The Epic Year in Review

The time between Christmas and New Year is usually when all the major news shows summarize the events of the year and of course there is jibjabs comic take which you can see here As I look back at this year myself I realized I had pretty good year with some fun bike adventures.

There was of course the now famous Epic of El Capitain then on the trip to Lake Nockamixon I was very politely told I was a lying bastard for forgetting to mention some of the hills along the way. I did a lot of hilly rides this year and even attempted Fiddlers Elbows and survived. Besides my normal weekend rides I took two bike trips. One to Lake Champlain and another to Gettysburg both of which I really enjoyed and plan to do more of in the future.

Of course it wasn't the steep hills, long miles or new roads that made biking fun this year. It was, as always, the people that joined me on these sometimes crazy rides. So for all of you that road alone with me thanks for making 2012 a fun year. I wish you all a Happy New Year. I will see you on the road in 2013 once the weather gets a little warmer and I promise some more fun rides in the new year.

Unexpected Snowbiking

Its hard to tell what kind of winter it is going to be but we have already had two small snow storms and of course the hurricane. This past Saturday I went up to visit my father who just had  knee replacement surgery. I took the opportunity to do some riding in north jersey where they live. It was too cold ride on the road so I decided to check out Allamuchy State park which has some popular mountain biking trails. I had not been there before but I found a couple maps online and it looked like it would be an interesting place to explore.

When I left my house for the drive up I knew it would be cold but did not expected there to be snow on the ground. There was a brief snow storm on Tuesday but it didn't really stick around here. As I headed north and got closer to to Allamuchy I started to see patches of snow and when I go to the parking lot there was snow over most of the ground although it was not much more than a half inch deep.

Allamuchy has 20 miles of mostly single track runs that go by a couple of lakes. I chose a easy 5 mile route that went past Deer Pond. The riding wasn't too hard although at times between the snow and the leaves it a bit slippery in places. After I made it past the Deer Pond I hit some of the harder single track trails. The terrain here is very rocky which makes it a bumpy ride.

There were a lot of trees down and across the trails so I ended up having to walk around a downed tree every half mile or so. This slowed me down a little and I ended up spending just over an hour on the trails and got a pretty good work out. I only saw a small part of Allamuchy they have a lot of nice trails so if I'm every up this way again I may explore it a little more.

My Trusty Baja

You need more than a good bike to be a serious rider. There is a lot of supporting equipment needed like spare tubes, tires, and an assortment of tools. You also need special clothing and shoes for each season and many other incidental. If you have to drive to where you are going to ride it also helps to have a good way to transport your bike.

When it comes time to buy a new car I always take into account how well it will work for carrying bikes since transporting bikes and people is part of almost every weekend for me. In October 2002 I bought a Subaru Baja as it seemed like a good car for everyday use as well as a great car for hauling me and the bike around.

Ten years later and I'm still very happy with the car. It's a fun comfortable car to drive and gets good mileage (25 MPG). Having an pickup bed in the back has been very useful for hauling, plants, dirt, wood and other dirty things that won't fit or are too dirty for the back of a normal car. The bed also easily fits 3 bikes with a custom rack I made.

This car has been able to do everything I have needed it to do. It is a little smaller than my last car a Ford Ranger pickup but it has been able to do everything my small pickup did and has a better ride and gas mileage. Its also has been very reliable car and at 80,000 miles it seems to have a lot of life left in it.

When the Baja first came out Car and Driver didn't think it was a car that Subaru needed to build. They didn't understand why some one would by a Baja when they could get almost the same utility from an Outback wagon. They were right of course and three years after the Baja came out Subaru discontinued it for lack of sales. For me however I'm glad they did build the car because it has been the perfect car to get me, my bikes, and my friends to our many bike adventures.

After the storm

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Its been almost two weeks since Hurricane Sandy came through and things are mostly back to normal. Most people have their power back on and there is no problems getting gas. There are still some down trees and debris laying around but most of the damage has been cleaned up.

Down the shore it is a different story. We have a small condo in Avon, just north of Belmar a block off the beach. We are on the 4th floor of a strong stucco build that weathered the storm well. We didn't have any damage but down on ground level its a different story. At the height of the storm there was probably close to 3 feet of water in the streets in front of our condo. This flooded the first floor of the condo which is a couple feet below street level.

When we arrived in Avon we saw the sand once we got a couple blocks from the beach. After the storm there was probably a foot or two of sand lying in the streets. This has been plowed to the side like snow and people were still digging out the sidewalks in front of their houses.

The front doors of the main lobby, of the condo, were destroyed by the storm and they were already working on ripping out the carpet and sheet rock on the first floor. This is not the first time this has happened.  About once every 10 years the first floor of the condo floods but this time the water was a lot higher. Although it will probably take a couple of months before the first floor is back in shape the rest of the building is fine.

If you take a walk on the beach you can appreciate the real power of the storm. There are some small parts of the boardwalk still intact but most of it is broken and bent or just plain missing. There are several buildings like the lifeguard station that got knocked off its foundation and are a total. loss. The worst damage is the public bathroom which came off it foundation and flipped upside down. It will take many months before they will be able to clean this up and start the rebuilding process.

We tried to get to Belmar to see the damage there but the area by the beach is only open to residents and it looked like they were still working on getting power back to parts of the town.

I can't imagine what Seaside looks like since that got hit a lot harder than Avon or Belmar. There is no doubt that this storm will leave scars across NJ for years to come.

TIMBER!!!

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It's been about 24 hours since the worst part of Hurricane Sandy passed by my house. I was one of the lucky ones who didn't loose power although it was close as you can see from the picture. Around the corner from where I live the wire that feeds power to my house now goes through a utility pole that is now hanging by the wire bringing in the power. It has not been fixed yet and with all the other damage around the area it may be this way for a while so I hope it holds.

This pole was cracked about 6:30 pm last night when a tree across the street from it fell and pulled at the wires. I was in my office reading at the time and saw a flash when the tree fell. We lost power for about a minute but then it came back on. About a half hour later we got an email from our friend that lives in the house where the tree fell showing a picture of the tree on top of the power line. Even through we had strong winds with gusts above 60 mph most of the night the power stayed on.

When I got up in the morning I saw 3 or 4 more trees down on my street. All of them were the ones between the sidewalk and the curb. One of them took some more wires down but nothing that affected our house. Besides a few down branches we had very little damage from the storm.

From the pictures on the news I know a lot of other people had it a lot worst than I did especially down the shore. We do have a small condo in Avon NJ but from an email we got from someone in the building it looks like it came through OK. We'll head down that way this weekend to check it out.  I plan to check out some of the other areas of the shore when I'm down there and will post some pictures here.

Although I suspect a lot of you lost power I hope you all made it through the storm OK.

Next Stop, the Twilight Zone

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Imagine if you would a place where everybody you meet is a avid bike rider. In your hands is a envelop with cue sheets for 30 great rides of any type or distance you could want. As you walk into the hotel, where you will be staying, there are bikes and people in bike cloths everywhere you look. The conference rooms of the hotel are filled with any food or drink you could want before, during or after a ride. There are people from the local bike club to help you decide which rides to go on, a  massage therapist to ease your tired muscles and beer and wine to help you relax at the end of the day. You have entered another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. Next stop, the Twilight Zone! (cue dramatic music)

This is the strange world I entered when I attended the BCP Fall Foliage trip this weekend. The Bicycle Club of Philadelphia (BCP) runs two trips a year, one in the spring and another one in the fall. I have heard a lot of good things about these trip and decided it was time to go on one of the trips.

