Don't Fear the Wind

Those of us who look forward to our weekend ride closely watch the weather to make sure we can get a ride in. This weekend the weather didn't really cooperate. Saturday was a rain out and Sunday was cold with winds close to hurricane strength. Road riding was out because anything over 30 mph is insane and dangerous. Ed had suggested a towpath ride on the canal and some emails were sent around but most people were still reluctant because of the wind.

Sunday morning the Laura suggested bailing on the towpath but Ed and I said why not and convinced her and Chris to join us. We started in Princeton by Carnegie Lake and headed south. Chris had suggested going south because the canal towpath is more protected as you head towards Trenton.

The wind was constant 25 -30 mph with gusts well in to the 40s.  However once on the path the wind wasn't really noticeable. I could hear it but couldn't feel it that much. The weather reports on Saturday night had warned about downed trees and power outages. We did have some loud thunder storms during the night and a lot of strong wind but there were no wide spread power outages.

On the path there were a few sticks on the ground but they were easy to ride over or around. There was only one spot with a branch we had to go off the path to get around. There were still puddles and some muddy spots but nothing really bad.

I had never been south past the bridge over route 1 but we continued all the way into Trenton to the War memorial.

The last few miles were on a paved path. At the War memorial we turned around and headed back. We actually had a slight tail wind. There were a few spots on the way back where we had a couple of good cross wind gusts but the ride back was not worst than a normal ride.

So although it might have been sounded like an insane idea to ride in this wind in actuality because the canal is in a small valley it is well protected and was a good way to get a ride in when the weather is severe