Not as Good as the Original

When I saw there was going to be raining on Saturday I was looking for a good ride for Sunday. I was hoping that Jim would do one of his rides our of Blackwell Mills but he was otherwise occupied. So after a couple of emails I decide to lead a ride out of Blackwell Mills myself and do my imitation of a Plain Jim ride.

What I like about the ride Jim does out of Blackwell Mills is that it is an easy no nonsense ride. Its usually around 35 miles with no real hills. The route doesn't really change much so you know what to expect and can just relax and converse with the other people on the ride. Jim gets a slightly different mix of people than my rides some that I don't see that often which is another reason I enjoy his ride.

Although I followed the same route that Jim did, with a few little tweaks, and started at the same location my version was not as good as the original. Probably because of the just warm enough weather to ride on the road and the fact that I was leading I did not get the best turn out. It was me, Laura, Chris, Ricky and Dave.

When we started the ride it was still overcast and we actually ran into a little light rain that would eventually cleared up. As soon as we started Dave said that he couldn't shift because of a low battery on his shifters but was stuck in a good gear so would continue with us. Then a few miles later along Hillsbough road his tire got soft so he decided to turn around.

The weather turned warmer and got sunny as we continued down East Mountain and towards the usual Thomas Sweet rest stop. The wind had picked up blowing 15-20 so we got blown around a little. Unlike Jim I did not get the usual shots of people eating at the rest stop or his usual pictures of the bikes leaning against the walls. I'll take better pictures next time.

We headed towards the canal and over the Griggstown causeway on the way back. On my drive to Blackwell Mills I had see that the causeway was closed due to flooding. I know that Jim would have be anxious about this not knowing if he could cross the causeway or not. I however haven't see a bridge out I couldn't figure a way around so I was not concerned.

When we actually got there the gate was still closed but Candy Cane Chris (in his Christmas tights) shimmied under the gate

and it was clear as soon as we road over the first bridge that the road was clear with just a little water on the right side.

After the causeway Laura turned right for some reason and I had to remind her that Blackwell Mills was the other way. We quickly made it back to the start as the wind was blocked by the trees around the canal. It was a good ride but not as good as a Jim's version so hopefully he will be back leading soon.

Robling Loop

I don't do the Robling loop often but it is a good winter ride to do for a change of pace. Its short mostly flat and brings us on some roads we don't often do. I posted the ride for the Friday after Thanksgiving and got a good turn out. Laura, Bob, Ricky, Dave, Chris and Pete joined me on a barely 40 degree morning.There is nothing particularly scenic or interesting on this route but it does get us a look at the Delaware in Florence.

Its not the best looking part of the river especially because of all the industry along it. The road is wide and quiet so its not a bad place to ride. We rode down along the river until we went under the turnpike bridge then headed west to some of the roads we usually ride in this area.

Although it was sunny and had warmed to the low 40s the constant 10-15 mph wind made it feel colder than it was. We hit pockets of head winds as we worked our way back to the start.

We stopped at the Jacksonville deli for our rest stop. I don't really like this place it as there is no bathroom and they really don't have a good selection of food and drink. Being a holiday weekend I wasn't going to be choosy as there aren't a lot of place open so you have to take what you can get.

We fought the head winds for most of the way back from the rest stop so the ride felt tougher than the 42 miles would suggest but it was still good to get out and work off some of the Thanksgiving meal.

Moment of Inattention

I should have know it was going to be a strange ride when the birds were circling overhead before the went out for a ride. Neither Laura and I had listed a ride so I ended up going to Cranbury to do Tru's ride. Its good to do a different every now and then to check in with some I don't see on a regular basis.   

Riding is a very safe sport as long as you follow some basic common sense. One of the reasons I ride with the PFW is that it is safer to ride with a group and everybody in the club knows how to ride together. So it was usual when less than a mile into the ride somebody fell behind me. The person that fell was the last person I would have expected to lose control of the bike especially since it was a stupid fall. He ran into the mirror of a parked car. There was no traffic on the road and no problems with the road surface. It was just a moment of inattention that caused this person to drift into the car. It was a violent hit as he didn't just nick the mirror but took it clear off the car. His front well came off the bike as part of the fall. Luckily he didn't break anything and seemed fine. The car however is going to need some repair so information was exchanged and we moved on.

