Post Christmas Ride

After being rained out last weekend and this past Saturday it felt good to finally get a ride in. I sent out an email to a few of the regulars to meet at Etra and ride with team social security. It was a cold and cloudy day so I wasn't sure who was going to show up. Laura and Peter met me at my house for the ride over where we met Chris, Joe M, and a few others of team SS.

Joe ended up leading us on a long loop around Allentown. It was a standard ride on local roads that we have done many times before but it just felt good to catch up with people be on the bike again.

Although it can be fun to get together with family and celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Festivus, Make Up Your Mind Day or whatever holiday you celebrate it can also be very stressful. The wife and I do a lot of driving to visit both sets of relatives for Christmas so we are usually exhausted by the time we get home on Christmas day.

Monday's ride was a good way to destress and work off some of the Christmas cookies. I wanted to try and get 50 miles in so at the end of the ride I split off with Peter, Laura and Chris to added an extra 5 miles. I ended up with 48 miles and got home before the unexpected brief rain storm which was enough. I have the rest of the week off so hope to get a little more riding in if the weather is good enough.        

Code Blue

The city of Philadelphia declared a code blue on Saturday. That is when the wind chill is below 20 degrees and they open additional shelters to give homeless people the chance to get out of the cold.  This also meant that it was too cold to ride on the road so I went on Laura's ride along the Lawrence Hopewell Trail. 

Cold is a relative thing. At the start of the ride we had a surprise visit from Cheryl and who drove up with Dave C. Cheryl came up from Florida to surprise people at the PFW party on Saturday. To people who live below the mason-dixon line anything below 50 is cold. Here in NJ we don't start complaining about the cold until is gets below freezing. I have been following a person I met in Alaska who lives above the arctic circle and took the picture above. He doesn't consider it cold until it is below zero degrees fahrenheit. The picture is of methane bubbles frozen in a lake. The lake freezes from top to bottom and since the top freezes first the methane bubble from decomposition get stuck in the ice. As each layer freezes another set of methane bubbles is trapped. Its a beautiful scene but unless you don't mind a couple of months without the sun and can tolerate 20 to 30 degrees below zero it not a place you want to live. I will enjoy pictures like this from the warmth of my home.

Today's ride was the beginning of the winter riding season. We will try to be on the road when we can but when it gets close to freezing we still find ways to get out for a ride. The Lawrence Hopewell trail is a good choice for cold weather riding. The path is well maintained and a good part of it is in the woods so you get some breaks from the wind. 60% of the trail is paved and the rest is packed gravel so it is an easy surface to ride on with any bike with wide tires.The main problem with the trail is that it isn't really marked very well. If you don't know where you are going it is easy miss a turn and get off the trail. I have done the trail 6 times and got lost 4 of the 6 times.

We started from the parking lot by the corner of Princeton Pike and Provinceline Rd. Laura had a good turnout for a cold day. The first mile is on dirt through the woods before we hit a paved path thorough Lawrenceville and across 206 on our way to Mercer Meadows. This part was open and where we felt the wind as we made it to the high point of the ride that delineates the Delaware and Raritan watersheds.

From there we went around Rosedale Lake on our way towards Pennington. The Lawrence Hopewell Trail isn't completely finished and stops on Wargo Rd. I usually take Bayberry to ETS to pick the trail up again but Peter said they just completed another section of the trail so we headed up Pennington Rd to the new section which goes from Pennington Rd over towards Carter Rd. When the trail ended again we were on Carter Rd which some one suggested we take to Cleveland which we did. From there Laura wanted to go down Provinceline over the a new bridge. This part of Provinceline is closed to cars.

The bridge was pretty and gave us a good view of the river. This however required us to climb a short but steep hill then take a grass trail to get to ETS and back on the trail to our starting point. This was a good detour and it is good to see that they continue to add sections to the trail to complete it. This is an enjoyable ride on a cold day so we will probably do it again sometime this winter.

The Check List

I ended up doing Laura's ride to Upper Black Eddy this week and you can read the details about the ride Here and Here. At the beginning of the ride I lent Jim a water bottle because he had forgot his. This got us into a discussion about a check list. For the last 5 years I have used a paper check list to make sure I did not forget all the things I need for a ride. Since I have been using it I have never drove to a ride and not have everything I need. Now as important as having a check list is learning to use it the correct way. What I do is before I leave my house I take out the paper check list and for each item on the list visually check that it is in my car. This insures that everything I need is actually in my car because if you just mentally go through a check list with out actually checking the item is in the car you are going to THINK you have something when you actually don't.

This is a similar methodology to check lists used by pilots Of course forgetting your water bottle for a ride is not as tragic as a plane crashing because the pilot for got to deploy the flaps but there is no reason to not use a simple check list to make sure you always have all your stuff. 

Here is my list. I don't always need everything on this list (e.g. Jacket) but this way I don't need different lists for different times of the year.

• Shoes
• Camelback
• Helmet
• Sun glasses
• Gloves
• Snacks
• Bagel
• Water Bottle
• Paper Towel
• GPS
• Maps
• Jacket
• Arm Warmers 
• Shoe Covers
• Ride sheet
• Pump up Tire
• Sunscreen
• Tail Light

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.      

