving a drawbridge a canal boat and a train. Some of us got thirsty so we headed to the ‘At The Hop’ bar. What a unique place. We loved the décor and enjoyed a drink. The bartender was an occassional cyclist and seemed into the wolf ride, I gave her a flyer.

A quick cruise down the road had us back at the clock in Rockaway. Great ride everybody.

There are 16 lifetime members.  How are your spoke cards holding up?  If your spoke card is falling apart or if they’re too small let me know and I’ll give you an improved one.

In the coming year I’d love to integrate a train ride into the wolf ride.  We really should somehow make it out west to either Netcong or all the way to Hackettstown. The trains can easily get us out west but the last trains returning east generally end about 8pm, Bummer!  From Netcong its less than a 20 mile ride back to Denville, there are a couple of big hills but it’s a nice enough ride, we could probably work out an optional car ride back as well. We could also get out to NYC pretty easily if we want.  I’d like to have a ride out to a historic site to meet up with an expert guide to give us a proper tour.  I know some cave & old mine enthusiasts from the area, how cool would a night time mine tour be!  A bike & hike full moon adventure is a definite option I’ve been looking into as well.  Many of the past years rides were so good, I’d like to repeat them, giving them official ‘werewolf classic’ status.  What other towns should we start/end at.   Where are your favorite cycling roads?  Where are the cool carriage roads, old ravines,  dead ends that don’t really end and gated access roads?  Where are the good watering holes?  Is anyone interested in a full moon century ride?  Does anyone want to design their own wolf ride?  What weird or cool historic spots do you want to visit?

Thanks everyone for reading & riding.  I’ve gotten to know some really nice folks over the past year and we’ve had some great rides.  Everyones enthusiasm keeps me fired up & howling.

Update:

I was concerned that hosting a ride in the dark with incoming rain might not be a great idea. All the leaves in the road would be dampened and slick, visibility would be poor and it was already pretty cold out.

I’m glad I didn’t reschedule. I had guessed that anyone adventurous enough to actually want to come out and ride in these conditions would have the right stuff and come prepared to complete the ride safely.  Even though there was some wind and rain, we had a fun little ride.

So, 9 of us met at the clocktower and we decided to ride north into the river valley for a short easy trip towards Boonton and see when the rain might hit us. It was very misty, almost drizzling as we shoved off. River Road was awesome as usual, very secluded and very fun to ride in the tunnel of light that our bike lights cast. Near Powerville we hopped on the Morris Canal towpath for a few hundred feet, hopping logs and steering straight to avoid the canal on the left and river on the right. No problem. We regrouped and crossed the street to head to the Boonton Falls. There is a fun dirt path that follows the river. We stopped near the falls to gawk. I would love to see the hardy kayakers when they occassionally fly down these falls. After a 10 minute break, we continued down river and crossed the bridge high over some rapids and past the glacial erratica. Of course we howled. The drizzly mist turned to a bona fide rain with little whips of wind, it got colder but no one complained of cold after climbing the hillside where the Morris Canal inclined plane used to be. We continued tracing the old canal bed, rudely buried under some basketball courts, a park and a parking lot. We retraced our tire tracks, fought a little bit of wind and made it back to Denville no problem. Good job everyone, it was great riding with you.

Where do you want to go next month?  I cannot ride saturday dec. 10th but i think the 9th and 11th are good.

5 of us gathered at The Green for a nice little adventure. We had a relaxing ride through the crisp fall night. We were surprised to discover that the path from Speedwell over to Lake Street had been paved! Riding the fresh asphalt ribbon through the trees along the river had us howling. We followed the path which eventually turns to dirt along the old railroad right of way (The Rockaway Valley RR a/k/a Rockabye Baby) all the way to Whitehead Road where we headed towards Lewis Morris Park to climb the hill. After spinning up a series of steep hills, we decided to check out the Continental Army soldier huts. We laughed at the concrete foundations as we poked around. Some more hills up to the top of Western Ave and we bombed back into town, stopping at some creepy little chapel, surrounded by huge old trees.

Thanks for riding everyone. See ya in November.

I’m out of town for the 9/16 Harvest Moon, but lets ride 9/23.

How about we ride the Morrisotown Werewolf Classic in reverse.  10 miles, a steep hill, some pretty smooth trail and fun.  Meet at the fountain on The Green at 7:30.  Come prepared.  Hope to see ya.

Due to stormy weather, tonights ride will be rescheduled.  New date TBA.  

Update!  Can you make it tonight?  Lets meet at the Green at 8.