The Fall Foliage trip goes to Hanover PA just outside of Gettysburg. This is an area of farms and rolling hills that is rural and has a lot of nice places to ride. BCP has been running this trip for 10 years and always has a good turnout. There were 170 people on this trip and we took over all of the Hampton Inn as well as a good part of the Holiday Inn across the way.

I took Friday off so I could drive out early and do a ride that afternoon. I caravaned out to Hanover with Cheryl and Al. We passed through a couple of rain storms on the way out but by the time we got to Hanover it was just overcast and the roads were mostly dry. After checking in to the hotel and looking at the ride sheets we decided to do a 29 mile ride called the Northern Exposure.  We pick up another rider on the way out and proceeded to head out to the country side.

It was still a little overcast but as we rode the sun slowly came out. I have never ridden in this area before so it was fun exploring new roads. For the most part cue sheet was a clear but there were a few turns where it was a little ambiguous so we had to stop and look at the map and my GPS to make sure we didn't get lost. The land we rode through was mostly farmland and small towns but there were a few interesting sites along the way. The first was the town of Hanover where there was a bakery with free coffee and a nice circle in the middle of the town. The trees in this area were close to the peak color and one on the square was one of the brightest that I have ever seen. The other oddity on the ride was a strange collection of sculptures at a farm house. The first one I saw was an eight foot elephant next to a small pond. Then next to the pond was a house with many more sculptures. Everything from a gorilla to snow white to saints and everything else in between.

After the ride we hung out with all the other bikers and tried not to over indulge in all the food that was out. I do know a few people in BCP but the only one I recognized was Linda. Al and Cheryl introduced me to a few other people who they knew but it didn't matter that I didn't know any one since we area all bikers and have a lot of stories to share. The main topic of conversation was what ride to do on Saturday. Since we were close to Gettysburg I wanted to ride through the battlefield. There was a 60 mile ride on Saturday to the hotel to and around the battlefield and back which sounded good but there were also a few other rides out toward Maryland that sound good too. In the end we chose the hills and foliage for Saturday and saved the battlefield ride for Sunday.

Saturday morning was a little cool around 50 but it would be sunny and warming up so it looked like a good day. From the hotel we headed to McSherrystown where we meet Ivan from the Hanover cycle club who took us to Littlestown then on a beautiful 32 loop through to farms and hills of Pennsylvania and Maryland. There's not a lot to say about the ride except that it was great choice. We road along some quiet road with good views of the some farms and near peak fall foliage. It was hilly enough to be interesting but nothing harder than a normal sourlands ride.  Ivan was a good ride leader and keep the group together and moving along. The only thing the ride didn't have was a rest stop since there is a lot of nothing out here. We had been told about that before hand so I brought enough food and water with me. At the end between to trip from the hotel to Littlestown and back and the loop through Pennsylvania and Maryland we ended up with 58 miles. A good day.

Saturday night the group (i.e. all 170 of us) headed to Abbotstown for a nice sit down dinner at a local restaurant before heading back to the hotel for some more socializing.

Sunday Cheryl, Al and I headed out on our own. We decided to drive to Gettysburg and do an 18 mile loop around the battlefield since we wanted to do a short ride today so we could get home at a reasonable time. I had been to Gettysburg a number of times in the past but seeing it by bike was different since get to see it at a slower pace. The battlefield is literally almost filled with monuments and you can't go more than a few feet with out seeing another plaque or statue to some one who fought and die here. We did stop at some of the bigger monuments and sights to take in some of the history.

At the top of Little Round Top we listened to a great talk about the battle there. The person speaking was leading a small group of bikers and stopped to describe the battle for this high ground. He was very animated and not only described the battle in vivid detail but even acted out a few parts. Once he started talking we couldn't walk away.

We stopped at a couple other places along to way for pictures and to read about the history. We got back to the car just before noon and headed back to the hotel to a shower before heading home.

It was a great bike trip that was over all to quick. Linda and the rest of the gang from BCP did an excellent job organizing this trip. They created a beautiful alternate reality where the world is all about biking. It was hard to drive home and back to the real word but I will definite visit this world again next spring when BCP has there trip to Danville.

Road Trip

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99.9% of the rides I do are with in an hour or two of my house. I occasionally sneak in a bike ride on some of my business trips or vacations like my rides in Moab UT and Las Vegas NV but I haven't really taken any dedicated bike vacations until now.

The destination was the Vermont side of Lake Champlain close to Burlington. Lake Champlain is a large lake that stretches 125 miles from the top of Lake George all the way into Canada and is 14 miles at it widest. The lake has many big and small islands and is surrounding by mountains on both sides. It is an extremely picturesque place with a lot of interesting things to see. This is a long post that describes our trip if you just don't feel like reading the whole post just Click Here for pictures which will show you most of what we did.

We rented a house on South Hero island right on the water. The house ended up actually being nicer than expected and was a pretty comfortable place to stay. The only surprise was that the water for the house came directly from the lake meaning we couldn't drink it and had to buy some bottled water. There isn't a lot in South Hero so everything is down the road a piece (meaning 15 miles to the nearest dinner) but Burlington is about a half hour away if you need some entertainment.

The drive up was a long 6 hour plus drive since we had to go almost to Canada to get there. Once we all got there we settled in, got some supplies and had a decent dinner at a local diner. We had planned to stop at the local pizza place but it was closed for some reason.

Thursday morning was our first bike ride and the plan was to use the ferries to do a 50 mile loop down to Burlington then across the lake and back up the New York side to Plattsburg. We had plan to start from the house but the road was gravel so we started in town about a mile away.

It was a bright sunny day so we had some good views of the surrounding mountains. This is one of the reasons that I came up here to do some rides where the scenery is dramatically different than in NJ.

The area around Burlington is filled with nice bike paths so after about 10 miles on a county highway we wound our way along the coast and through the woods to the city. Along the way we enjoyed some nice views of the different part of the lake.

The ferry from Burlington to Kent only runs a few times a day so we timed the ride to take the 1:30 pm ferry. I padded our starting time to make sure we got there early so by 1pm we were at the dock waiting for the ferry. It was windy so the ferry ride itself was a little rough and cold. Once we got to Kent on the NY side we warmed up quickly climbing a hill away from the lake then following the Amtrack rails up the coast.

The wind was at our back and getting stronger so we made really good time all the way up to Plattsburg. From there we took the ferry back to South Hero island. We stayed at the back of the ferry on the short trip to the island because the wind and waves were spraying water over the front. At times it was a little hard to stand.

We ended up getting back around 5pm because of the late start and ferry ride but it was fun day. Today the pizza shop in South Hero was open so since is was late and we were tired we got some decent food from the pizza place and relaxed in the house for the night.

Friday we headed out for another bike ride. This time the idea was to ride close to the Canadian border and do a loop over the border. We started on the Isle La Motte at the Saint Ann Shrine. This shrine is advertised as the place of the first catholic mass in Vermont. The church has an unusual outdoor pavilion full of pews where they hold services.