Bike Nivana

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The Bicycle Club of Philadelphia (BCP) Fall Foliage bike weekend is consistently one of the best bicycle experiences there is. I have done this trip two times before and wrote about it HERE and HERE If you like to ride a bike and be around other bikers then this is a trip to bike nirvana.

The BCP has been doing this trip for many years and have created a perfect combination of roads, accommodations and programs to satisfy any biker. In concept the trip is simple. They rent all the rooms in Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn, they provide cue sheets for 50 different rides from 15 to 100 miles, they provide all the meals and snacks you could want but most importantly they provide an atmosphere for bikers to gather and have fun.

The main difference between the BCP bike weekend and other bike trips or events, like Bike Virginia, is that instead of the focus of the event being a set of routes to ride the focus of the BCP bike weekend is providing the resources for the bikers that come here to explore the area by bike any way they want. This provides a more open ended experience that is easier for each person to tailor to fit the experience they want to have.

This year I got Jim, Jack and Dorthy to join me for the trip. When we got there on Friday afternoon. We meet Al in the parking lot. After changing into our bike cloths we took off for a 30 mile ride to the town of New Oxford. This is a ride I have done before but it is a scenic rolling route with a good rest stop with home made doughnuts and pastries. I felt a little slow but attributed that to being stiff from the 3 hour car trip. I also find it hard to start a ride in the middle of the day.

When we got back the 200+ bikers that were filling up the hotels. My friend Tim from Kentucky and one of his friends had decided to come to this trip so I talked to him and made plans to meet him for dinner. The Friday dinner was much better this year. Instead of a pot luck meal it was a catered meal in the hotel conference room of ziti, eggplant, salads and assorted side dishes. They set up tables so we could sit down and socialize as we were eating. As is usual this provides a great way for everybody to talk and get to know each other. It was great exchanging stories with people I don't know but share a passion with.

The hardest part of this weekend is deciding what rides to do as there are so many choices. You can just choose a route from one of the ride sheets provided or go on one of the rides that are lead by members of the BCP. For people who don't know the area or don't normally go out on their own this can be a little intimidating but since most of the people on this trip had done it many times it easy to get advice or find people to follow no matter what kind of riding you want to do.

Since I had been out here before I decided to help by leading a ride on Saturday to Westminister MD. I made the ride sound a little faster and harder than it was going to be. Its not that I wanted to scare people off the ride but I wanted to make sure people would not get on a ride that was over their ability and not have a good experience.

So Saturday morning I was out in front of the hotel looking for people who wanted to join my ride. I ended up a small group of mostly PFW people (Jack, Jim, John, and Al) my friend Tim and this guy West from BCP. It was around 45 degrees when we started but sunny when we started. After going through the town by the hotel we headed south and into the hills. The first main climb was past a reservoir before continuing on into endless farmlands.

It is probably peak fall season here so it was a very scenic ride. The roads were mostly traffic free and in decent shape. This terrain was hilly. There was no real long climbs but there were no flat spots and although the climbs were short that were steeper than expected. The profile for the ride has shown the climbs in the 6-8 percent range but they ended up being in the 10-12 percent range. None of them were long or hard but I'm glad I brought my Synapse. There were some epic down hills that were not only fast but had just enough curves to make them fun with out being too dangerous (Although Jack might disagree). I hit over 40 mph a couple of times as we wound our way to Westminister.

The town of Westminister is a old college town that ended up having a great little bakery that must be the hot spot in town based on the line at the counter. They had some really unique pastries as I got a piece of monkey bread. I'm not sure what is was exactly except delicious.

The ride back was almost as hilly as the ride out with one longish climb. As we stopped and gathered at the top we all whipped our GPSes to compare sizes, I mean total climbing distance. We had between 3400 to 3800 ft of climbing so far with 15 miles to go. The total for the whole ride was suppose to be 3180 so as my legs were telling me this was a harder ride than was advertised.

The last miles were more down hill than up hill but the little bumps were steep and we were all glad to be back. The ride was beautiful and Westminister is a cool town to visit so I accepted the post ride cramping as payment for a good ride.

Saturday night we went to a convention hall in Hanover for a buffet meal. There was more good conversation and good food.

My original plan for Sunday was to head to Loganville where they had a good farm market but that was more hills than any of us wanted to do. I spent time Saturday night modifying a route to the Gettysburg battlefield from the hotel. It would be a less than half the climbing with did on Saturday with nothing over 6 percent. It would also give Jim and Jack a chance to see Gettysburg.

Sunday morning was a warm 60 degrees and sunny. It felt like early June and I was able to ride in a short sleeve jersey with out tights. I was a little stiff at the start and could feel the tightness in my legs but once we got rolling I was not worried about not being able to finish the ride. The route to Gettysburg was rolling but much easier then Saturday. I could feel the miles of the last two days so was taking it easy by downshifting quicker and spinning more than I usual do. The only real climb was up little round top which gave us a view of the battle field and its many monuments.

We then took a brief tour around the rest of the park with a stop at the Pennsylvania monument before heading into town for a rest stop.

After the break is was an easy ride back to the hotel. This really is beautiful country to ride in and like the last two time out here I wish I could spend more time here instead of heading back to the real world.

As always this was a great weekend. Linda and the rest of the BCP team really know how to make a hassle free trip. The best part was spending extra time with people I normally bike with and being able dedicate a full weekend to all things biking. We are already talking about doing this trip again next year and even doing the BCP spring trip to Danville. So although I may no longer be in bike nirvana I know I will visit again soon.