Tru has had a couple of accidents during some of his rides lately and had warned us at the start to be careful. I guess not everybody listened.

Tru had a very circuitous route planned. The rest stop was in West Windsor which is only 9 miles away but it took us 22 miles to get there. We went by most of the usual places we start rides from including Etra and MCP so the entire ride felt like we at the beginning or ending of all the rides I lead in this area. We ended up circling close to my house twice during the ride so it felt like the whole ride went nowhere.

Still it was fun and interesting ride as there was a lot of good banter and a few other minor  mishaps during the ride. Jim ended up with some glass in his tire and got a flat as well as a cut on his hand. And because I forgot to strap my pump back in after Jim's flat it fell into my front gear ring and locked up my cranks. Luckily I was coasting at the time or I would have went over my handlebars.

I did make it home safely after 46 miles. So despite the mishaps I'm always happy when I can get in over 40 miles on a cold day.

Winter Biking

It seems like since I got back from Iceland it has gotten a lot colder here and in fact this weekend felt a lot like the middle of winter. I did lead a 40+ mile ride on the road last Sunday out of MCP but the reason I rode on Sunday instead of Saturday was because it was below freezing last Saturday. We did this route which is a modified New Egypt run to be able to stop at one or our favorite coffee shops down that way. It felt good to get out on the road again after 2+ weeks off the bike but I was dragging a bit at the end.

This week neither Saturday or Sunday was really going to be warm enough to be on the road although I know some people will be doing the Cranksgiving ride on Sunday. This Saturday I switched to the mountain bike and lead a ride up the canal to from Washington Crossing to Bulls Island and back. We went up the PA side to avoid a strong north headwind because the PA side has more cover. It didn't really matter though because when we went down the NJ side there wasn't much of a tail wind and in fact we had a strong head wind at times.

This is the earliest that I have had the mountain bike out as is usually doesn't get cold enough to have to go onto the trail until beginning of December. Let's hope this cold snap is temporary and not a sign of a cold winter. This mountain bike ride is the first time I rode the new mountain bike in the cold as I got it in the early spring. Since I did the GAP trail and other trail rides in the summer it felt a little strange to ride it in the cold.

In some non biking new I took Monday off the see the transit of Mercury across the Sun. I managed to get a couple of good pictures using my Canon SX740 mounted to my telescope. The 40x zoom is good enough to get a reasonable picture of the Sun through a solar filter.

I also got to see a good sunrise as the transit started about 30 mins after the sun rose.

In one last piece of news from Iceland I found a web cam that looks over the harbor at Reykjavik at the Imagine Peace Light. You can look at the live stream to see what an aurora looks like in real time. They also archive the live stream so you can look through previous nights instead of having to watch it live. If you want to see what an aurora looks like in real time click on this link and scroll ahead to 1:55 or 3:35 and watch it for 10 mins and you will see what it really looks like as opposed to pictures of it. The web cam is not the best quality so you don't see the purple and yellow spikes rolling through the aurora but is still pretty interesting to watch and cheaper than a trip to Iceland.

Iceland History and Folklore

Iceland is visually beautiful but underneath that beauty is a dark and strange history. The stories of Iceland are very tragic and the folklore reflects the hard life of Icelanders. The stories and traditions of Iceland are almost as interesting as the natural wonders.

Our education on Iceland began on the ride from the airport to the blue lagoon. The driver was telling us how beer wasn't legal in Iceland until 1989. You could drink wine, vodka or most other sprints but Iceland didn't want to legalize beer because they thought cause a lot of drinking problems. I'm not sure the logic of its OK to get drunk off your ass on vodka but beer is evil. Our driver remembers the day beer was legalized because she was in 8th grade at the time and remember all her teachers were "sick" for a couple of days after beer was legalized.