From the shrine we took a quick tour of Isle La Motte then headed up the coast of another island toward Canada. The wind was still blowing from the south around 15-20 mph so we made good time but knew it would a head wind on the way back.

We eventually made our way near the top of Lake Champlain and crossed from VT to NY into the town of Rouses Point which is small town on the NY/Canadian border. There was construction on the bridge which make it a little tricky to get over it. There was only one lane was open and the east and west traffic had to alternate going over the bridge. I wasn't expected much from this town since we were north of the middle of no where and as we rode in the town it did look a little run down. We did however find one of nicest coffee shops that we have ever seen. I don't drink coffee but the others said it was really good. They also had some great pastries and I had a good piece of crumb cake that they even heated up for me.

From Rouses point Lynn, Cheryl, Laura and I headed into Canada. Larry did not have a passport so he rode off back the way we came to meet us where we would be coming back into the US. Once we got over the border we had to stop for 10-15 mins for some paving work they were doing on the rode. This area is mostly farmland and once we got pass the road work we has some nice views and quiet roads then we turn backed toward the US and hit a hellacious headwind that had us a times in single digits for speed.

At the Canada US border we had a little hard time getting the attention of the border guard but eventually made it through the border and met back up with Larry. From here we continued along the roads of the island and worked our way back through the head winds back to the shrine.

Dinner that night was in Burlington which is a college town with a good selections of restaurants in a nice open mall area in the middle of town.

The next day the wind was really kicking up and was probably gusting close to 30 mph so instead of biking we decided to go to Stowe.

Stowe is one of the best ski area on the east coast and a good place get some scenic views of the Green Mountains. We didn't have any really plans but once we got to Stowe we headed towards the main ski mountain and ended up driving most of the way to the top of Mount Mansfield then doing a 1.4 mile hike to its peak. Although the trail had a few difficult spots where we had to climb over a few large rock we eventually made it to the peak while enjoying some good views along the way.

After the hike we when into the town of Stowe itself, for lunch, before heading back to the house. We of course had to stop at the Ben and Jerry's factory which was on the way back. We spend a quiet nite at the house before heading home the next day.

On the way home we stopped off in Saratoga Springs to visit Dave F who moved there a few years ago. It was nice to catch up with him and we talked about coming back up this way again to do some rides in this area.

If was a good trip besides riding and hiking in a different area it was nice to spend some extended time hanging out with some of my biking friends. This is definitely something I will try to do more next year.

We Have Nothing to Fear but Fiddler's Elbow

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Fear is one of our base emotions and has been useful to our survival as a species. There is a excellent book "How We Decide" by Jonah Lehrer that explains how emotions can both enhance or impair our decision making ability. Fear is useful when it helps us avoid dangerous situations but other times fear can take over our ability to reason and cause us to make bad decisions.

One of the examples, in Jonah Lehrer's book, of fear causing some people to make a deadly decision is the story of the Mann Gulch Fire. You can read the full account here. In the Mann Gulch Fire a bunch of smoke jumper got dropped on to the side of a ridge to fight the fire. Unfortunately soon after they arrived the fire got out of control. The men tried to head down to the river but burning embers had lit the grass by the river on fire and the fire was quickly spreading up hill. Most of the men panicked and headed up the hill to a rocky crevice for cover but the fire was moving to quickly. One man however, Wag Dodge, was able to control his fear and come up an ingenious idea to save his life. He actually lit the grass in front of on fire as he headed up the hill. This took the fuel away from the fire behind him. This allowed him to quickly create an area which he huddle down in and allowed the fire to pass around him. His ability to control his fear saved his life. The other men weren't so lucky.

The question is when do we listen to our fears and when do we dismiss them as irrational. Fear is a powerful motivator which is why it is a used in commercials to try and sell us stuff we don't need.

     "Is restless leg syndrome ruining your life!!!. Then have we got some useless medicine to sell you"

This weekend I decided to try and climb Fiddler's Elbow. For those of you who don't know about Fiddler's Elbow it is by most accounts the steepest and hardest hill to climb in NJ. Check out Ken Roberts site that describes all the hard hills in NJ here. You can check out Google maps to see the profile but basically in three quarters of a mile the hill rises about 600 feet. Most of the road is between 10%-15% grade with a really steep part of about 140 feet that is over 20%. The hills profile and reputation scare most people away. Some people who think too hard about attempting the climb wake up in a cold sweat at 5:45 am in the morning worrying that they will fall over an crash if they attempt the climb.

To those who are gripped by fear, get over it, Fiddler's Elbow is just a hill. It's a steep mother but if you know your limits and do a little prep you can probably make it most of the way up the hill and live to tell about it.

The route I took to Fiddler's Elbow was more or less my normal route to Merrill Creek with a detour to Fiddler's Elbow. You can find the route here. Luckily I didn't have to do this ride myself but got a few other crazy people to come with me Laura, Blake, and Jeff L. We started from Milford and headed up along the river. It was mostly an uneventful ride to Stewardsville. As has happened a lot to me this year one of the roads that I wanted to take had a road closed sign acrossed it. I am famous for not letting a road closed sign stop me so we went up the road and found the problem was a closed tunnel which we were able to get through.

Since there isn't a lot of places to stop for food we made a quick stop in Stewardsville since we won't get to Bloomsbury until mile 40. From there we headed up the east side of Merrill Creek. These were roads I had not been on before. Rt 519 was a little busy but the other roads were nice. I deviated from the route here a little to shorten the ride a bit and take our one steep hill. So instead of taking the left on Garrison Rd I made a right just before onto Ridge Rd. This meant we would stay up on the Ridge and not go down to the Delaware River just to climb back up.

Ridge Rd was nice and after about half a mile we got a view of what we had to climb.

In 3 miles we got to the famous Fiddlers Elbow Road. On the left just before Fiddler's Elbow is Roxburg Station Road and the hill I cut out of the ride. One look down the hill confirmed this was a good idea.

After a couple of picture at the bottom of Fiddlers Elbow up we went with Jeff and Blake in the lead. Fiddlers Elbow is a winding road so you can't see the whole climb. The climbs starts off at 8% then you turn the corner and see it get steeper for most of the climb the grade is 10%-15%. It was tough but with my gearing I was slowly making it up the hill. Although my heart rate was high it was manageable. Although there are no flat spots on the hill it is amazing how a small 8% great feels easy after going up a 15% grade for a hundred feet. I stopped about a third of the way up to slow my heart rate and take a couple of pictures. The one below is Laura heading up one of the steeper part. It looks much worst in person.

I managed to keep going up the hill and made a brief stop just below the last part which is the steepest. Laura had passed me and was just ahead I saw her stop about 100 feet from the top. I headed up the final slope but as I got near where Laura was I had nothing left. It was a combination of my front wheel coming off the ground and my heart rate getting really high. I tried tacking a little bit but felt like I was going to tumble so I got off the bike and started my walk up the last 100 feet.

Laura had maintained a really nice slow steady pace and was really determine to make it up the hill on the bike. She tried a couple of times to get back on the bike. Falling a couple of times but in the end followed me on foot up the hill. It was so steep that walking up the hill was pretty hard but we all made it to the top. My GPS had a maximum grade of 24% for the last part of the hill which I believe.