Fall Colors

For the third time in four weeks we had rain for part of the weekend. I had planned a fall foliage ride for Saturday but wind and rain made me move the ride to Sunday. I posted the ride on the blog and sent out an email to the usually crew but for one reason or another most of the crew could not make it so only Laura was able to join me.

Sunday was sunny but still very windy. When I got to Bulls Island the front parking lot was full as today was the annual Bucks County Covered Bridge ride. This was the second week in a row that there was a crowd where I wasn't expecting it. The plan was to head through Doylestown to Peace Valley. We did this route which is a keeper.

As we crossed the bridge to the PA side the fall foliage was in full bloom. We stopped for photos on the bridge and noticed how much the bridge was swaying in the wind. Then it was more pretty foliage as we went up Flecy Dale. Then uphill to  and through Doylestown and  more uphill to the top of Peace Valley.

I think the hills felt harder than they were because of the wind which was hitting us from the front and side. At Peace Valley we hopped on the bike path for a ride around the Lake stopping for a couple of more pictures.

The best view was from the dam looking towards the boats on the far shore. I zoomed to get a better picture but it didn't have enough zoom to get a good shot.

So we rode over and I got a close up shot of the bright red tree. which was not as bright close up as it was from the dam

From there It was our steepest climb of the day as we headed toward Perkasie. I didn't take the usual route which requires short climb up a 20% grade but instead explored some new roads which turned out to be traffic free and scenic. As we got into Perkasie we rain into a crowd of bikers on the Covered Bridge ride.  We took a break, in town, at the Down to Earth Cafe which is a hipster wana be place with decent food.

The ride back was easier after we shook off the Covered Bridge riders who seem to be stopping at inconvenient places along the road. There were still a few hills on the way back but we had a tail wind pushing us along.

As we road along the farmlands the sky and clouds really stood out so we stopped for a couple of pictures but still didn't capture what it really looked like.

The last part of the ride was back down Flecy Dale which is one of the prettiest roads especially in the fall so we took a few more pictures before finishing the ride.

This route felt a lot hillier than the 2400 feet that ridewithgps said we went. It was probably wind that make it feel harder but it was a scenic ride so this will be on the calendar next fall. I hope I can get some more people to join me next time.

Unexpected Traffic

If you want some quiet flat roads to ride in the pinelands then you can head towards Chatsworth NJ... unless it is the third weekend in October since the town hosts one of the largest cranberry festivals in NJ that weekend. This was a fact that I was not aware of when Laura asked me for a route from Mansfield for her Saturday ride. I gave her a route we did back in July when it was 90 +. After looking over the route I made a couple of tweaks one to check out Chatworths lake and two to shorten the ride a little.

After 3 weekends of riding in or with the threat of rain we had a sunny forecast. It was a cold 45 degrees but was going to warm up quick.  Laura had a good group of people show up including one new face. Since the last time we did a ride out of here we had a crash I did the holy kickstand thing. I don't know if it helps but it can't hurt. I decided to try out the new bike trail in the park to get to Island Rd. It was wide nicely paved and cuts out half of the bumpy Island Rd so I would use it again the next time I'm down this way.

I decided not to wear a jacket so for the first 10 miles it was a little cold. We maintained a good pace as we wound through Browns Mill and on to Lebanon State forest. After a quick break at the ranger station we headed towards Chatsworth. As we headed down towards town I thought it must be garage sale day for the town since there were a lot houses with stuff for sale in their driveways.

As we got closer to town there was more and more traffic. It became obvious that some kind of festival was going on. There were cars parked along the road a least a mile from town and the road had bumper to bumper traffic. There had to be a least 10,000 people walking around the different tents and food stand set up. It took us 10 minutes to get through the middle of town and back to riding again.

Nine miles later we were at Nixons General store. There was a dog rescue charity selling food so I bought a brownie from them which was really good.

From Nixons we made our way through Vincetown as we headed our way back to Mansfield. Along the way Jim's chain started skipping so we stopped and found that one of the follow wheels on his derailleur was stuck. A loosing of the screw of the wheel fixed the problem but as Jim found out later the bearings on the follow wheels were totally shot.  

Regardless of the traffic in Chatsworth or the slight derailleur problem it ended up being a good ride as we got in 62 miles at a 16.8 pace. 

Rare Midweek Ride

I had planned to take a vacation day today to volunteer for some work down at our condo but that got reschedule so I decided to go for a ride since I got rained out this past weekend. I got Jack to join me and we did this route from Griggstown to Whitehouse Station and back.

I wanted to do this ride to get some hill work in since I have been doing flat rides for the past few weeks. It was a cool and foggy at the start and with the leaves turning there is no doubt that fall is here.

Customer Support

There is nothing more frustrating then having to deal with a customer support department when something you own breaks down and you needs to be repaired. The internet has made it easier to get answers to questions and fix simple problems but there are times when you need to make human contact to get a problem resolve.

