Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Wet Roads Cancel

A lot of ride leaders will add the phrase "Wet Roads Cancel" in their ride descriptions but I usually don't. Its not that I will ride on wet roads that could be dangerous but there are different levels of wetness some which are rideable. That was the case this past Saturday.

It had rain on Friday night but was clearing by Saturday morning with the roads drying. When I got up I checked the weather. It was going to be cold and cloudy but there was no more rain on the radar. It wasn't going to be the nicest day and the roads were going to be damp. Other ride leaders had decided to cancel the rides but I decided it was safe enough to ride.

We rode from Bordentown and met at the Peter Muschal School which for the first time was crowded with some event so we ended up parking at the high school across the street. After collecting some people in the other parking lots we did an old route through Roebling. I haven't done this route in a couple of years so it was a good change of pace. I had 9 people since I was the only ride that didn't cancel.

It was a cold but the roads were mostly dry and the route was flat so it was a easy 40 mile ride and since it is almost winter it is good to get a ride in any time you can.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Cocoluxe Redux

They made me do it. Laura and Cheryl. I had no intention of going back to Cocoluxe this year. I had been there a month ago and sent Laura and Cheryl a picture of Cocoluxe basically telling then I went to Cocoluxe and you didn't.  They then told me they wanted me to lead a ride from Cocoluxe. I said fine maybe early next year but no they wanted me to lead a ride from there in November. I didn't really want to because the weather is getting colder and my legs are getting weaker but I agreed to anyway. And I'm really glad I did.

Saturday ended up being a beautiful day, sunny low 60s and the fall leaves in full color. We had a big group (11) with most of the usual people and a few new ones. It was a nice group and although it was a hilly ride we all stayed together and there weren't too many complaints. There are a lot of beautiful roads in this area and with the fall leaves at their peak it was a great day to be riding.

There were a lot of ups and down in this ride and by the end of the ride Jim kept asking if this was the last hill which I kept responding yes to. Apparently even though I kept giving him the wrong answer he kept asking anyway.

The ride ended back in Gladstone. Even through we had a quick stop on the ride I ended the ride at Cocoluxe for some baked goods. It was a good way to end a ride and may try to do this again on some other rides.

Monday, October 21, 2013

Bike Heaven

If there is a place that bikers go when they die it would be a place filled with quiet rural roads and endless ride possibilities. Everybody there would be a avid bike rider so you could always have people to join you on rides and swap stories with. Every day there would be 10 to 15 different rides to choose from that would take you pass beautiful lakes and rolling farmland with a stop for some chocolate scones or some other sinful treat. When you got back from a ride there would be a room full of treats as well as a massage therapist to help heal you tired muscles. Basically bike heaven would be a lot like a BCP trip to Gettysburg.

This past weekend was the annual BCP trip to Gettysburg. It is the one of the best bike trips you can take. This year 186 of us converged in the town of Hanover PA and took over two hotels. It is really cool to walk into a hotel and see bikes leaning against the wall the every one there walking around in spandex. You immediately feel like you entered a different reality where biking is the only things that matters.

This year Ron joined Al, Cheryl and I on the trip for three good days of riding. We drove out early Friday morning and were at the hotel just after noon and out for a 30 mile ride through the country with a stop for some coffee and scones. Saturday we headed out for a 40 mile ride to Maryland. We found some good roads down there last year so we wanted to explore some more. Right after we crossed in to Maryland we ran into a farmer who had just started herding his cows across the road from the barn into the field. When the cows saw us they stopped to check us out.



They were big and smelly but after staring us down for a few minutes they moved on to their field and let us pass. Once we got going again. rolled along to the town of Union Bridge and back. It was cold (around 50) at the start of the ride but warmed up  after about a hour. We had a few peaks of sun but it was mostly overcast. The weather didn't really matter as we rolled along through the farm lands for a nice 40 mile ride.

After the ride we took a quick shower and headed out to Gettysburg for some sight seeing. Ron had never visited the battlefield and I wanted to go back to see it again. The battlefield was crowded since the park had been closed for the past two weeks because of the shutdown.

Saturday night was dinner at a local restaurant and more socializing. Even though I don't know many people in BCP it is always fun exchanging stories with other bikers.

Sunday was colder (45) so it was time for the tights and toe warmers but it was a bright sunny day so it wasn't bad once we got going. The plan for Sunday was a hilly ride to an orchard. We breezed through a lake and headed to the orchard with a wind at our back. Although there were a few real climbs there was nothing I couldn't handle with the Feather.

We got to the orchard around 10 am but it turned out that it opened at 11 am on Sunday. We ended stopping at a "Rudders" which is a Wawa clone. The ride back was hillier than the ride out. There were no real tough hills just a lot of ups and downs so we were a little beat at by the end. A quick shower and snack at the hotel and the trip was over. It was another great bike weekend and like last year I wanted to stay longer. If you want a piece of bike heaven you should check out one of the BCP bike trips. 


Sunday, October 13, 2013

Why We Ride

If you ask a biker why they ride they may say things like, I ride to exercise and stay healthy or I ride to challenge myself or some may even say they ride for find inner peace. I recently caught up with Michael and got a copy of his book. In it he describes some of the reasons why we ride including exploring new places, finding scenic views, and the joy of riding with a group of friends. These are all good reasons to ride and they are all true but they are also mostly zen bullshit.

Ask any biker to talk about their last few rides, like my ride to Delicious Orchards or Milford. Almost all of them will not only tell you about the roads they were on but will spend a lot of time talking about the places they stopped for food. Whether it was that cup of coffee or that great muffin they will describe it like it was their best friend.

Today as I was fighting a nasty headwind by myself on the way home. The thing that kept me going wasn't thinking about the scenic views of the turning leaves or the struggle of man versus nature or how pushing into the headwind was going to help me be stronger. I was thinking about that perfect cream fill doughnut that awaited me at home. I was thinking how good it would taste and how good it would feel to be off the bike eating it.

 So why to do we ride. We ride so we don't feel guilty about eating. End of story.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Opportunistic Exploring

At the end of the McBride ride Laura mentioned the possibility of riding to Cocoluxe for her ride this week. When it came time to plan her ride she chose to stay closer to home and do a double shot coffee ride. I don't drink coffee and I had to be up in Long Valley Saturday afternoon so since Cocoluxe had been calling me since Laura mentioned it I decided to do a ride on my own out of Peapack to do some exploring.

