I woke up after stealth camping near the creek. The night before, I pushed my laden bicycle into the woods, away from the road and water. I used the backpacking rule of being 500 feet from a trail or water source. I did not want to be seen from the road. In the morning light, construction vehicles drove down the curve in the road. My stealthy site wasn’t so stealthy.

I made breakfast, packed up and headed south. After a mile or two, I encountered my first “Closed Road” sign.

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A young guy in a truck soon drove up and told me I couldn’t get past. They were paving both sides of the road at once. I asked what time they knocked off. He said around 4. I asked if they were there the day before. He informed me that they were at another site yesterday.

I realized that if I had ridden a few more miles last night, I would have already been past the work site and on my way. There wasn’t any work around, so I returned the way I came, head hung in shame. I figured I would just head home, my original plan thwarted. Sore, out of spare tubes,I knew going into this ride that turning back was a distinct possibility.

I scoped out a different route north using the NY/NJ trail map. I headed up Old Mine Road toward Millstone Village. I passed yet another closed road sign at Millstone Village, another personless demonstration village. I guess demonstrating that people once lived here and the Parks Department priced them out. I cycled up Donkey Hollow Trail and passed a few picnic benches surrounded by overgrown weeds. Tick headquarters. There were a few downed trees on Donkey Hollow Trail, but it wasn’t that bad. The trail had some maintenance.

I stayed on the forest road after it crossed Blue Mountain Lakes Road. Another mistake. This unnamed forest road is on a Backpacking.com route. The gravel forest road has not been maintained in years. I had miles of downed trees crossing the path.

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I was either pushing the bike around or under the trees. Many times it was just easier to lift the fully packed bike over the trees. Did I mention I overpacked? It was exhausting. There were easily a hundred trees crossing the three-mile slog. After a few hours I reached a farm road near Haney’s Mill Road and connected with the paved NPS Road 615 and crawled my way to Walpack Center, another personless preserved town. I was done. I called my wife for a bail out.

Mrs. Brown was about 2 hours away so she wasn’t thrilled about picking me up. I messed up her ‘me time.’ GPS got her lost trying to find me at the Walpack Center ghost village that isn’t on Google maps. I was sitting on the porch of the former general store but she almost missed me. She was still shaken from encountering a long-horned, long-haired cow on the narrow road. A kind farmer at a produce stand and me waving wildly as she drove by finally led her to me. To say that Mrs. Brown was not happy is an understatement. Me, on the other hand, would have jumped up and clicked my heels if I could move.