Over 9 months ago the buttons on our 3 year old Samsung refrigerator stopped working. The problem didn't affect the operation of the refrigerator it just meant we could not switch between ice or water or change any other setting on the refrigerator. It took two repairmen 4 visits over 4 months to diagnose the problem which turned out to be a broken wire in the top of the door. The reason it took so long to find the problem was that is was hard to find a repairmen for a Samsung refrigerator. We have a repairman who we usually call but he could not find enough technical information to do the repair so after replacing a couple of boards he had to give up. We of course called Samsung. At first they said they would send us the name of a repairman to contact but after two weeks we hadn't heard from them we called them back and they told us there were no Samsung repairmen in our area.

A call to another Samsung number finally got us a number of a repairman who was pretty good but still took two more visit to find the broken wire. You would think that fixing a broken wire would be easy however the wire broke about 6 inches below the top of the door inside channel that was inaccessible. What was even worst was there was no way to get to the inside of the door and replace the wiring harness. The only way to fix the broken wire was to replace the entire door. At $300 + for a new door I was a little reluctant to replace it but that would be cheaper then a new refrigerator.

Three weeks after ordering the door I called the repair place to ask when the door would be in I was told that it was not just out of stock but was no longer available. This meant that there was no way to fix the broken wire. I did a bunch of online searches to try to track down a new door and found a few only to be told a few day later each time that what was shown in stock was actually not available.

Samsung customer support was also totally useless. Every time we contacted them they would send us to the same part site which clearly showed the part was no long available. When I responded to the email telling them that the part was no longer available I got response telling me they were sorry for the problem with not having to part then sent me the same form letter directing back to the same site that I told them didn't have the part.

In a desperate attempt to get some one to realize that not having parts for a 3 year old refrigerator did not inspire confidence in the Samsung brand I searched for the contact in the customer complaint department and sent out a messages to every address I could find.  Most of them came back with the same form letter I got customer support with a link to the useless parts site. However one of the messages I sent actually got a response from a real person in North Jersey that wanted more details about the problem. Once I explained the details of what the problem was and the fact that I could not get a part for a 3 year old Samsung product she was very apologetic and promised to look into it see if she could resolve the issue. I expected wait weeks to get a response but a few days later she confirmed that the part was no longer available said that she would look into getting me some kind of refund on the refrigerator even though it was out of warranty.

I sent her some paperwork on the price I paid for the refrigerator and where I got it and was told I would get some kind of refund. I expected to get some prorated amount based on what I paid and if lucky figured I would get half the original price back. I was then surprised to find that Samsung offered me a full refund of the price I paid for the refrigerator. So although the whole process was a perfect example of how horrible most customer support is, it proved that if you are persistent, I mean really persistent you might get some satisfaction out of the process. I am not happy at the design or repair-ability of Samsung appliances but have to appreciate the way they stood behind the product and provided a full refund when they really didn't have to.

We are using the refund to replace the refrigerator with a brand that won't be a Samsung. They make great TVs but I'm going to stay away from their appliances. Appliance today don't seem to be any more reliable than they were 20 years ago and they are more sophisticated  which means a lot more things can go wrong. I have an old Amana refrigerator in my garage we use during holidays that is 40 years old and still works. It even has a built in AM/FM cassette player.  They just don't make them like they use to.

Delicious Orchard

Some rides are scenic rides others are destination rides. My ride this week was a destination ride to Delicious Orchards. Delicious Orchards is one of the best farm market/baked goods place in NJ so if  you want to indulge in fried apple fritters or some large danishes this is the place to go. There is nothing particularly bad about the roads getting there or back its just that they are not especially scenic.  Riding out this way means you have to deal with some traffic in spots and some days are worst than others. I try to keep to quiet back roads but as this area has continued to be built up that is getting a little harder.

Jim and Laura joined me at my house and we road into Etra Park where we picked up John and Peter. I would of had more people except for the fact that is was misting out. The forecast had called for cloudy with zero chance of rain so I thought that it would clear up as we rode east. We did this route which has parts of our normal Belmar and Sandy Hook rides. The rain persisted and we went in and out of heavy misting rain. It wasn't cold but it wasn't really warm either so I'm glad I decided to put the arm warmers on.

By the time we got to Delicious Orchards the rain had stopped but still no sun. The problem with stopping here is that there are so many good things to eat here it is hard to choose. I grabbed an large apple cinnamon danish which I didn't think I 'd finish but as soon as I tasted it I could stop eating it. (Peter actually bought and ate 2 of them). Jim had the fried apple fritters. Luckily nobody had panniers so we could not bring more junk food home.

The ride back home was dry but still cool and cloudy. We made our way through Freehold then back to Etra Park where we finally saw some blue sky and the sun. I got this picture of Laura taking a picture of the clouds. If you check out Jim's blog you will see a picture of me taking a picture. This is just part of the stupid stuff we do on our rides.

By the time I got back to my house I had 62 miles. Even though we got a little wet it still was an enjoyable ride. Now that it is autumn and the weather is turning colder it is important to get long rides like this in when you can.

The Inside Passage

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The south east coast of Alaska is series of bays, islands, straits and channels all surrounded by high mountains. Its a beautiful area to cruise around no matter what the weather is. The last stop for our cruise was in the town of Ketchikan. This is one of the wettest places on earth and gets over 150 inches a rain a year on average. We had been really luck with the weather for our trip. Although we had some clouds in Skagway and Hoonah with a brief light shower we really had not seen any rain for the entire trip which is very unusual for this part of Alaska since it is a temperate rain forest. In Ketchikan we finally got some real rain for most of the day which seemed appropriate. They call it liquid sunshine here as a way to rationalize the fact that it rains 80% of the time.

