The Cookie to Speed Ratio

I was able to get in a few rides in between Christmas and New Years. This is important because of all the extra food consumed during the Christmas festivities. I felt a little slower on the rides and attributed it to the extra cookies and chocolate that I have been consuming.

Last Wednesday I got Laura, Chris and Ken to join me on a canal ride from Washington Crossing. We went down the PA side. I wanted to head a little south of Morrisville and look for possible places to park as I want to do a ride all the way down to Bristol and that is too far south to do it from Washington Crossing.

It was a sunny day and around 40 degrees so it was not a problem staying warm. When we got down to Morrisville the trail got a little sketchy and we had to make a quick detour over a ditch and through a parking lot to get across Bridge street. The plan was to head south for 3 or 4 miles before turning around. Instead we ran into construction about a mile later.

It looks like they are building a tunnel through a hill. We then turned around and headed back. We crossed over the Trenton Makes bridge and headed back the NJ side. We ended up with just over 20 miles.

On Saturday I posted a ride out of Cranbury. It was 50 degrees and sunny so I expected a big crowd like I had last weekend. I only got 4 people to join, Jim, Ricky, Larry and Eric. There was a good stiff wind coming out of the west so I plan a north south route to stay out of the wind as much as possible.

For most of the way out we only had a cross wind or a good tail wind. As we wound our way through the Assunpink there seemed to be a lot of hunters in the woods searching for their New Years Eve dinner.

On the way towards Allentown we had a few wind in faces stretches and I knew there would be a few more after the stop.

We stopped at Woody's for our break and found a cool aero-recumbant on the side walk.

We all ogled over it. We also talked to the owner who had ridden to Allentown from the shore. Of course one of my question is how good was it into a head wind. He said head winds didn't affect it too much because it was low and had low wind resistance. It was a trike and weighed 65 pounds so its not climbing any hills.

It was only 16 miles back to Cranbury but we had two long stretches into the wind. I sucked a wheel as much as I could during these stretches as Eric, Jim, and Ricky seemed to have more left in the tank than I did.

Once we got back to Cranbury I put out some cookies so I could fatten up these fuckers. That way they would not only block the wind better but be easier to keep up with.

I'm thinking of instituting a new policy at the end of the ride that will require all riders to eat a certain amount of cookies or chocolate at the end of a ride based on how far ahead of me and/or how much faster they make it up the hills. I will call this new stat the Cookie to Speed Ratio. So if you come on my rides and push the pace I will increase you waist line according.

Laura, Jack and I did make in down to Bristol on a New Years eve day ride, as the picture up top shows. You can read the details here. Its not the most scenic ride but it was nice to see another another part of the trail. The town of Bristol looks interesting so it might make a good ride in the summer.

Lost in the Wind

Winter is officially here now so we won't have many weekends, in the next few months when we will be able to get out on the road. When I saw that this Saturday's would have temperatures hovering in the mid 40s I decided to list a ride out of MCP. Although the temperature was in the mid 40s, the wind was 20 mph+ from the west. Because of the wind I decided to head across Rt 1 instead of getting blown around in the open fields to the east. You can see the actual route we took here.

I had a couple of new roads I want to explore and thought this would be a good time to do it since I didn't expect many people on ride. I was wrong about that as I got my usual people along with some of the normal Cranbury B riders. We were 12 in total as we started off into the wind. The first new road was really a trail, the Trolley Line Trail. This trail goes from Penn-Lyle Rd to Rabbit Hill Rd. This gives me another way to get to Plainsboro from MCP. The trail was a well paved smooth trail. The trail goes through West Windsor Community part where it splits up into a couple of different loops. It took me a few loops to get back on the right path. There was a little grumbling from the group to get back to the roads but I eventually got them back on the fucking road.

We then went through Plainsboro on our way to the canal in Rocky Hill. With all the rain we had I was a little concerned that there would be some flooding by the canal but there was only a few puddle on the road.

Our stop was the Bagel Barn on 206.I have been here a lot over the last few months because of attending some of Jim's ride. Its a good place to stop but I was a little cold when we started the ride again. I didn't take the normal way back. Because of that and a gear problem one of the guys on the ride headed back on his own. The group headed west on 518 then down Cherry Hill Rd. There was a little more climbing than I had promised in the ride description but most people know not to trust me anyway.

We then made our way through the backside of Princeton on Terhune Rd to Snowden which is one of the less crowded roads through town. Getting across Rt 1 is always a problem. My preferred crossing are New Rd, College Rd, or Alexander Rd. I chose none of the above and instead crossed a Harrison. While it is true that Harrison does actually cross Rt 1 that doesn't mean you can't use it to do so. Let me explain.

The driveway to the old Sarnoff labs is just across Rt 1 from Harrison. If you are willing to go around a locked gate which is usually a requirement for one of my rides then you can get across Rt 1. I had actually done this a few weeks ago with Steve and wanted to come back with my regular crew to show them the abandon toxic dump Sarnoff had become. This is where TV was created and the place of a lot of leading edge research was done. Now most of it is go and only a few buildings are used. There is some environmental clean up going on so I didn't want to hang around the place to long.