The last time I was in Peapack was when I did the El Capitan ride. Laura did a ride earlier in the year that I missed so this seemed like a good time to explore some new roads. I ended up doing this route which is a combination of some of my Schooley's Mountain Ride with a little be of El Capitan. The main point of the ride was eat some chocolate goodness from Cocoluxe and to go down Fox Chase hill again which was a cool hill I discovered as part of the El Capitan ride.

The weather was a little cold and foggy but since the ride started with a climb up Potterville Rd I warned up pretty quick. In 10 miles I was Rockaway Rd working my way up the hill. I ran in to a Morris County Freewheeler group that I rode with for 5 miles before splitting off to head into Hacklebarny.



One of the new roads I explored was Pleasant Hill Rd. Although there were a couple short steep spots it wasn't a bad rode and had a couple of cool downhills as well as some nice views of a small river and surrounding marshland.

The ride did not have a lot of flat spots so there was a lot of ups and downs, mostly ups but the last part of the ride has some cool down hills down South Rd and Old Mill Rd. The last down hill as Fox Chase Rd but when I got there was a sign that said the road was closed. As most people know I usually don't pay attention to those signs since there is usually a way to get around most road construction when on a bike.

In this case the road was closed past where I turned off so it wasn't a problem and I was able to enjoy the downhill into Peapack and a nice stop at Cocoluxe to satisfy my chocolate fix.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Odds and Ends

I haven't posted in a while because I been busy. After my bike vacation I went on my usually family vacation to Cape Cod. I usually bring my bike up on vacation and do a few rides. Cape Cod has a really nice rail trail and if you combine that with some of the back roads you can find some good rides past lighthouses and scenic beaches. This year I left the bike home and did a little hiking instead. We stay by the town of Wellfleet which is one of the natural harbors there and they have a cool hike on one of the peninsulas at the edge of the harbor. It's about 5 miles, mostly in sand, around the marshlands and beaches. It was a very scenic walk with a lot of cool dunes along the beach. You can see my pictures HERE from the walk as well as a whale watch and aquarium we visited. Although I have been to Cape Cod 10 or 15 times I always find something new so it is always a good vacation.

The project that has kept me busy after I got back my vacation is our bedroom remodel. I wanted to just paint the ceiling because of a leak we had 6 months ago and it is one of those projects that sort of snowballed into a full bedroom replacement. The rug was15 years old and wasn't that good to begin with so we decided to replace that while we were painting. Our bed has also seen better days so we might as well replace that. And while we're at it the furniture in the room is over 30 years old and would look like crap next to a new bed and rug so what's a few more dollars while we at it. So between moving the old bed upstairs as well as some of the furniture then doing the painting and generally cleaning up the room before all the new stuff arrived it has been a bit of work but it should look really nice when its done.

Between vacation and the remodel I have managed to get a few rides in. Before the Cape Cod vacation I did my annual Lake Nockimixon ride. It was a good ride except for the fact that the ranger in Peace Valley woke up a little lake and didn't open any of the parking area's so we had to park in a near by school. There was also Jacks derailleur which somehow ended up being bent into the spokes of his back wheel in the first mile so he couldn't come with us. The main thing that made me happy about the ride this year was I made up the short but steep 20% grade this year with out having to stop because my front wheel was coming off the ground.

I also did the Ride for McBride again this year after the vacation. It was much nicer this year since it didn't rain. I did the 50 mile loop with Laura and crew and you can read about the details on her blog. 

I didn't put any rides in the book for Sept or Oct but will probably being doing some ad hoc rides. Not sure where I'll be going but there is still time to get some interesting rides in before the winter cold sets in.
 

Monday, September 2, 2013

Weekend Around the Hudson


This years trip had two destinations, the Berkshires and the Hudson Valley. After spending a couple of days in the Berkshires we headed to Kingston to do some riding around Rhinebeck. On Saturday we took a ride to Olana which was the home of Frederic Church one of the major figures in the Hudson River School of painting.

We started the ride from a recreations center in Red Hook and slowly worked our way through some back roads towards Olana. The terrain was a little gentler than in the Berkshires but was still mostly rolling hills. It was another perfect weather day and we have some nice clear views of the hills around the Hudson Valley. Except for Rt 9G the roads were mostly traffic free and in decent shape.



The only real climb of the day was up to Olana which is on a hill overlooking the Hudson. Cheryl had warned us about this hill since she had done this ride before. At first it didn't seem that bad but it got steeper the closer we got to the top. I actually switched down to the triple about 100 ft from the end.

The climb was worth it because we got some good views of the Hudson as well as the Moravian style house built by Frederic Church.  After we took a look around we when back out on the road and made our way back through some more back country roads. We passed by a lot of farms mostly growing apples and peaches.



By the time we got back to the start we had done 44 miles and were back before 1pm. After a quick shower back at the hotel we decided to head to Hyde Park the home of FDR. The ride to Hyde Park should have taken a half hour but Rt 9G was backed up because of the Dutches County Fair. This was probably also the reason that it was hard to find a hotel room in one of the nicer hotels.

Even with the traffic we were able to get to Hyde Park before the last tour at 4pm. We had a slightly wacky tour guide who was both funny and informative. After the tour we spent another hour in the FDR library and museum which was really well done. We could of easily spent more time but we were getting hungry so we headed off to a dinner at a diner. Then is was another ride through the  Dutches County Fair.traffic to get back to our hotel.

Sunday was the last day of the trip and we managed to squeeze in another ride. Before the trip I was concerned about riding 4 days in a row but it wasn't a problem. I wasn't sore from riding for the past three days and actually felt pretty strong.

Sundays ride started from the town of New Paltz which was on our way home. The main destination for this ride was the Walkway over the Hudson which is an old railroad bridge by Poughkeepsie that was turned into a walkway. Since it was yet another picture perfect day weather wise it would be a good day to go see the view.

This ride, by design, would be the easiest ride of the trip was only 36 miles and had only 1700 ft of climbing. It wasn't a flat ride by any means but rolling hills were gentle and reminded me a little of Lancaster. The ride started with nice flat ride along the Walljill river. It was in the low 60s at the start of the ride and I almost put on my arm warmers but after a few miles I decided I didn't need them.

After just over 5 miles we rode by a nice covered bridge before having our only real climb of the day up Dashville Rd. It wasn't real long but it was steep. From there we hit some really nice wooded roads and actually meet a local biker who was on her first ride after a bad fall. Its always nice sharing stories with other bikers. We road with her a few miles before she broke off and we headed for the walkway.


To get to the walkway we had a out and back loop from Rt 299 which conveniently had a Hess station with a good store in it. Halfway to the walkway were were able to jump on the Hudson Rail Trail which was a nice paved path. The actual Walkway over the Hudson was pretty impressive and really well done. It was a little crowded so we had to zig zag around people, kids and dogs but it was a really cool view.