The rain really didn't stop us from exploring the town as we had brought rain gear with us for just this occasion. We spend some time checking out the stores here as we had done in some of the other ports. Since it was the end of the season everything was half off or more so I picked up some nice T-shirts and sweatshirts.

Since we had been to Ketchikan before we had done most of the activities we wanted to do last time and didn't have any concrete plans for the day. We ended up checking out the lumber jack show in town as a fun way to waste a hour.

It was actually very entertaining as the people in the show were professional lumberjacks and showed us why this is an actual sport. It was really pouring rain during the show but it didn't seem to matter to lumberjacks. Luckily we were in the stands under a roof.

The last day of the cruise was spent coming down the inside passage. This is a channel along the Canadian coast that gets you into Vancouver. Its is very scenic and was a good way to finally relax and wind down after 2 weeks of active vacationing. It felt strange to have a day with almost nothing to do. I did actually walked around the ship and tryed out the rock wall. I always wanted to climb one and it ended up being easier than I thought.

Besides packing for the trip home we mostly sat on our balcony and watched the world go by. The scenery was as good as it had been for most of our trip. We even had some sun glinting off the water at strange angles that made it seem like there were thousands of flashbulbs going off under the waves. I took a video of it but really didn't capture what it really felt like.

It was a quiet day just watching the mountains and other ships go by. After 2 weeks with out any real internet or phone access it was easy to relax and not get distracted by anything. The day cruising gave me time to process all we had done and seen. I don't think I have even see and experience so many amazing things in such short a period of time. When we started planing this vacation 10 months ago we hoped it would be as good as our last vacation in Alaska. Now that the vacation is over I can say this vacation exceeded our expectations and confirmed our belief that Alaska is one of the most beautiful and unique places you can visit. I can't quite explain to people why it is so special. Yes it has some amazing scenery and wildlife and yes it has a certain appeal because it is a somewhat untamed and uncivilized place but there is something more to it than that. There is a certain energy and openness to this land that seems to pull you in makes you want to explore it all.

I don't know if or when we will be back to Alaska but there are 4 or 5 more things we want to see and do, so I expect another trip here is in our distance future. Alaska is not the easiest place to vacation and it lacks some of the basic luxuries of normal society but if you have an adventurous spirit and enjoy the great outdoors this is one place you have to visit at least once in your life.

  

Bruce the Moose Gave Lorrie a Smooch

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If you are even near Skagway Alaska you need to go to the Kroschel Wildlife Center. Its more an interactive animal experience than a zoo and the owner Steve Kroschel is an entertaining and eccentric guide to this unique animal habitat. There are a couple of unique animals here that you probably can't see any where else. Alaska is more lax with laws protecting you from animals so you will be able to get closer to these animals than you could anywhere else.

Steve Kroschel is well regarded wildlife film maker and has created some award winning films for PBS. He is also one of the main sources of snow and avalanche scenes in movies. He has been on a number of talk shows with his animals and was a favorite of Johnny Carson. His wildlife rescue center in Haines Alaska is clearly his passion and the orphan animals he recuses he treats as his family.

After a ferry ride from Skagway to Haines followed by a bus ride we arrived at a remove driveway in the middle of nowhere. A women meet us at the bus and told us about the refuge as we walked up the hill. In the background we saw a man running through the woods making some crazing chirping sounds. When we arrived at pen in enclosure there was Steve standing next to a wolf who was nipping at him like a friendly dog.

He told us a lot of interesting information about the wolf and made it pose for some photos. He then had us howl at the wolf until it howled back then ran off to the woods again as his assistant took us to the main compound.

The main compound has a series of pens and what can be best described as outdoor stages that are used to show the animals. Each pen and stage is made in such a way that if you take photos from a certain points it looks like the animals are in the wild in their natural environment. This is one reason Steve gets a lot of visits from film makers looking to get shots of animals. Instead of spending days in the wild hoping to get the shot they need they can just come to the wildlife refuge.

In the main compound we got to see and pet a fox and arctic fox. He also when into a pen and picked up a sleeping Lynx. He must have a good relation with it to wake it up and give it a stretch.

Steve also brought out a wolverine on a lease. If you ever see a wolverine in the wild you are probably seconds from dying as these small animals are known for their ferocity and strength. Wolverines can easily kill a full size moose. They are very intelligent and are one of the few animals that can kill a porcupine without getting stung by its needles (it does this by quickly biting its face off).  

Speaking of porcupines he brought one out for us to see and pet. It was pretty dam cute until he explained that if you get a needle in you it can't just be pulled out but will burrow into your skin until it comes out some where else or kills you. There have been cases where people died from a needle that pierced their skin and then months later pierced one of their vital organs.

We keep walking uphill until be got to one of the larger areas that contained a couple of caribou. The assistant brought out one of the baby caribou that we could pet and feed. Caribou's have really soft fur.

Then we got to kiss the moose.

Steve brought out a bucket of large carrots and feed them to a moose in a pen through an open door. Then he asked people to put the carrot in their mouth and let the moose take it from them. It was a little scary to be that close to a moose because in the wild they are very mean and will charge and kick people to death with out any warning. They are actually more dangerous to encounter in the wild than grizzly bears.