Blake and Jeff were at the top waiting for us. Blake had had to walk the last 100 feet also. I knew Blake was a really good climber but he was impressive the way he went up the hill. If he actually had compact he probably would have made it to the top with out a problem. The only one who didn't have to get off the bike was Jeff. If you read the profile in this months Freewheeler you would have read that Jeff was competitive cyclist when he was younger and although this was the first time I have ridden with him it is clear he is still a very strong rider even through he has not competed in a long time.

After we completed Fiddlers Elbow we were at the top of Merrill Creek and headed down Millbrook. The last time I went down this road it was pretty beat up but it must have just been paved recently because it was smooth. We had a 2 mile 600 ft decent which was nice. From there we headed over a hill into Bloomsbury for a real break before climbing out of Bloomsbury and back down to Milford.

At the end of the ride I had 54.5 miles and 4834 ft of climbing. Except for Fiddlers Elbow none of the other climbs feel that bad and it didn't feel as hilly as a ride as the amount of climbing would indicate.

Ten years ago I road mostly in the flatter parts of the state but since then I have over come my fear of hills am open to riding any where no matter how hilly it is. After climbing Fiddler's Elbow today I know that deciding where I ride will not be restricted by fear of climbing but by where I can find the best roads and scenery to enjoy.

Lake Nockamixion 2012

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I'm not a lying bastard. I may sometimes accidentally misrepresent reality, forget to mention an important fact or slide by on a technicality. For the most part though I think I am a very honest person.  Still this year, for some reason, people seem to doubt my integrity. For those not on the ride this week let me explain why I need to defend myself.

This past Sunday, after a day's rain delay, I lead a ride to Lake Nockamixon from Peace Valley in Doylestown. It was a cool some what cloudy day but a nice day for a ride. There was a little confusion on which parking lot to meet in but eventually we all found each other and had five people for the ride Laura, Blake, Jim, Dave C and Jack.  As I do before most rides I gave a general overview of the ride and gave mileage, number of stops and mentioned that it would won't be too hilly. There would be some ups and downs but no really long tough climbs.

Of course the part about not being too hilly was correct but what I forgot to emphasize was that to get out of Peace Valley we would have to climb up a small hill. So about a mile into the ride we had to climb 250 feel in a about a half mile the first part of which was a 10% grade. It was a little rude to start the ride this way and I heard some grumbling in the ranks but I wanted to get the worst hill out of the way early.

From there we had some rollers until we crossed South Perkasie Road and were faced with another hill. It was a short but steep hill. In a little over 400 feet the road rises about 60 feet and has parts that are close to 20% grade. For me the problem climbing this hill is not strength since it is so short but actually keeping my front wheel on the ground. I did this by myself last year and had to walk up the top part. This time I was ready and put as much weight as I could towards my front wheel but as I got about three quarters of the way up the hill my front wheel kept bouncing off the ground and I slowly headed to the right off the road with no way steer. I eventually had to get off the bike and walk the last 50 feet up the hill.

When I got to the top the others were there breathing heavy and Dave C looked over at me and said "Are you often called a lying bastard". Which was the best line of the day. I know that I said that this would not be too hilly of a ride but in the first 7 miles we had got up a 10% and 20% grade hill. Now if I'm being picky the 20% grade was not a real climb since, according to NJBikeMap, nothing less than 100 ft is consider a climb but you won't win that argument with somebody who went up a 20% grade no matter how short.

After this we headed through the town of Perkasie who's street laid out and names are the same as center city Philadelphia which is a little strange. Although there were a few more small steep climbs to get out of town by the the time we started the loop around Lake Nockamixion it was more rolling.

The roads around the lake are really nice and quiet. Its a quiet forested area with houses scattered about. There are some ups and downs but nothing too hard. We made our way into Lake Nockamixon Park and stopped for a quick break by the marina. Its a really unbelievably large marina with a lot of boats. We ran into an English women who gave us a quick history lesson about the lake which was man made in the 1980s. She and Dave C, who is also English traded some stories about the old country.

From the marina we continued around the lake with a brief stop by the dam which is a little unusual then continue to wind our way back home. When I planned the route I saw that there were a couple of points of interest from NJBikeMap close by so I extended to route to stop by number 148 which is  a small waterfall. These were all new roads to me but they were very nice. I will have to come back this way some other time to explore some more.

Eventually we made it back to Peace Valley. I decided to take a loop around the Lake Galena partly on the bike path which was a good way to cool down. We ended up with just under 60 miles and according to my GPS had about 3600 feet of climbing which isn't a lot so I stand by my statement that this wasn't a very hilly ride although I can see how some people would disagree with that after the first few miles.

I like this route and am glad I decided to revisit Lake Nockamixon If you are interested in doing this ride you can find the ride sheet HERE

The Long Grind

Riding a century is one of rights of passage as you become a cyclist. Everyone who gets serious about riding usually completes one eventually. I don't do a lot of centuries but will do one every year or two to test out myself out. I don't mind long rides but prefer rides around 60-75 miles at most as after that it becomes a real grind.

This weekend was the PFW event and Laura put a group together to ride the century. I hadn't done a lot of long rides this year but was feeling I was in good shape so I wanted to try the century since it has been a while since I had done one.

This was a safe way to do a century because I would be with a group that I could cruise with and draft off of and I knew it would be a relatively flat ride. Since I knew the roads we would be riding if I really wasn't feeling it I could always bail out early.

I started from my house and pick up the route on Windsor Rd. I arranged to meet Laura's group as they rode by. Herb also decided to join me for the start of the ride and plan to bail out half way through.

We meet Laura's group as expected, sort of. They waved as they went by where Herb and I were waiting but then keep going at full speed so Herb and I never really caught up with them until the first rest stop. I saw Ron there who was recovering from a bad fall last week. He ended up with a lot of road rash and a broken wrist but is on the mend so hopefully will be riding again soon.

At the rest stop we reformed the group and all rode on together at a good pace. I was feeling pretty good despite it being a little hot and humid. One of my biggest problems on long rides is keeping hydrated. This seems to get a little harder as I get older. I use to be able to just drink water as I ride and Gatoraid at the rest stops but this has not been enough lately. I have been trying a couple of different things and now have started taking electrolyte tables a couple of times during the ride. For century rides I also bring a bottle Gatoraid with me and drink that as well as water as I ride.

Our second stop was at 40 miles and a little while after that Herb peeled off to follow the 65 mile ride home. The next stop was at 60 miles and it was starting to get hot but I was still feeling good and strong. I had developed a clicking sound in my right pedal which didn't affect the riding and was hoping it way just dirt in the cleat.

At mile 70 I notice my Gatoraid bottle was moving around a lot in the cage. When I took it out I saw that the cage was broken on one side. The bottle cage still seem to be able to hold the bottle in but I keep expecting the bottle to jump out at any moment.

Mile 80 was our last rest stop in Walenford. I was starting to feel the strain of the heat and long ride. Around 80 miles is almost always where I question why any one would want to do a century because no matter how hard you prepare for a century you never feel good after 80 miles and know the last 20 miles be a little tough. It's more of a mental game than physical. I did spend a little extra time at the last rest stop and when I saw Chris asking if any one wanted a sag I almost took him up on his offer.

After this rest stop I left the group and headed for home on my own because the way the century route was mapped out would have taken me out of may way and added more miles than I wanted. Once I got on the road again I actually felt okay and although I slowed down a little I still maintained a decent pace.