We rode to the other side of the Hudson and back and meet some more bikers from New York who had took the train to Poughkeepsie. I took a few more pictures then we headed back towards New Paltz. We had some nice long downhills approaching the town through some more apple and peach farms before a ride along the Wallkill river. Before we knew it we were back in town and at the cars. We had planned to have a nice lunch in New Paltz but we weren't really that hungry and wanted to get home so we just got in the car and got out of there.



We hit a little traffic on the ride home but it wasn't that bad and we were home a little after 3pm. All in all the trip worked out as good or better as planned. All the rides we did were good, we had no mechanical problems, we saw a lot of cool things on and off the bike and we had great weather. If I did it again I would try to get a better hotel in Kingston and not go during the Dutches County Fair but otherwise it was a great trip.

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Day 2 The Berkshires

Day 2 of the bike vacation found us still feeling good from the previous run up Greylock. Today we headed down to the town of Great Barrington for a ride around the Berkshires. I had gotten most of the roads for this ride from the Road Biking Massachusetts book. My original plan was for a 50 mile ride but I shortened it to 44 miles and took out a few hills to make it a little easier. I was a little stiff from the Greylock ride but after about 10 miles was feeling good. This ride was mostly rolling hills with only a couple of steep spots. The ride is a south/north loop between two mountain ranges. The weather was perfect. It was in the mid 70s, light winds and scenic views in all directions. After climbing Cooper Hill, which was the toughest hill of the day, We had some really views of the surrounding landscape. We then had a 5 mile loop that brought us into Connecticut and pass Ashley Falls (we didn't actually see the falls since they require a hike to see them).

 From Ashley falls we headed north pass Mt Everett, one of the tallest mountains in the area, before finding a deli in South Ergemount for a break. We continued on pass some nice farmland and some rolling hills.We hit a couple of unexpected dirt roads along the way. The Road Biking Massachusetts didn't mention anything about the dirt roads but neither of them was a problem since they where very hard packed dirt that lasted less than a mile before turning back to asphalt.

The last part of the ride was the hilliest part as we went around a mountain's called Tom's Peak. The climbs were in the 3% range so not too bad and we past by some interesting houses that were definitely own by artists as there were some interesting sculptures in the front yards.

We had some nice down hills as we headed back down into Great Barrington and back to the cars. After the ride we headed to West Stockbridge for lunch on our way to Kingston. There wasn't much to the town but we manage to find a new cafe that had some amazing salads and sandwiches. It was a nice find.

Two hours later we were in Kingston at the Roadway Inn. This was your normal sub standard hotel but was good enough for a couple of nights. After checking in and getting settled we headed into Kingston for dinner. The outskirts of town reminded me a little of Paterson NJ so I was concerned that we won't find a place we would want to stop to eat but once we got to the water front it was much nicer. We ate at a Italian restaurant that had really good food then stopped at a Stewards for ice cream before heading back to the room.

So today we had a good ride, two really good means and ice cream. All in all a good day. 

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Mt Greylock.

Click Here for More Pictures from the Trip



Mount Greylock is the highest point in Massachusetts (3491 ft) and a popular place to get a view of the Berkshires. The state park that contains Greylock has a lot of great hiking trails as well as a road to get you to the top where you can see the landscape of the surrounding three states on a clear day. Most normal people take a car to the the top to see the view but if you are a biker that likes to climb, Greylock is usually on your list of mountains you want to conquer.

This year my annual bike trip took us up to the Berkshires with the goal of climbing Greylock. I had been thinking of climbing Greylock for years and had looked at the profile of the climb. Basically you start at 1600 ft and 8 miles later you are at 3491 ft so you have to climb just under 2000 ft. If you look at the route we took you can see the profile of the ride. The climb comes in two parts. There is the profile of the first 3 miles where you ride up past the visitors center. This part starts out steep in the 10-12% range then levels off to around 5-6% before flatting out for a couple of miles. The last part to the profile to the summit looks like more or less a constant 6% climb.

I spend a lot of time planning rides and looking at elevation profiles to decide how hard a ride will be. I knew that ride up Greylock was doable. What I didn't know how hard it would really be since I don't do long climbs on a regular basis. Each ride and climb has its own character that can't be measure by elevation gain or grade. In order to understand a climb you have to experience it. I know this sounds a little zen but as those of us that ride know there are hills of the same grade that feel totally different. That is why we climb, not to prove that we can are strong enough to do a tough climb but to gain an experience and understanding of what if feels like to conquer a hill. The truth is that climbing Greylock was a very enjoyable experience that wasn't as hard as it looked.

The climb up Greylock started from our 2 bedroom condo in Jiminy Peak where Cheryl, Ron and I started. As we turned out of our condo complex onto the rode we had an unexpected climb for about a mile before heading down into the valley. Along the way we picked up an former Princeton Free Wheeler DaveF who drove over from Saratoga where he lives now.

We didn't have much of a warm up before we entered state park and started the climb up Greylock. As the profile suggested the first mile and a half was a little steep and although I spent most of the climb in my triple I didn't really have to strain that much to make it up to the visitor's center which is 2 miles into the climb. I know Cheryl and Ron where concerned with the length and steepness of the climb but ground up the hill with out much complaint.

Eventually we all made it up the visitor's center where DaveF was parked. He has been a little under the weather so he decided to end his ride here and just sag in his car the rest of the way. After a quick break we continued up the hill which varied between 3-6% for the next couple of miles. After this we had a down hill followed by some flatter sections.

Then we hit the last 3 miles to the summit. This was a more or less constant 6% grade which was a grind but we all settled into a comfortable pace and worked our way up. Alone the way we stop a couple of times to enjoy the view since it was a clear day.



Dave rode ahead in his car and took pictures of us on the way up. I don't have any of the pictures that he took but will post them when I get them.

The last half mile to the summit was a left hand corkscrew that gave us full view of the surrounding areas. Like all high scenic views there is no way to capture the detail and vast landscape on the type of camera that I was dragging up the hill. Trust me through it was a spectacular view.

At the summit we took the required picture by the sign showing we all made it up to the top then spent a few minutes walking around the admiring the view before heading down hill. Before the ride I was actually more concerned with the downhill then the climb because it is steeper and from what I had read the road really wasn't in good shape.

Luckily for us that had recently repaved the road so it was a smooth downhill ride for the most part. The only problem was the BEAR! we saw just below the summit. The bear was in the shadows on the side if the road so it looked like a large garbage bag until we got closer. It was a small brown bear that quickly disappeared into the woods as it saw us so I could not get off a picture.