This one however was well trained. After we saw how easy it was everybody wanted to do it. My wife was real excited about doing it and I got a great shot of it. I did it too because how many times are you going to be able to kiss a moose. In case you are curious I will say the moose was gentle and had really soft lips so I won't mind a second date.

After the moose encounter we headed back down hill. We hear the wolf howling call us, he new pack, so we all howled back at him. Steve asked us to say "he kitty, kitty, kitty" and we did expecting some type of cat but instead a grizzly bear ran out from the woods. It was behind a wire fence so we were not in any danger but it is still scary to see a grizzly bear running towards you. It was feeding time so they feed the bear, who's name is kitty, some blueberry pie and salmon. Bears it turns out are picky eaters. They love salmon of course but only like the good salmon like king and sockeye and won't eat the chum salmon which is the worst tasting of the salmon.

During the entire visit Steve was constantly making chirping, moaning or other weird sounds as he handled the animals. He even kissed the wolverine. He is a strange man with some eccentric new age ideas but he was also very charming and you can't visit this place and not want to help him preserve these animals and the wilderness they live in. It was a really fun experience.

After our visit ended we got back on the bus to the ferry and then back to the cruise ship. Although it was an hour and a half ride to get to the wildlife refuge and back the bus driver and ferry operator kept us entertained with stories about the area and a description of the land around us.This was true of all our transportation for all our tours. The rides never seemed long because of the scenery and the skill in all our tour guides in sharing their knowledge and experience of Alaska.

The day after Skagway we were in Hoonah Alaska which is a town owned by one of the native Tlingit tribes. Originally this town was a fishing village that was used by the tribe to gather the many salmon in the area. I was hoping for some interesting history of the native culture here but what we found was more a shopping village with some outdoor amusements like a zip line. It was about as authentic as the Indian casino in Connecticut. It was still a cool place to walk around.

We also ended up doing another whale watching trip and saw more orcas. This time I tried to get a video of them to try and capture more of what it feels like to be so close to them.

I also learned there are two types of orcas resident and transient. The resident ones live in the same are and don't migrate. They eat only fish, mostly salmon. The transient orcas migrate to find food and only eat other mammals like seals and humpback whales. This is where the term killer whale comes from. They also travel in large packs that hunt together.  The ones we saw today were transient ones as there were a lot of them and the guide says that they don't see them that often in this area. This is one of the reasons we did see any humpback whales since they were hiding.

Seeing whales no matter what type they are is a surreal experience and makes you appreciate these great animals a lot more than seeing them in an aquarium. 

Glacier Explorations

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If you go to Alaska you will see a lot of glaciers. You almost can't look at a mountain in any part of the state and not see two or three of them. They are all slightly different and unique in their own way so even though you may think you would get glacier fatigue after seeing 20 or 30 of them the truth is seeing the 30th one is almost as cool as seeing the first one.

After spending seven days exploring the interior of Alaska we flew from Fairbanks to Anchorage to get on a cruise ship and explore the southeast part of the state. Most of the cities in this part of the state are not accessible by road so the only way to get to them is by sea or air so cruising is the best way to get to tour these cities and see the natural wonders along the coast.

The first day on the cruise ship was a leisurely cruise into Disenchantment Bay which is home to the Hubbard glacier. It was good to have a quiet easy day like this after our first hectic 7 days. The Hubbard glacier is 6 miles wide and over 700 feet high. The mountains behind it are 8,000 to 10,000 feet high so it is really hard to appreciate the true size of this thing unless you are there. The ice that forms the glacier start as snow on the mountain tops 122 miles away and takes about 450 years to move down the slopes to the bay. This is one of the few glaciers that is growing and as the ship got closer you could hear it move. It sounded like small claps of thunder. The last time where were here is was pouring rain and cold. Today was yet another perfect sunny day so we stood up on deck as the ship hovered need the glacier.

Today there was a lot of calving and we saw a lot of big chunks of the glacier fall off and splash in the water. The sound of the tons of ice hitting the water sounded Thor's hammer as it had a loud thunderous sound.

We spend about an hour an a half at the glacier then cruised out of the bay towards Juneau. 

The next day Juneau we had scheduled two tours. The first one was a hovercraft ride to a glacier. This was a lot of fun. We took a high speed ferry from Juneau to Taku bay then got on to hovercrafts to go to the Taku glacier. The weather was sunny and calm so the water of the bay was glass smooth which was perfect for the 6 person hovercrafts.

The reason they use hovercrafts to get to this glacier is because this particular glacier is slowly growing and mowing down a forest and wet land. In the process it is pushing a lot of silt that is coming out of the glaciers into mud banks and sand piles. The hovercrafts can go over the water and mud banks and get you right to the base of the glacier.

Taku glacier is 5 miles wide and about 200 feet high. This glacier is also growing but unlike the Hubbard glacier this one is pushing dirt, sand and rock ahead of it and not just falling into the bay. This means that in front of the glacier there is a little island and sand pile to view the glacier from.

After parking the hovercrafts on the mud bank we climbed one of the large sand piles to get a closer look at the glacier.