From the last rest stop it was only 15 miles back to my house so I ended up with just 95 miles. Close enough. I could have extended my ride home to get to full hundred miles in but if I had I would have been caught in the down pour that occurred about 10 mins after I got home.

Completing a century is tough and takes a toll on equipment and body. Besides the bottle cage it looks like my cleats reached their end of life as there was no metal left on part of the cleat where I normally step out of the petal. I was also getting a little sore in the saddle and felt like I was starting to cramp up. The century definitely pushed me to my limit but I'm glad I decided to do it.

Best Bike Rides Philadelphia

My new book "Best Bike Rides Philadelphia" is finally in print. I got the first copies from my publisher this week. I'm really happy the way it came out. Writing a book takes a lot of work. My co-author and I spent about a year doing the rides, write ups and maps for the book and then spent another few months helping the publisher clean it up and put it all together. I'm not sure when it will appear in stores but I'm guessing it will be some time in August as that's when Amazon will have it available.

Seeing the final book and being able to show people some cool places to ride is why I enjoy writing these books. I also end up meeting a lot of other bike riders and have fun sharing stories with them. Being a bike rider is sort of like being in a fraternity because we all share a lot of the same experiences. While doing this book I met a number of people from the Bicycle Club of Philadelphia (BCP) who helped me a lot with finding some good rides in and around Philly. BCP is a great club and if you live near the Philly you should join them for some rides.

This Saturday I rode with the Linda who is the president of the BCP. She wanted to do a ride to Belmar and asked for my help with the route.  It was nice seeing Linda again since I had not talked to her in a while. I was also able to give her a copy of the new book as a way to thank her and BCP for all their help.

The ride to Belmar started off pretty good and we made it to Farmingdale and through Seagirt with out a problem. The weather forecast had a chance of thunderstorms for late afternoon but as we headed up Ocean Ave the sky opened up and it went from a lite shower to torrential down pour it about a mile. We took refuge under the over hang of the stores by 16th street. We hoped the storm would pass quickly but it just keep raining and then the thunder and lighting started. One of the people in the group had a problem with their pedal so they headed to a bike store on 15th street. We joined him a little later and continued to wait out the storm. With the continued heavy rain and lighting we really could not continue the ride.

After we looked at the radar we saw that the storm would pass in about a half hour but that would be followed by another big storm. I decide at that point to call my wife and to be picked up. This was not an easy decision but Herb and I felt it was too dangerous to continue. If we had been in the pine barrens with light traffic we might have tried to continue but the combination of lighting, heavy rain and traffic around Belmar made riding risky.

When the rain did let up Linda and a couple of others decided not to wait for the pick up and rode off. They did make it back safely but got a little wet along the way. Although I now owe my wife big time for the pick up I think it was the right choice.

A Cool Day in July

When I schedule rides for July I always worry about hot weather. A couple of weeks ago I had to cut my Pinelands metric 20 miles short because it was so hot.This has been one of the hottest summers on record so when I had a my hilly Schooley's Mountain ride in the book for mid Judy I was concerned that it might turn into a death march. Luckily this particular day in July will probably end up being the coolest day of the summer. There was a good chance of showers on the morning of the ride but the rain missed us and as the storm front when past it brought a lot of cool air with it. In fact it was so cool I thought I might need arm warmers.

A few years ago Laura and I had done some exploring around Califon and found a lot of nice roads. It is a hilly but very scenic area to ride. I didn't get up this area last year because of the rides I had to do for the Philly book so I really wanted to get back here this year. The route we took was a modified version of my Middle Valley Ride which I had only done by myself.  This route starts out easy from Raritan Valley College and takes us slowly up hill and down into the Raritan Valley. The climbs at the start of the ride aren't too bad and you could not have asked for better weather.

Every time I do a ride up in this area with a group it never goes completely smooth. This area was where Lynne fell and broke her elbow, Mike M broke his rear derailleur cable turning his bike into a single speed, and there were other more minor problems. Today was no different. At about 10 miles into the ride Bob had a flat on his front tire. He fixed it then had another flat about 2 miles later. Both of us really took a good look at the rim and tire and could not see any flaw that would have caused the flat.

Bob decided to go back to the start and not to continue on with us. Having two flats so close together makes you lose confidence in your equipment. It may have just been a total fluke but when these types of things happen the best thing to do is to get back home as soon as you can so you can thoroughly check out the bike and try and find the cause of the problem. Bob also didn't want to slow down the rest of the group which I appreciated. I felt bad about him having to go back on his own but he came well prepared and still had two spare tubes left. When I got back to my car there was a note on the windshield that said he made it back with out any other problems.

After leaving Bob the rest of us when on to Schooley's mountain. The toughest climb is on Slicker road. It starts out slow with a few rollers but the last half mile gets steep and then when you turn off on to Pleasantville the climb continues just a little longer just as steep.

From there we rolled along the ridge to our rest stop which is a nice old general store/post office. Then after a quick stop at a park for a bathroom break we headed down hill. The last part of the downhill is really steep with a hairpin turn that is scary and fun at the same time. Most of us had the death grip on our breaks for the last park of the hill so when we all got to the bottom our rims were smokin hot.

For every good downhill there are at least 3 climb to make up for it and we did as we headed up Beacon, Beavers and Farmersville. These hills weren't as bad as the ones on my Jockey Hollow ride so although there was some grumbling there wasn't much foul language or epic songs being sung. The pay off was going down Fox Farm. This is becoming one of my favorite downhills because it is a long mostly gentle downhill with an occasional killer view off the left. This hill is also towards the end of the ride so when you get to the bottom there is mostly flat roads ahead.

This ride confirmed again how nice this area is to ride and definitely worth the trip. As long as you are ready for the hills there is a lot to like here. Hopefully I can back here again later in the year.

Pimping My Ride

Although I like to keep my bike well maintained I don't really care how it or I look. Some people.will spurge for a special paint job or add some accessories to decorate their bike. My main bike is polished titanium and after 10 years still looks OK except for pealing on some of the decals. The one small flashy feature on the bike has been the red value caps. The person who built the bike for me added them for character and I have always liked them.

Even though I have changed many tires over the years I have never lost the red value caps which is pretty amazing. However after 10 years they are were pretty dirty and beat up. After a quick web search I found Purely Custom which among other things makes custom value caps. The new value caps I ordered are anodized aluminum and much better than the old plastic ones that I had. They really won't make my bike look any better but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to put the normal black plastic value caps on my bike.

My Southwest Vacation

Click Here for more Pictures

I have wanted to put up a post about my vacation for the past few weeks but life has been very busy so I haven't had much time to process all the picture or write about what we did. My wife and I do these driving trips where we pick a city to start and another one to end and don't have any real  itinerary but just go where we want. We usually have a list of things we want to see but the list evolves once the vacation starts.  These are always fun vacations. For this trip we started in Santa Fe NM and ended up in Phoenix AZ and saw a lot of cool things along the way. We timed our trip so that we were in Albuquerque during a Annular Eclipse which was an added bonus 

Santa Fe and Taos NM were cool artistic types of towns with a lot of cool art galleries and places to eat. These town were basically the southwestern equivalent of New Hope, in fact I saw one picture that looked a lot the Canal by Lambertville and it turned out the artist was a NJ transplant from New Hope.