The north side of the mountain that we descended is a little steeper than the way we came up with some hairpin turns of 17%. Our hands did get a little tired of squeezing the brakes on the 7 mile decent so we stopped once a few miles from the bottom to rest our hands and let our rims cool off.

Once we left the park the road turn to crap with a lot of pot holes but the grade wasn't as steep so it was bearable. We got a great view of the top of Greylock as we passed by a lake. When I saw the view I couldn't believe that we had actually made it up there.



We stopped in Willamstown for our break in a nice coffee shop. We ended up being there a while as we wanted to catch up with DaveF.

The hardest part of the whole ride was the last 10 miles back to the condo. It was mostly up hill but that wasn't the problem since it was a very shallow grade. What made it hard was at that point I realized that my legs were a little shot from all the climbing. It was also in the mid 80s and sunny so it felt hot.

All it really meant is that we were a little slow getting back to the condo. The weather was still nice so after a brief rest we headed out to the unheated pool, then the heated pool and finally the hot tub to sooth our tired legs.

By the time we got back from dinner I was feeling no worst than I do after a normal hilly ride. In fact I think I actually felt better than normal since I now can say I've been up Greylock and it wasn't that bad.



Sunday, July 28, 2013

It is Balloon!!!

If you are a defensive driver you are always on the look out for possible accident situation with other cars, pedestrians, deer, etc. Being hit by a hot air balloon while driving a car, however, is really not something you are prepared for or even consider until it actually comes close to happening.

This Saturday I lead a ride to Schooley's Mountain from Raritan Valley College. This Saturday was also the annual Solberg Balloon festival. At the balloon festival there are over a hundred balloons so it is not uncommon to see them in the sky especially early in the morning when the winds are calm. There is no way to control a balloons flight path so it goes where the wind takes and lands where it can find some open space.

So as I drove along the main road in Raritan Valley College I saw a balloon in the parking lot to the right of me. I assumed it was getting set up to take off from there but then ahead of me I saw another balloon about to land, 50 feet ahead of me in the road. As I stopped to avoid the balloon I looked further to my left and saw other balloons approaching. Apparently these balloons had taken off from the festival and this is where they decided to land. The road was filled support vehicles that had chased the balloons and people who had stopped to take picture. It took me a while to thread my way around the balloons and people to get to the parking lot where we started the ride. I saw a few more balloons land before we actually started the ride. The parking lot and fields aren't that big so I was surprised that so many balloons were able to land in such a small area. It probably helped that there was almost no wind.

As for the ride I ended up with a good crowd despite competing with the popular Belmar ride that Joe had. Ron, Cheryl, Al, Blake,Tommy, Michael B and myself headed up to Schooley's Mountain and back. Here is the route we took. It's about 4000 ft of climbing (Al had 3750 ft to be exact) but there are a couple of steep climbs that make if feel harder than it is. Ron, Blake and I did a 4000ft of climbing a couple of weeks ago through the covered bridges and that was a much easier ride so total elevation is not an exact measure of how hard a ride is.

The other part of the Schooley's Mountain that is deceiving is that a lot of the climbing is after you get down off the mountain so just when you least expect it you make a turn and there is yet another hill. Of course there are some cool roads here that we normally don't get to do that often. Rockaway Rd is one of the easiest and nicest 300 ft climbs in the state. Middle Valley is also an interesting decent which was made a little harder by the fact that they had just stoned the road. Lastly you can't beat the view while coming down Fox Hill.

I have been doing a lot of hills over the past month so I think I'm in good hill shape and will probably do some flatter rides over the next couple of weeks.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Some Times You Gotta Go Around

I have a reputation for ignoring "Bridge Out"  and "Road Closed"signs and tend to use some cyclocross moves to get around the construction. Usually there is a walkway the workmen use so it is usually not dangerous or hard. Other times like a couple of weeks ago the bridge was totally out, on Sweet Hollow, with no walkway so we forded a stream. It was a little extreme but doable and nobody objected. It beat climbing all the way back up the hill.

This week Blake, Ron and I did a Covered Bridge ride out of Bulls Island. This involves crossing the Delaware climbing up the PA side then coming back the NJ side. The first climb is a half mile into the ride so I tend to take the easiest way up which is Fleecy Dale. In the email exchange before the ride I heard that FleecyDale was closed so I planned an alternate route. Laura teased me that I was wimping out because I usually laugh at "Road Closed" signs but the truth is if I know about a road closure before a ride I usually plan to avoid it.

I did some research about the construction on Fleecy Dale and found out they were replacing the retaining wall by Fritz Mill so I thought the road would be passable because I assumed the retaining wall was to keep the dirt from the hillside from sliding on to the road. But to be safe I decided on taking the alternate route up Green Lane. Curiosity got the best of us thought because we decided to try Fleecy Dale any way. The worst case we would just turn around and come back down hill.

So up Fleecy Dale we went and went past one construction zone and thought we were home free until we got near Fritz Mill then the road disappeared. It turns out the retaining wall they are building is to keep the next road they build from sliding into the river.  If you click on the picture above you can see there full scope of the construction. The first shovel tractor you see is actually at the bottom of Fritz Mill and the road was missing as far as we could see. There was no way we were going any further so we went down hill and back up Green Lane to continue the ride.

The roads were wet but not sloppy. The clouds looked threatening and we went through some mist but never got rained on. We went through two more construction zones one by the Loux Mill bridge which was just some shoulder work and the bridge out on Bridgeton Rd which has a temporary pedestrian bridge to use. So no problem there.

The NJ side was much dryer. We took the easy way up to the ridge (Javis to Rummel) and wound our way back to Bulls Island finishing with a nice fast stretch down Federal Twist.

One of the covered bridges we went through today Loux Mill was built in 1874 after a young man name Reed Meyers drown while trying to cross the stream. Although I do have a tendency to push the limits when getting around road construction I won't take any big risks or do anything unsafe. So some times you gotta go around.


Sunday, June 30, 2013

To Grandmother's House We Went

Growing up I was lucky enough to have both sets of grandparents in my life until well after I finished high school. My father's parents lived down the shore in Brick Township and my mother's parents lived in the country in Belvidere in the north west part of the state by the Delaware river. So we called my father parents were seashore grandma and grandpa and my mother's parents were country grandma and grandpa.

While growing up I spent a lot more time with my seashore grandparents then my country grandparents because we had a boat docked at their house that we used most weekends in the summer. So to me going to the country was more fun because it was something I didn't get to do as often.

