"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
09/13/2015 at 00:01 • Filed to: None
3
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"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
09/13/2015 at 00:01 • Filed to: None | 3
| 8 |
Today I wanted to go hiking up at the Delaware Water Gap since it finally was not hot today. A nice overcast, slight breeze, and a solid high 60s/low 70s forecast is perfect for hiking. I planned on going to check out Buttermilk Falls, the tallest waterfall in NJ. In order to get there, I would of course be driving my Miata and I figured today I would try out the “Avoid Highways” option on Google maps.
Now what this does is attempt to avoid all major highways at any cost, even if you end up going south on some random road in order to eventually go north. It truly is the most confusing stuff to listen to while driving along, but there is definitely an upside to it. Nearly every random road that google took me down was honestly great to drive on. I know the highways pretty well and have driven up to the Gap quite a few times. However, this route showed me many more interesting roads not too far from home!
But as you can see, unchecking the “Avoid Highways” box saves about an hour off the travel time even though it adds a few more miles. I followed the regular route to get home since it was nearly dark and very raining the whole way home. Overall though, I definitely want to try it again since that option showed me some cool twisty roads.
My picture of the falls sucks and the sunlight made the top of the falls disappear. From the top was even worse lol. So here instead is a good picture I found on google image search. It is a 200ft waterfall which was pretty cool but I have definitely seen bigger elsewhere. Anyways, I was there for hiking not ogling the waterfall, so I continued on for my ~10 mile hike up to the AT, around some lakes, and back.
The yellow route shows my general hiking route and the orange arrows point the travel directions. As you can see from elevation changes, it was basically just straight uphill the whole way in one direction, level for a while, and then way downhill again. About halfway through, it started downpouring! I found the rain to be refreshing but getting back to the car all soggy and tired was definitely a pain. I actually drove home with the top up and the heat on. Very atypical for me!
My car always looks better in pictures, none of the little imperfections are visible and the wax certainly does it’s job! 143k miles and going strong. Some sketchy roads getting to the parking lot but I am glad I didnt try going to the closer one. That would have been more swimming than driving lol.
Managed to get a pretty close up picture of this guy! (or girl rather I guess)
Anyways, definitely try out google maps “avoid highways” and see if it finds you any cool roads!
Agrajag
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
09/13/2015 at 00:44 |
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Definitely some great roads in and around that area. I’ll need to check out those falls.
If you’re ever in the area again, there are some decent hiking trails around this place . Some nice waterfalls and steep hiking on one of the trails. Max is about 3 miles I think.
wiffleballtony
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
09/13/2015 at 01:12 |
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Here’s my commute if I avoid highways.
Much excite.
S H: now with more letters!
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
09/13/2015 at 02:39 |
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Have you paddled the Delaware Water Gap before? I need to get around to doing it, eventually, as when they have the free busses running, you can take a canoe or kayak on!
facw
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
09/13/2015 at 04:30 |
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Car-wrecking vermin!
McMike
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
09/13/2015 at 09:09 |
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I did the same thing
back in August,
and it was awesome.
It threw us two gravel roads, a handful of neighborhoods, and some really nice scenery.
It was also really relaxing, because it added a few hours on to each of our days, but there were no trucks or heavy traffic, since all those folks who were in a hurry stick to the highway.
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Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> McMike
09/13/2015 at 15:11 |
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Yes, your post actually inspired me to try that out. Thank you for the idea!
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McMike
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
09/13/2015 at 15:37 |
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How scary is it that we put 100% of our trust in google? :)
Some of the times, we were five turns deep into a neighborhood, and I’m thinking,
“OK, two more residential turns, and I’m stopping and looking at the map!”
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Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> McMike
09/13/2015 at 16:14 |
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Shit I will openly accept our Google overlords. I have never once been led incorrectly by Google maps. Any problems have been user input error or bad address from someone else.