This gave us an up close look at the glacier and we even got to walk on part of it. This glacier is very dirty since it is pushing down trees and rocks as it comes down the slopes from the Juneau ice fields. It also had some cool cracks in it that let you look deep into it so you could see some really deep blue ice.

As the snow gets compressed to ice as it travels down the mountain over 400 years, more and more of the air gets compressed out of the ice and it goes from white to clear to blue.

We spend an hour exploring the glacier. While we were doing this one of the drivers of the hovercraft was panning for gold in the run off from the glacier and actually found a few flakes.

It turns out one of the more popular hobbies in Alaska is panning for gold. The average pannier make about $3200 a year. It does take a lot of knowledge and patience to find gold but I guess it can be a hobby that actually makes money.

After the Taku glacier trip we decided to do a evening whale watching cruise. The last time we were in Juneau we saw a lot of different whales which was really awe inspiring. We also saw some whales this time mostly Orcas.

But it was hard to anticipate where the would surface it was not easy to get a good picture. It was still a cool experience. The scenery was also amazing especially towards sunset.

So although it was another long day we were glad we took advantage of the many things to do in Juneau.

Life Above the Arctic Circle

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Less than 1/10th of 1% of people who travel to Alaska go above the arctic circle. There are a lot of good reasons for this. First its very hard to get above the arctic circle. There is a road that will take you there but is a dangerous gravel packed road meant for trucks. Car rental companies will not let you drive their cars on this road so you have to rent special SUVs at high prices. The other option is flying but that is expensive too. There are also not many services like food and hotels above the arctic circle so getting basic food and shelter is a major hassle. Lastly there are no real tourist attractions to visit or things to do so there is no real reason to go north of the 66.33 latitude that marks the arctic circle. However if you are not deterred by the hassle and rustic conditions and have an adventurous spirit traveling above the arctic circle can be a transformational experience. 

As part of exploring Alaska we wanted to go to the northern most point because we had met people who had done it and that couldn't stop talking about how cool it was. This is not something that is easy to arrange on your own so we found a tour from the Northern Alaska Tour company that would take us on a 3 day tour above the arctic circle. The first day we would fly from Fairbanks to Barrow Alaska, the northern most town in the US. We would then fly to Prudhoe Bay for an overnight stay in an oil workers camp. Days 2 and 3 would be spent driving down the 520 mile Dalton Highway back to Fairbanks with a lot of interesting stops along the way.

Weather was warm and sunny which was good since bad weather may have cancel the trip. It also gave us some great views of the mountains and terrain as we headed north.It was an early 7am start as we took a small 9 passenger Piper Navajo up to Barrow. Because of the distance, the plane had to make a pit stop in Coldfoot to refuel and to let us off for a bathroom break.  Coldfoot is in a valley in the Brooks range of mountains and is very scenic.

It clouded up as we got near Barrow so the pilot had to make and instrument approach to the runway. It had been about 60 degrees as we left Coldfoot but was 35 when we landed in Barrow so I put on the extra sweatshirt and a jacket as we waited for a van to arrive to take us on a tour of Barrow.

Barrow was a lot bigger than I expected it to be. I thought it would be a small native fishing village but it is a town of over 4000 people with a hotel, supermarket, 2 year college, and museum. Its still a desolate place as all the roads are dirt and gravel because you can't build on the permafrost since it is constantly heaving and shifting.

New structures are built on pilings that are sunk deep into the permafrost but the older homes lie on blocks or skids on the ground and occasionally need to be re-leveled. The people of Barrow don't care about how the outside of there house looks and are proud of that fact so things are strewn around the yards. Its not a very pretty place at all. Even the beach is more gravel than sand.

If you come to Barrow one of the things people must do is to stick there hand or foot in the Arctic Ocean. Some people go so far as to strip to a bathing suite and jump in. At 33 degrees I was content just to stick my hand in.

Because there are no roads leading to Barrow every thing that comes here has to come by air or by barge in the summer. So everything is 2 to 3 times more expensive hear. Some prices are even worst than that. For example a half of water melon was 42 dollars.

Most of the people of Barrow still lead a subsistence life style. They still hunt whales here and the town has a quota that is used by the people to feed themselves. That is one of the reasons that the beaches contain some of whale bones.

In fact one of the most famous pictures from Barrow is an arch of whale bones with examples of some boats they use to use for the hunt.

After a 3 hour tour of Barrow we left by our little plane again for an hour flight to Prudhoe Bay and the town of Deadhorse.

Prudhoe Bay is the where the northern Alaska oil fields are and one of the chief sources of income for the state. The place is an apocalyptic industrial hellscape of warehouses, gravel roads, oil rigs, and thousand upon thousands pieces of heavy equipment surrounded by pristine arctic tundra.

There is no way to image what this place is like unless you have been here. The actual town is called Deadhorse and there are various stories about how it got its name. We did take a brief tour of the oil facilities and stopped at the general store which has everything from a Deadhorse coffee mugs to a hydraulic pump for a 100 ton crane used to move the oil derricks around.

We stayed for the night in a large double wide trailer that is used to house the oil workers. Each room has two twin beds with communal bathroom down the hall.

It felt like a juvenile detention facility. But the buffet dinner and breakfast in the trailer next store was surprisingly good.