My country grandmother lived next to her sister's farm which has a some fun places to explore. My grandmother's house was at the top of the hill overlooking the farm and orchard and had a nice view. I remember that there was always a set of binoculars by the back door to look at all the deer and other animals that roam through the field.

The main crop produced on the farm was apple and peaches but they also grew corn in their fields. As was typical of the small farm at the time they also had some animals including chickens,  sheep, and a few horses. If was a cool place to roam around as a kid

My grandparents and her sister pass away many years ago so I haven't been up to that area in a long time which made a perfect excuse to take a bike ride in that area. I was close to that area last year when I rode/walked up Fiddlers Elbow. Its a hilly area so there is no avoiding some tough climbs.

I started from Milford and was lucky to have 7 people crazy enough to join me, Laura, Ron, Jackie, Jack, Jim and Lynne who I hadn't seen in a while. Although I said the first part of the ride would be flatter then the last half we started out with a couple of climbs to get out of Milford. I could of went around the hills but that would have added some miles to the ride and the gang chose hills over miles.

The climbs weren't bad but there was a really steep down hill on Shire that had most of us squeezing our brakes all the way down. From there is was mostly rolling as we went around Merrill Creek Reservoir and came dangerously close to the bottom of Fiddlers Elbow before heading down towards the Delaware to ride along the river into the town of Belvidere. We had a nice stop in at Skoogy's Deli which had Gatorade, bathroom and decent food which is all you need from a rest stop.

The town looked somewhat familiar although one of the things I remember about the town when I was there as a kid was there some of the buildings had gutter pipes that when from the roof away from the building over the sidewalk then down into the curb of the street. I didn't see any on our tour through town so I assume they found a better and safer way of keeping water away from the buildings.

Once out of town we past my aunt's farm and grandmothers house. The barn and grazing area, for the horses that was  across from my aunt's house was gone but the house, farm and orchard were still much as I remembered them. It is now called Stoneyfield Orchard and is preserved farmland.



My grandparent house was up the hill from my aunt's farm and the hill was as steep as I remembered it. The house was mostly the same layout but they had replace all the doors and windows and made the landscaping much nicer.



I took a few pictures of the house and area to show my mother and then we all headed on to the climbs. To get back to Milford when had three long climbs ahead of us the first one was to get us to the top of Merrill Creek. This was a long 3.5 mile climb. There were a couple of flat spots and a couple of steep spots but I slowly grinded my way up the hill while every asked "Is this the top yet?".

During the climb we heard the cicadas in the distance. Eventually we did reach the top and enjoyed and nice long downhill on Millbrook before heading up over the second climb over into Asbury where we rode along the ridge with some great views of the hills and valleys. The view never comes out in pictures but I tried again anyway.



We had one last climb to get us back. Tunnel road is where the train tracks go under the hill. It is a long shallow climb that is not real hard but is it one of those hills that never seems to end so at the end of a ride when you're tired of climbing it is a little rude.

As we started to spread out up the hill I saw Jack stop. The I saw it. A bear. It was lumbering across the road. I pulled out the camera and zoomed in to get a few pictures. I managed to get a picture of it's backside and it going over into the woods. It was cool seeing a bear.



The payoff for doing the climb is going down Sweet Hollow a nice gentle 3 mile down hill. There was a bridge out sign about half way down but there is usually always a way around if you're not a car so we kept going only to find that the bridge was totally out with no way to easily get across. If we would have been on flat ground we would have doubled back and found another road to get us home however doubling back would have mean another 400 foot climb which nobody was going to do at this point. We ended up fording the river and walking a 100 ft through the woods. It was a little dicey but we all made it through unscathed. The only side affect was wet shows and clogged speedplay cleats.



4 miles later we were back in Milford looking at bear pictures.

Going back to Belvidere brought back a lot of memories of my country grandparents. The best way to describe them was that they were good simple folks.



My grand father was a retired mail man and a very reserved and quiet person. He enjoyed college football and just sitting by the bay window smoking his pipe. My grandmother did a lot of volunteer work for the church and the community. She spend a lot of time in the hospital volunteering as a candy striper delivering patient's meals and mail and generally helping out the nurses. After my grandfather retired they traveled a lot in a VW micobus.I think they made it to every state except for Hawaii and North Dakota. They never had a lot and had a very simple life but they always seemed happy. I learned a lot from their examples. 

I'm glad I got to visit my grandparents house again. It was fund to reminisce about them see what the area looks like now. It was a tough but fun ride with some memorable moments of its own. I know the bear sighting and river crossing will probably be one of those things we will be talking about for a while.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Work, Life, Bike Balance

This was a tough week as I had a lot of important tasks vying for my attention. There was a reorg at work. This is normal occurrence in the corporate world and usually happens every year or two as companies try to improve efficiency. Although this reshuffling did not directly affect me it did affect other people and teams I work with more than usual so I spent a good part of the end of the week dealing with the repercussion of the reorg. This reorg also came at a bad time as we are trying to release a new version of our product so this reorg made a stressful time even worse.

For me biking is a way to relieve stress so I try and make sure no matter how hectic life is that I find time to ride. It is important however to balance this against the responsibilities to my family and friends. We all have duties like home repairs or some family event that compete with our desire to ride. For me Saturday is usually the day I ride and Sunday is usually when take care of things at home. Sometimes, like this weekend, I had a yard beautification project that could not be completed in just one day so I promised, my wife, that I would take some time from biking to help get the yard in shape.

I considered doing a quick ride on my own but it was going to be such a beautiful day that I wanted to do as many miles as I could get away with. I ended up on Laura's Round Valley ride even through I knew it was going to be a little long.  I ended up leaving the ride about halfway through in an attempt to get back a little quicker. I did end up making back home with enough time to get most of the work done I promised I would get done then spent all of Sunday finishing up our yard beautification project with out a lot of time for relaxing.

As I write this I still have to take care of a few emails from work before I can get to bed. I do enjoy my work, life and biking but some weeks it hard to find the perfect balance so that they can all peaceful coexist.

Monday, June 3, 2013

Pedal to Preserve

This past weekend Chris, Ron and I spent a few days around Lancaster PA. We went mainly to do the Pedal to Preserve Ride on Saturday but decided that as long as we are going to travel out for that ride we might as well spend some more time exploring the area.

We went out on late Friday morning and got to the area around 1pm. We decided to do a ride called the Climbers Delight. The terrain out in this area is mostly rolling hills with no really big climbs but this ride hit some of the longer rollers. It was a nicely designed ride because you go up a series of easy roller over over 5 miles then have a nice mile long down hill. This happen a few time during the ride. The only issues was the 90 degree heat which made the 37 ride feel a little longer.