From Santa Fe we headed to the Carlsbad Caverns in the southwest corner of the NM. I have seen a lot of cave but nothing can compare to the size and variety of these caves. The main chamber of the cave is over 8 acres (unbelievable). To get to the main cave you can take an elevator or walk a mile down a steep path that descends over 800 feet. I chose to walk into the cave which was awesome. It took me about an hour to make my way down the path which was not easy as some paths of the path were over 20% grade. This was the off season so I was the only one walking down the path so I had the cave all the myself.

From Carlsbad we headed west across the state through some very diverse terrain. Most of NM is a high plane desert with some vegetation but there are also beautiful pine forest at the higher elevations and some really bizarre places like White Sands which is just a set of sand dunes in the middle of no where

After touring NM we ended up spending a few days in Tucson at a nice spa resort. We saw a lot of cactus here and also spent a night at Kitts Peak Observatory where the we got to spend a couple of hours under clear cool skies looking through their telescopes at some planets, nebulas, and star clusters.

Our vacation ended in Phoenix with a visit to one of my wife's friends who now lives there.

The desert country southwest is pretty but it is so dry and barren that it made me miss the green of NJ. It was a cool place to visit but not a place I would want to live.

Off to the Races

This past Sunday I went into Philly to see the bike race. I did this last year for as part of my research for the book and really enjoyed it so I decided to head back again this year. I had hope to be joined this year by a few other people from the club and even listed it in the ride book but didn't get any takers. It was an early ride and would take all day so I wasn't surprised when nobody showed up.

Although I could have drove into Philly it is much easier to take the Riverline from Bordentown since it's only $1.50 and you don't have to worry about parking. They also have bike racks on the train so they make it easy. I took the 7:25 am train even though the race didn't start until 10:45 am. I wanted to do a tour around the city before the race.  Since a lot of the roads in center city are closed to cars the morning of the race it is a lot of fun to ride around the city.

I took the Riverline to the Camden Aquarium then rode over the Ben Franklin bridge and to the Art Museum. The weather was perfect and I had some great views of the city as I made my way in and got some good pictures. I only wish the weather had been this good last year when I was taking picture for the book.

It was a little after 8:30 by the time I got to the Art Museum and still had a couple of hours before the race so I took a tour of the city which included a ride up Kelly Drive to the Wissahickon river. Philly has a really nice scenic trail along the Wissahickon called Forbidden Drive. Its a wide gravel path along the river about 5 miles long that is a favorite spot for biker, runners and people just out for a walk. Once you ride the trail you can see why it is so popular.

After riding the trail I slowly made my way back through the city for the start of the race. Even though thousands of people crowd the streets to watch the race the city doesn't feel that crowed and it is easy to find a spot by the Art Museum to watch the race. The men's race started on time and they did 3 quick laps around the Art Museum before heading out to the main course which is a 14 mile loop around the city including the famous Manayunk Wall.

After the first 3 laps of the race I headed through a couple other parts of the city as I made my way back to Camden and the train home. It was nice to ride through Philly again as I haven't been back here since late last year. With all the rides I did last year here I now know most of the roads and how to get around the city on bike. It feels very familiar and like any other ride I normally do. Even though it is a bit out of the way to ride here I do enjoy the change of pace and riding around the city.

Ring of Fire

Most people go about their daily life with out realizing all the cosmic events happening above them. In ancient times whole societies were driven by the motion of the sun and planets as things like stonehenge and the Mayan temples attest. Solar and lunar eclipses usually were significant events in these societies but today the only people that care about these events are professional and amateur astronomers. I am the geek trifecta, computer programmer by profession, bike nerd in my free time, and casual astronomy geek. So when there was a annular eclipse of the sun visible in the US I decided to plan a vacation around it. My wife and I have been wanting to visit the southwest of the US for a while anyway so the annular eclipse just made us do the trip on a certain date.

The great thing about this eclipse was that it was going to be visible from Albuquerque which usually has over 350 days of clear skies a year. This meant that I had a very good chance of seeing the eclipse. An annular eclipse is different from a total solar eclipse in the fact that the moon doesn't completely cover the sun but instead leaves a ring of light around the moon at the point of maximin eclipse. This is normally called the "Ring of Fire".

I'm still on vacation and just have my iPad with me so it is hard to edit and post all the pictures I took but even if I could it would not convey the coolness of seeing the eclipse live. I observed the eclipse from a university parking lot with a couple hundred astronomy geeks. The astronomy society of Albuquerque hosted the event and did a great job of finding a good location for viewing the eclipse and providing bathrooms, traffic control and other logistics. The thing that made the even more fun was sharing it with a bunch of like minded geeks.

The eclipse started with the moon slowly covering the bottom right corner of the sun and then slowing working its way across it over about an hour. As the moon got close to covering the sun it slowly formed the ring. The ring lasted for just under 4 and a half minutes until it moved out the top left. When the ring first became visible the crowd let out cheers which lasted until the ring disappeared. At this point the sun was getting low in the horizon so we only were able to watch it for another 30 mins before it set. This means we didn't get the see the end of the eclipse but that really didn't matter.

I'm really glad I got a chance to see this and can't wait until 2017 when there will be a total eclipse of the sun that will be visa lie from the east coast.

P.S. I'm back from vacation and have had time to process all the pictures. Click Here to see all the eclipse photos. I also put together this mosaic below which shows most of my best shots.

The Epic of El Capitain

Since the early days of society man has created oral and written stories to pass down major historical events or capture moral traditions. Some of these stories, like the Homer's poem the Odyssey, survey the society that created them and become epics that will be with us forever.

Part of the reason I write this blog is to capture the stories of some of my rides. This is mostly a diary for me but it is also a way to share my experiences with my others and poke fun at some of the people I ride with. I know what I post here are just musing of a bike rider and will never be be literary epics but I do occasionally have some good stories to tell.

I think the El Capitain ride may be one of those ride we will be talking about for a while. I say this not because of any great feat on my part but because Laura, Jim, and Jane were writing a song about  the ride after the first five miles.

To be immortalized in a song is a great honor as I always picture myself as a self sacrificing hero type. However as I heard the verses of the song it turned out I was not the hero but the villain. I will let you read Laura's post for the complete lyrics of the song but basically the story goes like this: I'm portrayed as the sadistic bastard making other riders go up hill after hill. The riders struggle in a desperate attempt to reach the end of the ride before they die so they can be released from my servitude . It's an interesting take on the ride but far from the truth...

First let me give you the stats from the ride.
     Total Climb Elevation     5653 feet
     Total Distance                51.06 miles
     Average Speed              12 mph
     Average Hill Grade        4.2 %
     Max Hill Grade              24 %
     Number of times my name and FU where uttered in the same sentence (lost count at 50)       

This year I said I wanted to do some more of the tougher hills in NJ and every time I mentioned this to Chris he said if you want to do some real hills you have to do my El Camino ride. I hear this for years so to try and shut Chris up (yea, I know, not going to happen) I decided to do the ride and see how hilly it really is. My ride is a little different from El Camino. First it started from Jockey Hollow instead of Loantaka Park. I don't like the roads around Loantaka Park and Jockey Hollow is closer and easier to get to. This ended up making the ride a little hiller but that was good because I won't want Chris accusing me of making the ride easier.

