Indecision

I hate in-between weather because it makes it hard to decide what and where to ride. Saturday's forecast was for 35 degree weather will snow late in the day. It was going to be warmer Sunday but there might be snow on the ground and the roads so it might be hard to ride anywhere. I didn't see any posts or emails from anybody about rides. I wanted to get out on the road but Saturday would be too cold, for me, and Sunday might be too snowy. So I watched the weather and on Friday night decided not to decide until Saturday morning.

Saturday morning when I got up the forecast wasn't really any more definite. I know I wanted to do something so since it was too cold to do a road ride I headed to Washington Crossing state park with the mountain bike. The plan was to ride down the NJ of the canal path to Trenton since that is the only part of the trail that I haven't done yet. While I was approaching Washington Crossing I changed my mind and crossed the bridge to the PA side because when I looked at the map on Friday it looked like there were some interesting things down past Trenton on the PA side.

It was actually pretty sunny as I started south. The temperature was just around freezing. I thought that the path might be mushy and puddley because of the recent rain but it there were only a few spots I had to go around some water.

Just south of Yardley I ran into Jack and Dorthy on their morning walk and talked to them for a few minutes. I then continued on towards Trenton. The trail was in good shape most of the way and made for a nice ride but there was nothing really scenic along the way. When I got to the Trenton I took a picture of the crappy skyline of the capital.

I was planning on doing an out and back on the PA side but I realized I could cross over to Trenton and go back the NJ side. I cross over on the Trenton Makes bridge and then had to find the canal trail in Trenton. I did not have a map or GPS with me so I made a few wrong turns before stumbling into the canal.

The canal trail on this side of Trenton is OK but the architecture of the buildings on the canal is post 1960 semi flooded slum and I was happy to get out of the city. The trail was in decent shape and was not very wet so I made good time back towards Washington Crossing. There is not much to see here and I wouldn't ride this part of the trail for the scenery.

When I got back to the car it had warmed up more than I thought it would and was still sunny. I'm glad I got out and did what I did because it snowed just enough Saturday night to make riding on Sunday not possible.

Riding Through the Winter Weather

The past two weeks the weather has been just good enough to get a ride in. Last week it was 25 degrees and just over my minimum ride temperature. It was too cold and windy for a road ride so we rode the canal by Washington's Crossing. We went up the PA side and down the NJ side. The ground was mostly frozen but rutted from people riding after the preview rain so it was a little bumpy going over frozen tire tracks. The way back on the NJ size was mushier as the weather warmed up so was a little tougher ride. I was warm enough as long as I kept moving. The 21 miles we did was just enough to say I've got a ride in. The accumulation of sand and gravel dust turned to cement on the bike so cleaning up was a bit of a hassle.

This Saturday was warmer and good enough to get out on the road. There was a chance of rain in the forecast in the early afternoon but it look I would be able to get a ride in. I went on Tru's ride. Laura started with me from my house and we met the others at Etra. It was a big group which included Jim who is finally back on the bike after having bronchitis. It was good to see him again. We ended up doing a shorter ride than expected as Tru went from Etra to Princeton Junction and back. I didn't want to cross 130 again so I broke off on South Post Rd to head home after a brief stop at the rowing center.

I would have added a loop to do more miles but we went through a patch of rain and I was worried that more would follow. It turned out to be a good decision as it started raining about 20 mins after I got home.

Neither of these rides were great rides and as always at this point in the winter I have cabin fever and want to do more miles. There is only about a month left until the clocks change and things get warmer so although I am happy to get any riding in at this time of year I am looking forward to warmer weather.  

Super Blue Blood Moon

I don't consider myself a full blown astronomy geek but I do like to occasionally get out and observe some celestial phenomena.  This Wednesday was a lunar eclipse. I won't be able to see the whole eclipse since moon would set about 15 mins after the eclipse began but seeing the moon set during an eclipse might be interesting.

The press dubbed this eclipse the Super Blue Blood Moon which is such a misleading description that it might it gives people unrealistic expectation of what they will see. First a moon is called a blue moon when it is the second full moon during a single month. It has nothing to do with the actual color of the moon. The super part is equally misleading. A super moon is when the full moon occurs during the perigee (lowest point of the moon's orbit). However when the moon is at perigee it is less then 1% closer and there is no perceivable difference to the naked eye. Or as Neil Degrasse Tyson put it

"If last month’s Full Moon were a 16.0 inch pizza, then this month’s ‘Super’ Moon would be 16.1 inches. I’m just saying."

The blood red part is a reference to the color of the moon when it is full eclipse. Unlike the sun when the moon is eclipsed it is still visible because there is still light reflected from the edge of the earth atmosphere that can some times give it a slightly red ting but a lot depends on the amount and type of particles in the earths atmosphere.

To see the eclipse I got up a hour early and headed to the Mercer County park rowing center which has a good clear view of the western sky. When I got there I took a couple of pictures of the moon before the eclipse began. It was just above the electrical lines and was reflecting off the water which made for an interesting picture.

It was cold so I sat in the car and got out a few times to take some pictures. Right before the eclipse started I got a close up picture of the moon in the power lines.

I took all these picture with my good Canon camera on a tripod. The camera has a 12 X zoom which is just enough zoom to see some detail on the moon. The eclipse started a 6:48am with the moon setting at 7:01am so I would not see much of the eclipse and it might get lost in the clouds. I got lucky because it was a clear day. To get a better view of the horizon I moved from the lake to golf course and got the final pictures as the moon set. There was strip of clouds going across the bottom of the moon and you can just see the shadow of the earth starting across the moon on the top left. So although the moon was neither super blue or blood red it was still worth getting up early for.