From Sarnoff we headed to and under the train station. This was the last little surprise I had to the group as I led them down the ramp and through the tunnel of the Princeton train station. I use to do this when commuting to work. Its the easiest and safest way to get to the back roads of West Windsor and back to MCP. I try to continually find slightly different ways to do the same routes and doing some slightly different and sometimes stupid things. This, I hope, make the rides a little more fun even though that draws some complaints.

After dropping the group back at the park I headed home. Laura and Ricky followed me part of the way as they had also road in. By the time I got home I had just over 52 miles. I hadn't ridden on the road in three weeks so I was a bit sort but am glad for the miles as my wife has been baking cookies for the holidays and it I needed some exercise to work them off.

December Get Away

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Going to a beach resort for a December vacation may seem strange but it has the advantage of cheap accommodations and lack of crowds. My wife and I weren't able to spend our early fall weekend up in Cape Cod so when I suggested a winter getaway we decided to see what Cape Cod looked like around Christmas.

Even though we knew we won't get any beach time because of the weather we did know that there were some festivals that might be interesting to see so we weren't concerned about being bored. Because it was off off-season we stayed a resort we normally couldn't afford. The hotel room was more like a condo and had an indoor pool as well as a beautiful beach view.

The weather wasn't great for the 4 days of the vacation. It was overcast almost all the time with a few hours of rain here and there. Since we weren't planning to sit on the beach anyway the weather didn't matter as much. We spent most of our time checking out the scenic beaches and our favorite shops.

Even though it wasn't bright and sunny the beaches were still very scenic. There was a fog coming in to one of our favorite beaches that made it hard to see where the water ended and the clouds began. I took a few pictures but it was really hard to capture how it really looked.

Of course one of the reasons we go to Cape Cod is for the food. Unfortunately our favorite place for clam chowder and our favorite place for breakfast was closed for the season so we had to try out some other places. Even though there isn't a lot open we did get our fill of chowder and found some good breakfast alternatives. Most of the places that are open are popular bars so I assume the locals do a lot of drinking in off season.

There are some special Christmas events and festivals so we did take in some of theses. The big one was Gardens Aglow. It sounded like it was a smaller version of the light festival that Longwood Gardens puts on. It ended up not living up to the hype. It was just too crowded with little kids running around and the displays were nothing special. I did manage to take a few decent pictures.

Before we did the Gardens Aglow we spent some time at the Sandwich Glass Museum where we not only got to see a large variety of interesting handmade glassware but also got a live demo.

Some of the towns on the Cape were highly decorated so we spend some time driving around at night taking in the sights.

I didn't get a lot of pictures of the light displays as it was hard to do while driving by but made it a nice way to spend the nights.

We have been up to Cape Cod many times over the years mostly in the summer and fall. The Cape is definitely must more desolate with less things to do in the winter but it was fun to see it during a different time of year.

'Tis the Season

There are only 17 days to Christmas and the joy and/or anxiety that it brings. The days are getting shorter and colder so it is becoming harder to get out and ride. Two weeks ago I did an off the books ride with the usual crowd. We did a my winter Englishtown loop. It was your barely 40 degree cloudy day. I had a 50 mile loop planned but at the rest stop we took the shorter way home and ended up with 44.

Last week I didn't feel like crossing over Rt 1 to go to Laura's ride so I decided to try the Cranbury C+ with Steve. Instead of doing a normal Cranbury route Steve decided to go across Rt 1 to Montgomery. We ended up stopping at the Bagel Barn on 206 so it felt a little like a Jim ride. The way back was on some busy roads that I would normally avoid but I did end up on two new roads I haven't been on before and might use one of them on a future ride.

This week it was too cold to get out on the road as the temperature barely went above freezing. I decide to post a ride on the Lawrence Hopewell Trail so I could get some riding in. I got a decent turn out for a cold day. Chris, Ricky, Pete, Andrew and Tim showed up. Jim and Laura were absent because they had other commitments.

It was just over 30 degrees when we started the ride but it was sunny so once we got riding it I didn't feel cold. We had to wait for Chris a few time because his fender was hitting his wheel. Eventually I told him to just take the fender off and stick it in his backpack.

We made our way through Lawrence and then eventually to the Mercer Meadows. There were a couple of puddles of ice here and there but the trail was actually in good shape and it didn't feel as soft going up the hill in Mercer Meadows as it usually does.

When we got to Rosedale Lake Pete had a brake problem and headed for home. At the top of Wargo Tim had some knee issues so slowed up a little. We made the usual stop on the bridge on Province Line for a couple of pictures.

It was then up the hill and into ETS. Andrew left us for home before we turn into ETS. The path into ETS was overgrown and a bit wet in places. There were even a couple of small logs across the path. I didn't have a problem getting over them but Ricky tried and failed to bunny hop over it. No damage done. I managed not to get lost in ETS this time and so we were back on the trail without me pulling out the map. We lost sight of Tim so I went back for him and found him fixing a flat. We were only a few miles from the end so once the tire was fixed we were quickly back at the start.

I will be away next weekend but we have officially entered the winter riding season so will get out for short rides on the road or trail, when I can, until warmer weather gets here.