I had talked up the ride for a few weeks and had a good turn out. Chris Laura, Ron. Jim and John and Jane. The weather ended up being perfect, clear, sunny and just warm enough to ride in short sleeves. At the beginning of the ride I reminded everyone that they were all a little insane to be wanting to do this ride but off we all went any way.

We started with a few miles ride through Jockey Hollow itself which was already hilly. I knew we were in trouble when we turned the corner and started up a little hill and then were being passed by a runner. Luckily the first hill was a short one and we continue on rolling hills for a few miles until we hit Schoolhouse Lane where we had a 400 ft climb that lasted a little over a mile. It definitely got my heart going and saw a few other people look a little tired as they hit the top.

We continued on from there with more or less continuous hills. There was always a downhill after each climb but it was short and every turn brought another climb. Even through I mapped out the ride and knew what to expect I hadn't actually done any of these climbs. The route felt strange to me because although I don't mind a few hills I usually don't string them together like this. I was glad I had the triple ring today and switched into it when it looked like the climb was going to last more than a few hundred feet. I wanted to save my energy because I knew there was much more to come.

Two things to note here. First Chris was the only one who had done these roads before and seemed to take joy in the fact that we were being subjected to so many hills in a row. Second this is when I believe the song writing began.

Our first stop was in Gladstone after 21 miles and on our way in we had one of the best downhills of the ride that opened up to a nice vista where I stopped to take a few pictures. In Gladstone I had planned to stop at a deli but it was closed. Luckily John and Jane knew of a bakery just down the road.

From Gladstone it was more climbing and more song verses. These climbs were not as bad as before and the scenery was really nice. We ended up going through Bernardsville which has a lot of old money and ridiculously large estates. There is also on of my favorite downhills here which is Hardscrabble. I was a little disappointed with it this time since the road was rough and I really couldn't let her rip. My original plan was to take Hardscrabble to the bottom but Chris really wanted to climb up Old Army so what's one more hill anyway. The climb actually had a cool switchback and the downhill after was another good one that made it worth doing the climb.

After this we had our second stop in Basking Ridge. I usually don't stop twice on a 50 mile ride but with this many hills we really needed to. From here we headed through the Great Swamp and the only relatively flat part of the ride. We had little traffic getting to the swamp and the road through the swamp were a little beat up but it felt weird to be on flat roads. To get a true appreciation of the Great Swamp you really have to hike the paths through this park to see the different plants and animal. From the road it's just tree's and marshes. There is one or two bridge that give you a quick view of some of it so we stopped for a few minutes to take some pictures.

We were getting to the end of the ride and I was getting tire. I actually cramped up a little as we left the swamp. I usually don't cramp on rides under 60 miles and through I had drank enough but I guess the hills were catching up to me.

From the Great Swamp we headed over a few more rollers as we headed back to the Jockey Hollow. On my original route I was going to head back to Jockey Hollow up Tempe Wick but Chris insisted on going up Baily Hollow. One of the reasons George Washington chose Jockey Hollow as a winter place for the troops was because the hills make it easy to defend. These were the same hills we had to get over to get to the finish.

Putting the worst hill of the ride a couple miles from the end is beyond rude and as every one turned the corner the FUs starting flying. Baily Hollow is one of the harder hills that I have climbed but we all eventually made it to the top. Of course we still had a few hills before getting back to the parking lot and by the time we got there we were all pretty shot.

We hung around in the parking lot recovering and comparing elevation gain and average speed. John and Jane ever broke out some beer to celebrate the end of the pain. My elevation gain of 5653 ft may seem a little high but that may be because my GPS takes a data point every 10 feet so it counts up all the little up and downs. Needless to say whether we did 4900 ft or 5600 ft of climbing is no matter we survived the hills.One interesting thing to note is that those of us with triples had a slightly higher average which confirms what I read about triples being more efficient at tough climbs.

The ride did end up being a little harder than I expected and I will admit to doing a little false advertising to get more people to come on the ride. Some, of the hills I said would be in the 7% to 8% ended up being around 10% and I never really advertised the fact that there would be a 20% plus WTF climb. So I'd admit to being a little evil. But it wasn't like I actually MADE anybody follow me or that I was whipping them to go faster up each hill. I was much more subtle I did make everybody go up a lot of hills but provided perfect weather, nice scenery, and some cool downhills to keep hope alive then at mile 49 when they thought they were done I basically said FU to all with a climb up the steepest hill of the ride which topped out at over 20% incline. Of course the joke was on me because I was cramping up and had to stop part of the way up to stretch out my legs.

The real truth is rides like El Capitain are the real reason I enjoy riding. Yes it was good to know I still have the ability to do tough hilly rides but the real fun is finding people willing to follow me on these crazy rides. They may bitch at me and write nasty songs but it is all in good fun. No matter where we ride we usually have a good time and come back with a good story to share together for years to come.

Covered Bridges

Last year while doing rides for the Philadelphia book I went through most of the covered bridges in the area as well as explore some of the roads on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware. Some people are think the Pennsylvania side is a lot tougher than the NJ side but that's not really true. There are probably more steeper hills on the Pennsylvania side but there are also plenty of gentler ways up the hills that are just as nice as the NJ side.

When it was time to put some rides in the book I decided to add a covered bridge ride to show people some of the roads I found. We started from Bulls Island and although the rain had passed it was still very overcast and foggy. After crossing over the bridge at Bulls Island we headed up the ridge. The first real climb started a few miles into the ride when we turned up Wismer. There are two climbs in quick succession of 120 and 180 feet. That get a little steep. But once that was over it was more gentle ups and downs as we passed through the covered bridges. We went through the Loux, Frankenfield and Erwinna bridges. The Loux is one of the nicest covered bridges in Bucks county. I would have stopped for some pictures but they won't have come out that nice because of the weather. You can check out the ones I took last year HERE.

Right before we turned on to the road to the Erwinna bridge we were climbing a small hill with some one on a mountain bike just a little bit ahead of us. I was planning on going around the biker but for some reason we weren't gaining any ground on him. It didn't seem right because the guy was going up hill and he was barely peddling. Either his was a former Tour de France racer in a 53x11 gear going up hill or he had a motor some where. I quicken my pace a little but was still not able to catch him until we hit a stop at the end of the road. I got a quick glimpse of his rear wheel which had a big drum on it which I assumed was a motor. That made me feel better about not being able to keep up with him.

From here we headed back up the hill. This was a nice gentle climb that would have been enjoyable except for the fact that they had just ground up the road surface to get it ready to pave. It was ridable but very bumpy. There was a small part that was paved but for the most part we had a couple of miles of numb nut inducing peddling.

Eventually we ended up on the top of Bridgeton Road. This is a great downhill but the last time I went down this hill one of the people behind got out of control and ran off the road. I told everybody to enjoy the downhill just not too much.

We stopped at the bottom of the hill for a quick break then headed over to the NJ side for some more climbing. I took Javes to Rummel which is the easy way up to the ridge. A couple of people peeled off because they were getting a little tired. The rest of headed on along the ridge. The weather was have suppose to have gotten better by now but instead the clouds had descended to ground. It wasn't actually raining but our bikes, glasses and bodies were being covered with dew from the moist air.

This really didn't make it any harder to ride it just obscured most of the scenic views that I had hope to enjoy. The route back to the start had us going through Sky Manner which has three small airports. I did see the airports but all the planes were grounded because of the weather. Most of the road in this area were new to me and were actually pretty nice so I will probably come back this way again.