Iceland was founded by people from Norway who were looking for some land to farm since it wasn't easy to own any good land in Norway. Its hard for me to imagine that people saw the rocky shore of Iceland with its poor soil and short growing season and said this will be a good place to live. You can't grow any good vegetables in Iceland because the weather isn't warm enough. The only thing that really grows is grass. The Norwegians did bring over sheep and horses which do well in Iceland because of the abundance of grass. The winters are also not overlay harsh. In the lowland it doesn't get much below freezing most days. There is also a lot of good fishing around the island so if you like lamb and fish you can scratch out a living. Of course since you can't grow any vegetables or fruit you have no source of vitamin C so your going to have scurvy. The only way to combat that was to eat some seaweed and I'm not talking the good tasting stuff that is wrapped around sushi.

Although the fishing is good, this is the North Atlantic so the seas are rough and unpredictable. The chances that your boat is going to survive the sudden storm is not really good. If you are lucky you will be able to run the boat aground and only half the people will die of drowning and exposure.

This is why for most of Iceland's history the women far out numbered the men. As our driver told us men didn't really have to be well groomed to get women until about 30 years ago when fishing got a lot safer because of better boats and better safety gear.

Assuming you didn't die because of malnutrition or being killed at sea there was still the fact that about every 5 years some major eruption occurs in Iceland. The volcanoes in Iceland have many different ways to kill you. There is the normal volcanic explosion that rains lava and rock down on your village and you die. Then there is the volcanic fissure when opens up and hot lava rolls through your village. You can easily run away from the lava but your farm is now a wasteland where nothing will grow for 30 years and your house and all your food stores have been wiped away so you have no way to feed yourself and you die. Then there is the volcanic eruption that happens in volcano far enough away that you are not affected by lava or ash of the explosion but because the volcano was under a glacier the eruption melts the glacier so fast that a massive wall of water flows down to the sea and right through your village and you and ever thing you own gets washed out to sea and you die.

On the tour our guide told us many stories about all of the different the volcano eruptions that occurred in Iceland and the story always ended with "and many people died". The worst eruption that occurred was in Iceland was the eruption of Laki in 1783. This was a volcanic fissure which erupted for 8 months spewing out 42 billion tons of lava and 120,000,000 tons of sulfur dioxide. Not only did this kill 80% of the sheep and 50% of the horses in Iceland but 25% of the population died not only from the sulfur dioxide but also from famine since the eruption poisoned the land for may years. This eruption was so large that it affected the entire world. The amount of sulfur dioxide was large enough to cause clouds of it to cover parts of Europe where many people died or were sicken. The clouds of the eruption were so large and lasted so long that they caused major weather changes in most of the world. Causing either very hot or very cold weather with lots of violent storms. It is estimated that a total of almost 6 million people died as a direct or indirect result of this eruption.

This violent Iceland history comes with a equally dark mythology and folklore. Trolls are a big part of the Icelandic folklore. According to the myths, trolls can only come out in the dark and if they are caught in the light they turn to stone. As we drove around Iceland our guide would point our various rock formations and tell us some story about some trolls that didn't make it back to their cave before dark like this one of some trolls returning in their sailboat and getting caught in the sun just before getting the their cave on the beach.(I guess I can kinda see it)

One of the darker stories about trolls is centered around Christmas. Iceland doesn't really have Santa Claus. They instead have Gryla and the Yule Lads

Gryla is a giantess who likes to eat misbehaved children. She is on her third husband. The first two she ate. She walks around collecting bad children then cooks them in a large pot. She has 13 children of her own, called the yule lads who steal things or harass you. You can look up the Yule Lads for details. One of the yule lads visits you for each of the 13 days before Christmas. So if you are a kid and still alive by Christmas its a good year.  It makes getting coal in your stocking seem kinda lame.

Modern life in Iceland is much better than it use to be. Many of the hardships of living in Iceland have be overcome by improved technology. Fishing is now a very safe way to make a living. The people in Iceland have learned how to manage the land to be as self sufficient as they can. They have produced an abundance of lamb, beef and fish which they trade for other food and resources they need. They are also producing fruits and vegetables in green houses powered by geothermal heat.

