It's Fucking Cold !!!!

I know it can be cold during the winter but this year has been ridiculous. It hasn't been just below freezing cold. It has been a snot freezing, balls receding, can't feel my toes, mind going numb, oh this must be what hypothermia feels like kind of cold.

I blame Canada for all this. For years they have keep their arctic blasts mostly too themselves with only occasional intrusions to remind us how miserable it must be to live up in that barren wasteland. But this year they must have thrown that Canadian politeness out the door because they sent that arctic cold down for good. January was 3.5 degrees colder than average and February was almost 10 degrees colder than normal with a number of nights below 0 (that's 0 degrees Fahrenheit for you metric pussies)

I say screw the Keystone pipeline let's head up to Canada and light up that mother fucking tar sand. Yea it may not be the best thing to do for the environment but I could do with a little global warming right about now.

Now you may think that this rant is caused by me having cabin fever but I assure you that is not the case. Unlike the dickless beantown bastards that are jumping out of their houses into the snow (i.e. #BostonBlizzardChallenge) I am not letting the cold interfere with my normal social life. In fact I was in Red Bank last night for an amazing concert by a bunch of a capella groups. This is the second year we have gone and as it was last year we were blown  away by what talented people can do with just their voices. One performance went from a beat box ping pong match to a cheesy but extremely funny fake album commercial to a jump up and got to dance version of Bruno Mars's Uptown Funk. I wish they did more of these types of shows in our area because they are some of the best entertainment I have ever been too.

This cold weather has reduced my bike riding in fact today I was going to head back to Tyler State Park but it is too cold. This will be the second weekend in a row I will not be on the bike and I can tell by the email exchanges that most of us need some riding time. But it looks like that furry fat rodent Punxsutawney Phil was right winter is going to be around for a few more weeks.

Tyler State Park

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I have been thinking of riding in Tyler State Park since the weather turned cold. I could have went on the road with Laura and crew but it was a little below my threshold for riding on the road. It was also a chance to ride through the snow again which is one of the few benefits of riding in the winter.

Tyler State Park was one of the ride I did  for my Philadelphia book. It is a beautiful park along the Neshaminy Creek with a set of paved paths among the hills by the creek. When I mapped out this ride for the book is was the summer so it was interesting to come back in the winter. Because of the cold weather the snow we got a few weeks ago is still around. However it turns out that the plow the pave paths of the park like Pennypack so the riding was snow and ice free for the most part.

I ended up doing two loops around the park an outer and inner loop so that I could explore all the different paths.  I probably ended up doing around 15 miles. The ride was very scenic. Besides the Neshaminy Creek the park is littered with other small streams. The terrain goes between open fields and dense forest and is very rolling with a couple of actual climbs. Although I am inching to get back on the road again this was a good way to get a work out while waiting for cleaner roads and warmer temperatures.

Scenic Rides

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The calendar I got for my office this year has scenic pictures of New Jersey. New Jersey has a bad reputation and is portrayed in movies and TV as a toxic waste dump run by organized crime. I will admit that there are parts of the state especially around Elizabeth and Newark airport that are really ugly and always smell bad. However there are a lot of beautiful places in NJ once you get away from the main highways.

January's calendar picture was a waterfall by Schooley's mountain. It was similar of the on I took at Duke Farms. I usually manage to take a few good pictures on each ride so I will try to post a least one a month to show the scenic parts of NJ.

Today I went to Pennypack Park. I try to go there once a year each winter because its a pretty place to ride. Its got a paved bike path and since it is designated a bike commuter route they actually plow it when it snows. This means when there is too much snow on the roads or trails you can still ride at Pennypack.

Today's ride was nice. We had about 4 inches of snow earlier in the week and not much of it had melted yet.  This meant we road through a mostly snow covered landscape next to the Pennypack Creek. There wasn't as much snow and ice as there was last year but it was still a cool place to ride and we stopped along the way for pictures. This year Laura came along with me or I guess I went with Laura since it was an official PFW ride although not one else showed up.

This year we went a little further down the trail and made it all the way to the Delaware river. The park by the Delaware has a nice view of the river but you have to pass by a prison and what we believe is a state run mental retirement home so its a bit of a strange place.

After a picture stop at the river we headed back to the car. It was 20 mile round trip and a good way to get out in this cold weather. Although I do enjoy these types of ride I am hoping the weather warms up soon so I can get back on the road. I guess we'll see what Punxsutawney Phil has to say. His prediction is as good as any weather man these days.