This area is nothing but farms and rolling hills which is a scenic place to ride but when it is 90 it is a hot place to ride. It also don't smell so good in the heat. When we pull out of the parking lot where we started we were hit by one of the foulest stenches I have smelled. It smelled like a cross between a rotting deer carcass and a overflowing portal potty at Woodstock.

As I looked to the right I saw the source of the smell. I saw a large tank being pulling a couple of horses spewing out brown liquid on to the field. So what we were smelling was literally hot shit being spread to fertilize the field.

After the ride we headed to the hotel for good shower then out for a family style dinner. If you like meat and potatoes there is a lot of good food here. Dinner usually does come with salad and a few other vegetables but the main meal is fried chicken, roast beef, sausage, potatoes, stuffing. The food was good and we had a nice conversation with the other people at the table. 

Saturday was the Pedal to Preserve ride. This was a 51 mile ride that again had a really nice route. It was less hilly than Friday's ride and cooler since we started early in the morning but it got hot quick. My only complaint about the ride is the rest stops didn't really have any food. They had apples at one stop and bananas at the other but that was about it. I had hear the rest stops didn't have good so I had brought enough stuff with me.



The food at the end was very good though. They hot dogs, ice cream, cookies, and omelets and a lot of other stuff. We spent about an hour relaxing after ride before heading back to the hotel. Since we started early we were back to the hotel by 12:30 pm. We spent the afternoon in the town of Lititz where they have a chocolate factor, a pretzel factory and the oldest Moravian church the country.



We when to a buffet for dinner and stuffed ourselves again before calling it a night.

On Sunday we did a quick 30 mile ride around the Lititz area. The was again more rolling hills and farms. The only point of interest was a building that was built to look like a 13th century castle but it really wasn't that nice looking.

This was a nice area to ride and I learn a little more about the Amish and their way of life. You can't ride along the road with out seeing one of the buggies or some of them on scooters. The Lancaster Bike Club has a nice set of cue sheets with a lot of scenic ride in this area. If you are out this way you can use it to take some good rides on your own. I'm sure I'll be back in this area again hopefully when the weather is a little cooler.




Monday, May 27, 2013

So I Ran Over a Deer...

Most bike rider try to be careful on the road and watch out for potholes, cars and other things that can cause a crash. There are however hidden dangers that are hard to avoid. I'm talking about critters lurking by the side of the road waiting to attack.

Today instead of doing the All Paces ride I headed to Califon because I had to be in Long Valley in the afternoon. I was lucky to have Ron join me to I won't have to ride alone. We rode from Raritan Valley College and headed through some back road toward one of my favorite climbs Rockaway Road.

The back roads in this area are very rural and empty of traffic which makes them nice to ride but there are also a lot of deer in the area. I saw one on the right side of the road about 5 feet ahead of me. I yelled out "Deer" to let Ron know to watch out. The deer then took off and ran across the road towards me. I moved to the left to try and avoid the deer and then it turned and started to run along side of me. We were shoulder to shoulder for a few seconds then the deer looked back over at me and got ever more spooked. Its feet started moved so fast that it slipped and fell on its side with it feet pointing towards me. I ran over the back feet of the deer with my rear tire. Luckily I didn't hurt the deer and didn't loose my balance because the deer got up and ran back in to the woods right in front of Ron. It was all over in a few seconds but it was an intense few seconds.

The rest of the ride was uneventful. It was a beautiful day and the views were some the clearest I have seen. But no matter how much I wanted to enjoy the view I made sure I kept scanning the woods because you never know what is waiting for you behind the next tree...

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Twin Lights


Some rides I do are about riding along quiet scenic roads and other rides like the Twin Lights ride, I did on Saturday, are about the destination itself. There is nothing that bad about the roads we took to get to Twin Lights but there is nothing particularly scenic about them and they tend to have a little more traffic than I like.

I had a surprisingly good turn out for the ride with 12 people besides myself. I even had a couple of new people on the ride. The weather started out being very overcast and was suppose to get better but never did. We did get spritzed on a few times but never encountered a steady rain. I usually start the ride to Sandy Hook from Monmouth Battlefield park but Larry(who didn't actually show up) ask that I started the ride from Thompson park in Jamesburg so it would be easier for everybody to get to.

The ride out to Sandy Hook was uneventful except for a flat tire Jim had at the bottom of one of the hills on Navasink Rd. The normal store we stop at on Rt 36 was closed but there was a new Quick Check next that was next store and actually much nicer.

After the stop it was time to head up to Twin Lights. The only problem is the 20% grade to get to it. Its a narrow road after a hairpin turn and to make matters worst there was some van pulling out of a garage at the bottom of the hill that I had to avoid. The hill to the light house is steep but short. I think the worst part was at the start. I was already in my lowest gear when I turned onto the hill but still had to stand up to get over the initial hump. I alternated sitting and standing up the hill as the sloped increased and decreased which is very different for me since I almost never stand when I climb. The climb is only 400 feet long so we all quickly made it to the top. It really wasn't that bad a climb.



At the top we got a good view a the twin light houses and could even see the New York skyline through the overcast. We spent about 15 mins taking some pictures and Cheryl even climbed to the top for a better view. Although we could see the city it probably would be much nicer on an sunny day.

Then it was time to go back down the hill which was harder then coming up especially with the road beaten up. The route home took us through Sea Bright. I took the new bike path over the bridge and along the sea wall. This was nice last year but there was still some damage from the storm. Parts of the sea wall were still damaged and there was a lot of sand on the path so eventually we moved over to the road.

The trip back was uneventful except for a little more light rain and a flat that Dave had. It was a good ride, although there were some complaints that I expect to see listed on another blog. It wasn't about the roads but about seeing Twin Light and the shore by Sandy Hook as well as having fun along the way.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The Velodrome



I’m on vacation this week in Ft Lauderdale Florida. This mostly a sit on the beach and relax vacation with my wife. Although I enjoy spending time on the beach with my wife I always looks for some diversions to get me off the beach for a couple of hours. In last months Bicycling Magazine they had an article about all the velodromes in the US and I noticed there was one close to Ft Lauderdale.

I always wondered what it would feel like to ride on a velodrome so I decided to give it a try. The velodrome is in Brian Piccolo Park about 20 miles from where I’m staying. It is an outdoor cement track with 30 degree banking.