The ride ended by going down Federal Twist from the top. This is a steep straight smooth downhill if you're daring you can hit speeds of over 50 MPH. If I had my Feather I would have tucked and let her rip but my Cannondale is not as stable. I got it up to just over 46 miles which was as fun and scary as it sounds.

The ride ended up being around 48 miles with about 3600 feet of climbing. I felt pretty good at the end which gave me some encouragement that I may be able to complete next weeks ride up in Jockey Hollow.

In Bloom

Spring is in full bloom and since we have had no real rain for past couple of weeks the pollen has been extremely high. I'm not sure if it is lack of rain or the mild winter but the blooms on the flowers are lasting a little longer this year. Usually the flowers on our dogwood tree last 4 or 5 days but its been over a week and they still look good. Although the weather for Saturday was suppose to be cloudy with chance of showers it actually was warm and sunny when I went out to get ready for the ride so I took a few nice pictures of the dogwood.

Saturday's ride was one of my easier hilly rides called the Raritan River Ramble which I do ever year as I'm working my way up to climbing some real hills. This is a nice ride that takes the easy way up and over the Sourlands then zig zags along and over the Raritan River a few times before heading back to the canal where it starts. I usually don't get a big crowd when I do hilly rides but I ended up with 14 people.

This rides keeps off most of the busy main roads and winds through a lot of scenic farmland like Pine Bank Rd near Redington. We went past the Redington Reform church where my wife's cousin is buried. My wife was very close to her cousin so they were like sisters. Although the funeral was over 6 years ago we had never to back to visit the grave or see the tombstone so I took a slight detour through the graveyard to get a picture of the stone for my wife.

The rest of the ride was fun as we worked our way back towards the canal. The last part of the ride is a straight 3 mile shot down Canal road. Although most people headed straight back a few of us decided to tackle Coopermine to do one more climb and a nice downhill hill. It was a good way to end the ride.

Climb Every Mountain

Now that the trees have started blooming I can start thinking seriously about some of my riding goals for the year. One of my goals is to start doing some hillier rides with the goal of trying some of the tougher hills in the state. What are toughest hills in the state? Luckily someone did the research and came up with a list you can find here.  A few of these like Fiddlers Elbow and Breakneck are well known tough climbs. This is a pretty comprehensive list and although I am familiar and have done some of the hills on the list there are a lot more I haven't heard of. I'm not planning on trying to do all of the major hills listed but will try to knock a few off my list like Fiddlers Elbow, Iron Bridge and Millbrook.

This is going to take a little training to get in shape to tackle these hills and even then I expect I may have to walk up parts of some of these. This weekend I went out did some climbing close to where I live. Over the next few weeks I try to get to the Sourlands a couple of times to do some of the small hills so that by May I can hit the real hills in Pennsylvania and up in Morris County. Yes these will be hard and hilly but I promise some good scenery along with one of the best downhills in New Jersey. 

What Happen to Winter

Spring is almost here which means longer days and warmer weather. This is usually a welcome sight after a dark, cold winter. But I don't think we had any winter this year. Yes it was dark and there were a few days where I went to put the dog out in the morning and said "It feels kinda cold" and once or twice I noticed some white stuff on the ground. But I never shoveled any snow or got out my winter coat. The most amazing thing however is that I wrote my bike EVERY weekend of the winter.

There were a few times when I hit the trail on the mountain bike because I didn't want to deal with the cold or wind on the road but there was never a weekend where the conditions won't let me go out for a ride. Normally I'm lucky if I get out once or twice a month during winter and even in the summer there is usually a few weekends where I get rained out. So this winter will go in the record books as the year I never stopped riding.

Still I'm glad the warmer weather is here and that we moved our clocks forward. In a week or two I should be able to get a ride in after work and start building some real miles. Last year was spent riding the roads in and around Philadelphia for my new book. That was a lot of fun and I have a few new place to ride but I am looking forward planning my rides based on my mood as opposed to a check list needed to finish the book.

Although I don't have a set list of rides I need to do this year I do have a few plans. I do want to do some more hills this year and plan to spend a little more time in Frenchtown and beyond. I would like to spend a weekend in Delaware. The Philadelphia book does have a few cool rides down there that my co-author did that I want to try. I would like to make it up Mt Greylock and also head up to Lake Champlain. I will also definitely head back into Philly a couple of time. I'm looking forward to more time on the bike and some interesting sighs along the way. You never know what you are going find when you ride. Like this car on Gordon Road that must of been going a little too fast.

Windsor Road is Open Again !!!

For the past year or so the construction on the Turnpike has caused a lot of problems for my local rides since it involves reconstruction of every bridge over it. Almost every ride I do from my house heads east over the Turnpike and although there are a couple bridges I can use to get over the Turnpike The Windsor Road Bridge is the one I take most of the time. That was until December 2010 when it closed for reconstruction. For those who know me know a closed bridge usually doesn't stop me from using a road but when they closed the Windsor Road Bridge they totally dismantled it so the road was unusable.

I really missed this road this past summer and was glad to see it was finally finished when I road by the bridge at the end of January. There is nothing like riding on smooth fresh concrete and pavement. The new bridge is a little nicer and wider than the old bridge and hopefully it will remain pothole free for a little while. This is the third or forth new bridge they finished across the Turnpike. Some of them like the one just south of Allentown on Circle Road actually was built a lot taller so going over that bridge actually feels like climbing a hill.

There are still four or five more bridges that I normally ride over that still need to be reconstructed (They just closed Sharon Road to start working on that bridge) so it will still be a few more year before I won't have worry about detours for bridge construction.

Snow Biking 2012

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I haven't really minded the lack of snow this winter and the lack of having to remove it from my driveway. Last weekend we did have a little taste of winter. The 2 inches of snow was nothing more than a minor annoyance but it did make the landscape look nicer.

Even before the snow stopped falling I got an email from Chris to go snow biking. Riding around the woods and over logs is tough enough when the ground is clear and dry. Add snow and ice and mountain biking becomes even more challenging but is also a whole lot of fun.

Unfortunately I couldn't make it out with Chris and Mike because snow biking is fun but it is even better when your friends are laughing at you as you fall on your ass. Last year my second mountain bike ride was snow biking with Chris and Mike and although I came away with some bruises it was one of my favorite rides of the year.

With the lack of snowfall this year I wanted to make sure I got out in the snow since this may be my only opportunity this year. 2-4 inches of snow is perfect for snow biking any deeper and its almost impossible to ride through. Riding on snow is not easy because you have a lot less traction so as I started out of the Edinburg parking lot at MCP I ask questioned my ability and wondered if this was going to be as fun as I remembered.

After a few hundred yards I adjusted to the conditions and started to relax and enjoy it. I still am not very good a mountain biking but I did manage to hop over a few logs and not have any major falls. Snow makes everything look better especially the small creeks in MCP park so I made sure I stopped to took a few pictures. I wasn't the only insane person out in the ice and snow I ran across a number of people walking their does and even a couple of people doing some cross country skiing. I was only out for over an hour but it was enough to reaffirm the joy of biking in the snow.

Winter has been very warm and snow free which has made it easy to keep riding on the road but I hope we get a few more small storms this year because I would like to do a little more snow biking this year.