In fact 95% of all power and heat for Iceland comes from geothermal power plants which tap the deadly steam and hot water that is bubbling below the surface. The other electricity is produced through hydroelectric dams. This make Iceland a very clean place with cheap power. The typical power bill per house is $20-$30 a month. Its even better when you realize that houses don't need any furnace or hot water heaters. Hot water is piped directly from the power plant to the house where it flows directly to the shower for hot water and directly through the radiators to heat the house. The left over hot water flows under the driveway to clear the snow then the water flow out of the house and eventually into the sea. So each house has a hot water line,a cold water line and and electrical line coming into it and that's it. 

There is still the threat of volcanic eruptions but they have early warning systems in place so most people will be able to get to safety before their house is swept away by lava or flooding. That doesn't mean a major catastrophe can't happen. As recent a 2010 there was a major eruption that stopped air traffic for months and caused ash to rain down on most of the island...but they weather it and there was no major lost of life.

The coast of living is high in Iceland because a lot of things have be imported but the standard of living is good and they have a good health care and social services. If you don't mind long dark winters or the threat of volcanic eruptions its probably not a bad place to live.

Vacationing in the Land of Fire and Ice

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Iceland is a harsh mistress but one that you come to appreciate after spending some time there. Iceland has a cold and inhospitable climate that is almost impossible to live in. At any moment an
earth quake or volcano eruption could occur that can put the entire island at risk. Yet this constantly changing and dangerous land is unbelievably diverse and beautiful. This place is a geologist dream. Iceland sits astride the North American and European tectonic plates so it is very geologically active. As you drive around you will see evidence of volcanic explosions and lava flows as well as the presents of geothermal activity. The produces a constantly changing landscape filled with natural wonders like waterfalls, geysers, glaciers and many other strange things. If you are lucky you may even be able to experience the northern lights on a clear night.

But as important as the seeing the many sights in this country is understanding the history and folklore of Iceland. The harsh nature of the land has created some interesting legends and given a special character to the people here. The way they have harnessed the forces of nature here and learn to live with the constant threats is an amazing story and one that you only appreciate after seeing the landscape

I can not fully describe all that we saw and experienced but will try to provide the highlights. The first cool thing we did just after landing in Iceland is to go to the blue lagoon. This is the most famous of the many natural hot springs in Iceland and really lived up to the hype.

Since we got to Iceland early in the morning it was still dark when we arrived at the blue lagoon at eight o'clock in the morning. The heat coming off the water created a fog that made it hard to see more than a few feet. Spending a couple of hours at the hot springs while watching the sun rise was perfect start to the trip.

We spend the afternoon near our hotel in Reykjavik walking around town. I had planned to go the bed early but saw that the sky was clear and there was a good chance for aurora activity so I headed down to the water front to try and catch the show. I saw the hazy greenish clouds of the aurora as I got to the water. It was very faint but over the course of the

next hour it moved and changed had a few brilliant outbreaks. The best way to describe what the aurora looks like is that it is a lot like greenish clouds except that they are more narrow and can twist and turn as they move. The pictures you see of them are not what you really see with your eyes as the time exposure of the camera catches more light than your eyes can. However the camera doesn't catch the subtle spiky patterns that can sometimes be present.

One of the reasons we came to Iceland at this time of year was to try and catch the northern lights. Iceland has a lot of cloudy weather and aurora activity is unpredictable so there is no guarantee that you will see them. Although I was really tired I am glad stayed up to see them because I didn't know if I would get another chance.

The second day in Iceland was the first day of our seven day tour. This would take us counter clockwise around the ring road of Iceland. We decided on a guided tour instead of doing it on our own as we knew the weather could be unpredictable this time of year and we wanted an experienced guide to get us around any problems as well as provide details about what we were looking at.

The first day of the tour we did the Golden Circle which includes the Þingvellir National Park where you can see where the North American and European tectonic plates meet.