There were a couple of problems I had to overcome to ride on the track. The first was the bike. It was a track bike which meant it was a fixed gear with no brakes. Basically if the wheel was moving so were the pedals. If you wanted to stop you had to use your legs to push backwards on the pedal. The other problem was the banked turns. For my entire life I have rode my bike perpendicular to the road with gravity firmly holding me to it. Yes I do lean the bike a little while turning but riding 30 degrees away from vertical while gravity was trying push the wheels out from under me was going to feel really wrong.

Luckily the track was empty with only one other rider so I didn’t have to worry about getting in anybodies way. Matt, the other rider was a former racer and had recently got into track riding. He gave me a couple of tips to help me get started and make sure I won’t fall. He also said it was going to be cool.

Starting on a track is not easy you can’t just push off and clip in like my road bike because you can’t coast. The technique Matt recommended was to walk the bike to the top of the straightaway grab the rail on top of the wail, clip in then push off down hill.  It sounded reasonable so I gave it a try. Although it took me a couple of strokes to get my balance I got going with no problem.

One of the nice features of the Brian Piccolo velodrome is that it has two tracks. The inner track only has 5 degree backing and is used for warming up. The outer one has the 30 degree banks.

I did a 3 or 4 laps around the inner track to get a feel for the bike. It was mostly familiar except for the fact that there were no brakes lever on the handle bars and every time I tried to coast the pedals pushed back. Then there was the whole problem as to how to actually stop.

To stop on a regular bike you hit the brakes click out of one of the pedals and put your foot down. Since I needed to push back on the pedals to stop that wasn’t going to work here so I reversed what I did to get started. I slowly push back on the pedals until I was going really slow then road up by the wall and grabbed the bar on top of the wall. I was still going too fast to stop so as my hand slid along the bar I tighten my grip on the rail to slow me to the point where I could stop and unclip. I’m sure it looked uncoordinated but at least I had a way to start and stop with out killing myself.

After a brief stop to adjust the height of the seat it was on to the outer track. I started as I did on the inner track by holding on to the bar on the wall on the straightaway. I then spent a couple of laps on the flat part building up some speed. The next two laps I swung up to the banked track on the straightaway then back down to the flat part in the corners. At this point it was time to go for it.

I swung up to the track in the straightaway and tried to keep my speed up. The track has two painted lane in it an orange one at the bottom of the banking and a blue on about 3 feet above that. I decided to follow the blue lane.

When I hit the corner things really started to feel wrong. I was on pavement that was banked at 30 degrees but I was not perpendicular to the pavement. I was leaning uphill so that the tire was hitting the road on the right side and I felt like I was riding on the side wall. I expect at any second for the wheels to slip out from under me and slide down to the bottom of the track.

But that didn’t happen. I made it through the corner and headed down the straightaway to the next corner. This corner felt just as wrong but I knew it would be OK. I stepped up my cadence and when I went through the corners again it felt a little more stable. After 5 or 6 more laps I was getting use to it and starting to really enjoy it. As Matt went by me I told him he was right this was really cool.

Now that I was getting more comfortable with the track it was time to climb the wall I spent the next 5 laps moving higher and higher up the banking and learned that higher up you went the better if felt.

After a break for some water I went out again and started trying some of the moves I have seen on TV where you start up high on the bank then swing down to gain speed. At this point I felt in total control and could go anywhere on the track. I also realized this was awesome.



Matt suggested we do some pace lining so I felt what it was like. So he would lead for a lap then swing up and around me and I would lead a lap and would swing up and around him. This was much more fun then on the road. Lastly we simulated the end of a race where we rode high on the track and swung down quickly in the last two corners. Matt said to hold it as low in the track as I could. I was sprinting as hard as I could and when I swung down I really felt the g-force trying to push me up the banking. Way cool.

I had been on the track for a little over an hour at this point and was tired and thirsty so I decided I had had enough. I’m really glad I decided to do this. It wasn’t as hard as I had thought and a lot of fun. There aren’t many velodromes that allow the public to run on then so if you get a chance you should give it a try. 


Tuesday, April 16, 2013

The Belmar Reconstruction Tour


Belmar is one of the more popular long rides that the club does. The ride is relatively flat with a nice stop on the beach in Belmar. The only downside to the ride is that you will have to deal with some traffic by the beach and either an annoying or hellacious head wind on the way back.  I usually don't do this ride until its short sleeve weather but I decided to take a trip earlier this year to see how the reconstruction of the boardwalk was going. Although Belmar didn't get as badly damaged as Seaside it still lost most of its boardwalk and had quite a bit of flooding.

Although they had predicted a chance rain for Saturday the rain ended early in the morning so by the time we started the ride the rain was gone and the roads were starting to dry. I had a large crowd of 12 people that included most of the regulars as well as a few people hadn't seen in a while including Jeff X.

Except for a flat tire the ride to Belmar was uneventful and even easy as we had a tail wind most of the way. There is not a lot real scenery on this ride until you get to the beach. I usually enter the beach by Sea Girt so that we have a nice leisurely 3 mile ride along the ocean. In the middle of the summer there is a lot of activity here but today it was mostly suffers trying to catch some waves. We did also pass wedding that was going on outside at one of the hotels.





The main attraction this time was the state of the beach. During Sandy most of this area was under a foot or two of water and most of the boardwalk and water front property got a little beat up. Although most homes survived the storm with very little structural damage there was quite a bit of flood damage that they are still cleaning up from. The good thing to see was that the rebuilding has started and is making good progress. Although there are still parts of the beach with the boardwalk missing a lot of it is rebuild. We saw long stretches if new boardwalk with just missing rails so it seems that by Memorial day most of it will be back.


Still there is a long way to go. Some of the public bathrooms were totally destroyed and are just now having their foundations poured. I don't expect these buildings will be ready until at least mid summer at best.

I had been down this area about a month ago and Ocean Ave had still been closed to traffic so it a nice surprise was that Ocean Ave was finally open (except for a small bridge that was out in Spring Lake). The other nice surprise was that our normal rest stop by the beach was open. In fact the owner told us that he had just opened a day ago (Duncan Donuts was still closed). Although they had some flood damage the place looks the same.

After a the break we headed back into the wind. It felt bad as we started by we eventually got into a rhythm and ground our way back to Etra. The wind was bad but not soul crushing. I wasn't planning a stop on the way back but some people were a little tired so some of us stopped in Freehold while others went on.

By the time we got back to Etra we had almost 70 miles in. We averaged just under 15 which wasn't bad considering its early in the season and we had a head wind for 30 miles. It was nice to visit Belmar and see that it is recovering. I'll probably head down there again later in the summer to check it out again.


