Riding Solo

It was a very busy 3 day week at work so it was nice to have a long weekend to forget about work and get out for a couple of rides. Unfortunately I had some maintenance work at home and at our place at the beach that needed to be done so I had to squeeze my riding in between those jobs. This meant I missed riding with the normal crew this weekend and had to ride solo.

On Friday I got out early and decided to do a quick ride on the canal for a change of pace and to give the mountain bike a quick ride to see if it needed any tune ups. Beside a changing a flat tire up front before the ride the mountain bike is in good shape and ready to go as I expect to use it more as the winter gets colder. I drove to Princeton by Carnegie lake and did a quick out and back to Rocky Hill. This is my favorite part of the canal as it well maintained and has good scenery.

On Saturday I did a one way ride to the beach. It was the standard route to Belmar by way of Farmindale and gave me a chance to ride by the Manasquan reservoir. It was just over 50 degrees and mostly sunny so not a bad day for a ride. I got close to 50 miles in and was at the beach by noon. I then had another couple of hours of physical labor at the condo I was done.

Afterwords we headed to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants for a good dinner and coming home to finally relax after a busy couple of days. 

No Turkeys Here

Some days mistakes and unexpected circumstances come together to make a good ride. My Turkey ride was suppose to be the Saturday after Thanksgiving but because of an error some where in the process it was scheduled for the Saturday before. I had more people on the ride than expected including some riders who I haven't ridden with in a while. There was 5k race blocking some streets which could make it hard to make through Bordentown. These things make me a little apprehensive about the ride as we started out from the Peter Muschal school on our way to the pinelands along this route. I did perform the holy kickstand ritual before the ride just in case.

The route I planned took us through Bordentown. There was a flock of vultures on top of a school watching us go by which was another ominous sign but none of the streets we took were blocked by the 5k and traffic was lighter than normal. We continued on down to Axe Factory Rd which has been closed for at least the last 5 years yet is the most passable closed road in NJ. The road itself is freshly paved and the only issue is a barrier across a bridge you can actual ride through if you are careful. I suspect the bridge itself is not safe for cars which is why it is closed and assume the state has no plans to fix it ever.

After passing through Columbus we made our way to Vincetown along the way there were a couple of strip brakes as the weather warmed from 50 to 60 degrees very quickly. In Vincetown I by passed our first Wawa but stopped at a park for a bathroom break as I knew the Wawa in Browns Mill doesn't let us use their bathroom.

We maintain a quick pace as we made our way through the pinelands and to our rest stop in Browns Mill. This is not one of the nicer Wawa and is in need of an update but it is in a convenient location. There were some kids out side the Wawa getting donation for their sports facility so we threw a few dollars their way while we were there.

I took a different way back and went around the south side of the lake to add a few miles. This gave us a better view of the lake as well as took us past some active firing ranges of Fort Dix. The wind had picked up a little and was at our back so we formed a pace line an cracked up to Cookstown at 20mps+. I almost lost the group as they got ahead of me and missed the turn in Cookstown.

The wind continue to push us back for the last 10 miles and we ended up coming in at a 16.7 pace which on the fast side. The good weather, favorable winds and lack of any problems with the ride make this great ride.

Supermoon

If you have listened to the news this past week in between talk about the election results you might have seen something about a supermoon. The news describes it as the closest moon in the last 69 years which is not exactly correct and miss leads the public. This and other recent issues gives me less confidence in the news media in general.  If you want a complete description of what a supermoon is and why this one is special check out the article on space.com  However the simple explanation is that a supermoon is when the full moon appears near it perigee (the closest point in its orbit). So the special thing about this FULL moon is that it becomes full closer to it perigee than any other full moon has since 1948. It is a little bigger and brighter than normal but unless you have a way to accurately measure the size and brightness of the moon it is really not noticeable to the naked eye.

It did give me an excuse though to try and take some pictures of the moon on Sunday night. At 8 pm the moon peaked up above the trees in my backyard so I took out the telescope and found the moon. I hooked up my iPod touch to the eye piece with my home made holder and took a bunch of photos. The moon is really bright when viewed in a telescope so you have to try a lot of different exposure levels to get a picture that is sharp and shows some details. You also need a little luck to capture the picture during moments of calm in the atmosphere. Out of about 30 photo I got 3 or 4 decent ones.

I am still learning how to use the iPod touch to take photos so should be able to get some even better photos the next time there is a supermoon which is actually next month although it will be slightly smaller than this months.

ROOVA Farms

It seems like every fall when the weather gets colder and I'm looking for a long but easy ride I head to Rova Farms. From Mercer County Park it ends up being a 55 mile ride that has a few rolling hills but nothing that would qualify as a real climb.It is also very simple route with not a lot of turns so its easy to lead.

I rode in from my house and met Jack along the way as he was warming before the ride. At the park Andrew, Raj, Peter, and new Jeff were waiting. It was about 40 degrees but sunny as we left the park and headed across 130 in to the edge of the Assumpink. It must of been the start of one of the hunting seasons because the park was packed with pick up trunks and people with guns. We even heard a few gun shots as we left the park. 

We then took Rue Road down to Imlaystown on our way to Jackson township and our rest stop in Cassville at a gift shop/deli. Because if was still cold we didn't stop long and within 10 mins were were back on the road.

The main visible feature of  Rova farms is St Vladimir's church with it large mosaic on the front. This area use to be a very popular Russian resort from the 1930s to the 1970s with people coming from NY and Philadelphia to rent the vacation cottages here. Most of the homes are now full time residences and besides the churches most of features of Rova that made it Russian are now gone.

As we headed back to Mercer we ran into Neil and Mark in Turkey Swamp and stayed with them for about 10 miles before going our separate ways. We kept up a brisk pace as we headed back. We ended up averaging just over 16 mph. I split off to go home just before the park and got back home before 1pm with 60 miles. It was an easy fast ride and a good change of pace after doing mostly hilly rides for the past few weeks.