 The next morning the nine of us that booked this tour got in a van and headed down the Dalton highway for our 2 day 520 mile ride back to Fairbanks. The highway is more of a wide gravel road and less of a real highway. The road is built on permafrost which is frozen wet dirt that is somewhere between 400 and 1500 feet deep so there is no way to get down to a solid surface to build a road. They actually put down 6 inch foam board then pile gravel on top of that to keep the heat of the road from melting the permafrost. Of course this doesn't work 100% so the road sinks into the permafrost and then just add more foam and gravel. The line of heavy trucks rolling over it doesn't help either. Then there is the fact that snow during the winter piles up against the road only to melt and wash out parts of it every spring.

It was a bumpy ride in the van but we had some Aussies with us that made the ride fun. I have yet to meet people from Australia who weren't friendly and knew how to have a good time no matter where they were.

It was a little cloudy and misting at the start of the ride and got a little foggy as we left the tundra and drove up into the Brooks mountain range.

 One we got over the Atigun pass however things started to clear up and the views really improved.

Then the sun came out and we could really see how beautiful this area really was.

After 10 or so hours we arrived at the only truck stop on the entire highway. We arrived back in Coldfoot for our second nights stay. Coldfoot is no more than a gas station, a couple of buildings a gravel airstrip and a couple double wide trails that they call a hotel. Our rooms were similar to the ones in Prudhoe bay except for the fact that we had a 3/4 bathroom in our room.

Dinner was again a buffet and very good. It was warm enough to eat on the porch and we were treated with a view of a full rainbow that was actual a double rainbow for a few minutes.

Despite the rustic conditions Coldfoot was one of the most scenic places I have ever been. It was just so quiet and peaceful that I could sit there for hours and stare at the mountains.

The next day we made a stop in the town of Wiseman which is just north of Coldfoot. Wiseman is an old gold mining camp that consist of a few dozen log cabins spread out across about 10 acres by a river. There is no more gold to be mined so the people that live here because they want living off the grid in a subsistence life style. There are a lot of those type of people in Alaska. The main person we talked to was Jack Reakoff who was born in Wiseman and chose to stay here. He is not your typical recluse who just wants to get away from society but a person who wants to live close to the land. You can tell he has a real respect for the animals he hunts and the forest he lives in. He is on the advisory board for Denali national park and helps them monitor the local wildlife and come up with ways to preserve it. He was really sharp and smarter than most professors that I have met. He even taught me a few things about the aurora and I'm and astronomy geek.

It must be an interesting life living in Wiseman but I can't image the winters here where temps get to 30 or 40 below and the sun doesn't shine for a couple of months. There is so much vacuum pressure from the heat rising in his cabin on a 40 degree below day that it sucks cold air though the walls even though the are sealed. To solve this Jack said that he piles snow up the sides of his log to insulate it. 

Wiseman is not totally off the grid they actually have a microwave tower that provides a hard line phone and a slow internet connection. They use solar panels to generate electricity for lights during the summer and generators during the winter when there is no sun. Electricity is used mostly for LED lighting and to charge their computers and cameras. The internet connection also allows then an easy way for people to contact them about tours and aurora viewing. There is no indoor plumbing though so some things about life here are stuck in the last century.

Besides living off the land Wiseman is famous for two things. First, part of the show Life Below Zero is shot here although it shows a very distorted view the actual lifestyle. On the show it implies that the person is hundreds of miles from civilization where as he is really only a half mile from the Dalton highway and 15 miles from Coldfoot. The second thing Wiseman is famous for is view the aurora. There is actual a hotel(i.e a nicer log cabin) where people stay during fall and spring to view the aurora. A few people like Jack act as there guides and earn a little extra money to help them buy the things they can't make.

After our tour of Wiseman is was back in the van for another 270 miles. The road was a little better and was actually paved in a few places which made the drive faster. At lunch time we stopped at an overlooked that actually marked the edge of the arctic circle as we crossed it going south. Besides having lunch we also all got our pictures taken in front of the sign.

Even though it was late August it was really fall up here so the leaves and tundra were changing colors and made the scenery more interesting.  The last main stop was at the Yukon river. Here I got a few close up pictures of the Trans Alaska Pipeline. This is the pipeline that carries oil from Prudhoe bay all that way to Valdez. This was the main reason the Dalton highway was built so it would be easier to get people and equipment to build the pipeline.

The pipeline is an eyesore on an otherwise pristine wilderness. The engineer in me marvels at the technical challenges that were required to build this pipeline and all the safety features they have built in. However the environmentalist in me hopes that the predictions that this pipeline will no longer be needed in 15 years comes true. You can read more details on the pipeline here

By the time we got back to Fairbanks we were really beat as we had been on the road for 12 hours. Our tour guide in the van and the people we were traveling with made the trip enjoyable. My wife really bonded with the Australian couple and their 30 year old daughter who were on a 9 week vacation. For some reason they had a constant stream of cross the road jokes going

Why did the caribou cross the road.....
   because he was afraid to go under the pipeline.

This joke is neither funny or good unless you were there but little things like this and the many interesting things we learned and saw made this grueling trip one of the coolest things I have ever done.

And it didn't really end there. All we wanted to do when we got back to the hotel was eat and go to bed but it turned out that the aurora was going to be strong tonight which is unusual this early in the year. So I got up a 1:30 am after a few hours of sleep and saw this.

It was just another amazing day in Alaska.