Wednesday, April 3, 2013

The Easter Cake

My wife have been hosting Easter, at our house, for the past 22 years. It is a lot of work but we have it down to a science so preparing the house and a meal for about 20 people is no big deal. Our menu is mostly Polish food like stuffed cabbage, pierogies and kielbasa although the is also a variety of other foods. The main menu is mostly the same every year but my wife tries to do something different and unique every year for dessert. The desert usually has some type of Easter theme.

This year my wife decided to make an ice cream cake that would look like an Easter garden. It started with three layers of oreo cookie klondike bars with vanilla icing in between. That was then surrounded by chocolate filled pirouline rolled wafers to form a fence around the cake. The top of the cake was covered with small chocolate chips to form the dirt for the garden then a straws were pushed through the cake to be the stems of the flowers. The flowers themselves were brownies covered in icing and various sprinkles. Lastly we added some peeps for an Easter flair.

The cake was a work of art and impressed the crowd which was what my wife was going for. Then it was time to cut the cake which we had no idea how to do. We had glued all the pieces of the cake together with so much icing and ice cream then froze it for a couple of days so it was built like a brick fort house. It took some yanking of piroulines and hacking with our biggest knife to get the cake into serving size pieces. They didn't look pretty but they tasted good. All in all the Easter holiday was a success.

Now that our holiday is over I can concentrate on biking. I took the Monday after Easter to head to the Sourlands to start working on some hills and burn off some of the winter fat. Now that it is getting warming I need to start working on distance as I have a couple long rides coming up including a metric to Belmar that I'm looking forward too.

Friday, March 15, 2013

Night of the Comet

In case you haven't notice it for the last month we have been getting attacked from space. First there was the meteor explosion over Russia. Then there were a couple of real close flybys by some asteroids(they came closer to the earth than the moon does). One which wasn't discovered until a few hours before is passed by. If any of these had actually hit the earth it could have taken out a major city.

This week the danger is a comet that is passing close by. If you know where to look you can see it just after sun set. I spent Thursday night at Mercer lake across from the boat house looking for the comet. The comet is not as bright as predicted so it was a little hard to find but I managed to see it and get a few pictures.


It was a very windy night so even though I had the camera on the tripod it still shook and made the picture blurry. The comet is the bright spot between the two bottom wires near the tower.

If you want to see some better pictures of the comet you can check out pictures from all over the world HERE


This won't be the last comet we see this year. Some time in November comet ISON will make it way into our skys. Although it is hard to predict a comets brightness comet ISON has the potential to be one of the brightest comets in more than a decade.


Sunday, February 24, 2013

Single Speed Tom

After five weeks of cold and crappy weather it was finally nice enough, (sort of). to ride on the road again. The road was still wet from rain when I got up to put the dog out but it was sunny and 40 so I made a last minute decision to go to Larry's ride.

There were five of us there including Laura and Ron. It has been a while since I have been on a group ride so it was nice to see everybody again. Larry took out towards Freehold. As we road we talked about some of the rides we were planning for the spring. The roads were still a little wet but we weren't really kicking up any spray so it wasn't too bad.

After a stop in the Battleground orchid head back up through Millstone on our way home. As I was coming down Perrineville road I up shifted and immediately knew something was wrong with my rear derailleur. A quick look back and I saw that I was stuck in my top gear. I coasted down the rest of the hill and stopped in a driveway.

It became clear pretty quickly that the cable snapped. With a little help I was able to wrap the cable around the water bottle cage and lock the derailleur in one of the middle gears. A piece of duct table from Laura helped make sure the cable won't be come undone. This is similar to what we did when Mike M broke his cable in Califon. Luckily I only have 5 miles to go and no real hills.

It was a little strange riding with out the being able to shift. I did reach for the shifter a few times out of habit but really did have a problem muscling the bike up the few small hill I encountered. Having only one gear did make me concentrate on pedaling a little more and helped me remember to pull through the upstroke when I needed some extra power getting up a hill.

After riding home on a single gear I have a better appreciation of people who ride single speeds and understand the attraction but I prefer shifting.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Pennypack in the Snow


Since Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early spring it has gotten colder and we had our first major snow storm of the season. What do you expect from a stupid pampered rodent. Of course real weathermen aren't any better at long range forecasts. The cold weather has limited my riding to the mountain bike. I've been to Mercer and the Canal trail but with the 6 inches of snow we got made most trails too deep to ride.

Back when I was researching the Philly book I discovered that the city actually plows some of their bike commuter trails including the trail along Pennypack Creek. Pennypack Creek and surrounding park is a nice place to ride so I decided to check it out so see how it looked in the snow.

It turned out to be a cool place for a winter ride. The main trail is paved but on Sunday it was still covered by some packed down snow. Pennypack is a popular place for people to walk, run and ride so any snow is quickly packed down even before it gets plowed.

I started at the north end of the park which is in north east Philly and only about 40 mins from my house. Although the trail was snow covered traction wasn't too bad. The only thing I forgot about the trail is that the first part has a few steep little hills. Going up them wasn't the problem is was coming down because breaking on snow is tricky. After the first few hills I got the hang of it though.

The main reason I came to Pennypack was the scenery. It was a pretty place in the summer and was even nicer looking with the snow. I stopped and took a number of pictures although they really don't capture the real view.

After the first 3 miles I got to a part of the trail that had been fully plowed and was mostly clear of snow. Except for a few spots the rest of the 7.5 mile trail was clear. I spent a little less then 2 hours going out and back on the trail and am glad I decided to get out for a ride.


Sunday, January 27, 2013

Cold and Snowy

It seems like winter has finally arrived. This past week the highs didn't go much above 20 degrees and Friday night we had a dusting of snow. So in order to get some riding in I decided to take the MTB out. Chris and a few others were riding out of Mercer a 9:30 am but it was only 17 degrees at that time so I waited a couple of hours until it got a little warmer and decided to ride the canal path.

I headed over to Princeton and started the ride by Carnegie Lake. In the summer the path is a nice place for a quick trail ride along the canal. Today the coating of snow made it a little more scenic. Riding in the snow is not something you can do that often so when the conditions allow I try to get out.

I spent about a hour and a half on the path and went up to Rocky Hill and back. I took a few pictures along the way. It hovered around 25 degrees for most of the ride which is close to the my lower limit for an MTB ride. Any colder and my camel-back starts to freeze. Still if you dress right and keep moving its not too hard to stay warm. Although my feet were a little cold by the end of the ride I was warm otherwise and was glad to get out on the bike for a little while. There are a couple more months of winter ahead so you have to get out when you can.