The second stop is Geyser.This is an area where there is a lot of geothermic activity and some active geysers. The word geyser was actually invented here and is an Icelandic word. There was a geyser that erupts every few minutes so it was cool to stand around and watch it erupt.

The last stop of the day was the Gullfoss waterfall which is an impressive two step waterfall. Pictures just don't do it justice.

The second day of our trip was on the south coast of Iceland where we saw some of the many waterfalls as well as visited a horse farm to see the famous Icelandic horses.

The Icelandic horse is the only type of horse in Iceland and is unique because it has 5 gaits. One of the gaits is so smooth that you can carry beer with out spilling it. I'm not sure how useful that is but it made for a good demonstration.

These horses also seem to like to unzip jackets

The third day we continued on the south coast heading east. We saw yet another waterfall before heading to the famous black sand beach near Vix. Besides the black sand there are also basalt columns in the cliffs. These columns form as the magma from a lava flow cools.

The highlight of the third day of the tour was Diamond beach which was littered with tiny icebergs.

This was next to Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon which was filled with icebergs that have fallen off the glacier.

 

The number of icebergs in the lagoon and beach varies a lot. Sometimes the beach and lagoon are empty. However it was full when we were there and was a sunny day so it was impossible to take a bad picture.

The fourth and fifth day of the trip was spent on the east coast in fjords and bays there. 

It had snowed the over the past few days so the mountains were spotted with snow as was some parts of the ground but there was not much snow on the roads.

On the fifth day we visited another hot spring. This one was by lake Myvatn. This time we got to relax in the hot springs while watching a sunset. I could really get use to these hot springs.

On the last two days of the tour we drove through the northern part of Iceland. The landscape in Iceland changes constantly and in the north were snow covered peaks next to stony lava landscapes. The stony landscape reminded me of some pictures of Mars and in fact the Apollo astronauts trained here for walks on the moon.

We also visited the town of Akureyri the second largest city in Iceland. It reminded me of a ski town as it was built next to a large mountain. The harbor was very scenic.

The last day was another couple of waterfalls each beautiful and unique. The last one was really cool because the water for the waterfall came out of the rocks. 

We saw and learned so much about the many cool geological oddities on our trip that I have probably absorbed enough information to get a degree in geology. And as a bonus we got to see the northern lights a couple of more times during our trip. Although my wife and I don't like to have our picture taken I couldn't resist getting a picture of us with the northern lights in the background. After spending a week in Iceland I can now see why so many people say it is one of the coolest and unusually places they have ever been.

 

Gettysburg

So I'm working on another book. This one is about biking around Gettysburg mostly around the battlefields. Like most books I write this wasn't exactly my idea. I got a note from my publisher that they were looking for someone to write a book of short rides around the Gettysburg battlefield. Writing a book is a lot of work and takes a lot of time. I thought about not doing it and if was any place else but Gettysburg I probably would have. However for the past 10 years I have been going out to Gettysburg to ride with the Philadelphia bike club so it is one of the few places out side of my normal riding areas that I know really well. Beside I do enjoy the process of researching and writing guide books and it will be cool to be the official bike book of Gettysburg.

This book will be a short book of around 15 or so rides of 5 to 10 miles. This is mainly aimed at families and casual bikers who want to tour Gettysburg on bike. It didn't take long for me to put together the rides for this book from all my riding in this area. However I still had some questions about which was the best way to get around some parts of the battlefield and where are the best place to park so this weekend I headed out to the Gettysburg to do some research. Luckily I got Jim and his wife to join me.

The plan for the weekend was to do a bunch of the rides from the book. I created a few routes that were a combination of most of the rides in the book. This would allow me to refine the details of the rides in the book as well as gather some pictures.

On Friday I went out in the morning and checked out Hanover Junction. It has a train station that was restored to the way it was during the civil war and was one of the places Lincoln stopped on his way to giving the Gettysburg address.

This train station is where you can park to ride Heritage rail trail which is a 40 mile trail which is one of the rides in the book. Besides the train station they also have some bike art.

I also spent some time in New Oxford checking out some roads and a bakery that will be part of the rides in the book that will be outside of the battlefield.

On Saturday with Jim and Regina in tow it was time to tour the battlefield. I had a 24 mile ride mapped out based on rides I had done before. If you haven't been to the Gettysburg battlefield before it is both impressive and overwhelming. The main battlefield is over 6000 acres and there are over 1300 monuments of every possible shape and size. From simple historic markers to 3 story monuments that take up a city block.

Gettysburg was a complex battle with lots of stories of heroism and self sacrifice. It would take years of study to understand everything that happen during the three day battle. One thing that is obvious as you ride around is that there was a lot of death, suffering and sadness. But once you get past that you can see some signs of hope. Most of the monuments on the battlefield were put there by veterans of the battle. There were many reunions of both union and confederate soldiers at Gettysburg and even though they fought each other they did come to respect each other as evidence by the Eternal Light Peace Memorial which was build by by all the veterans to honor their sacrifice.

Even today there are people who volunteer to relieve what these soldiers experiences.

I asked them why they do it. They said it was to honor all the veterans and keep their stories alive.  I guess it kind of like a living archeologist. It's also a hobby for most of them and a reason to get together with like minded people.

The 24 mile ride around the battlefield took quite a while because of stopping for pictures and a few wrong turns trying to find the best way around certain parts of the park. We did end up going the wrong way up a few roads but that's nothing unusual for my rides.

After touring the battlefield Jim and I did a quick 10 mile ride just outside the battlefield to the Sachs covered bridge.

This bridge was one of the main bridges used by the confederate army to retreat from the battle field. There are also rumors that some confederate spies where hung on this bridge so it is part of the Gettysburg ghost tour.

Saturday was a long day but I got all the information I needed for the rides around the battlefield so it was a successful day.

On Saturday night we tried to got to a historic restaurant but the wait was too long so we ended up at an Irish pub which actually ended up having some good food.

On Sunday the ride was on the east of Gettysburg. The book will have four to five short 8-10 mile rides in the farmland to the east of Gettysburg for riders who want to do more than ride around the battlefield. There are a lot of great roads around here so there is no shortage of traffic free horse farms and open fields to ride through.

It was a little cold but still a beautiful day. We did a 34 mile loop of roads I mostly did before. With Regina along I did get confirmation that these roads were enjoyable for a more causal rider.

It was a fun weekend and I did enjoy spending some time with Jim and Regina. I now have most of the information I need to write the book. Even thought the book isn't due until next September I will probably have most of it done by the end of the winter. I plan one more trip out to Gettysburg in late spring to do a final test of the routes and get some more pictures. I don't really mind coming back to Gettysburg because it really is a great place to ride.

Sunny Sandy Hook

When it is 44 degrees on a Saturday morning you usually don't think its a good day to go to the beach but it was. I had wanted to do a ride to Sandy Hook some time after Labor Day but wasn't able to do until this Saturday. It was colder than expected but it was sunny and suppose to get to the mid 60s. Laura, Pete, Jim and Ricky joined me at Monmouth Battlefield park for the ride.

I decided to use my northern route to Sandy Hook with a small modification. Although there are a couple nice roads on the way to Sandy Hook there are also some busy roads we have to ride on so its more about getting to Sandy Hook than about the ride itself. There are some interesting sites along the way. We went through the old Bell Labs which has a water tower that is suppose to look like a transistor but I'm and electrical engineer and it doesn't look like any transistor I've every seen.

There was also sign with a scary drunk clown on it. I didn't get a picture of it but Laura did so it will probably be part of her post. The new twist to today's route is that we took the Henry Hudson trail for a mile after the rest stop then headed down to water where the ferry is to NY and rode along the bay. It was an unusually clear and sunny day so we had the best view of NY I have ever seen on this ride.

The path along the bay also gave us nice views of the marina and Sandy Hook itself. The path does turn to dirt for about a mile but it is very hard packed and easy to ride on a road bike. In fact it was smoother than parts of the paved trail.

When we got to Sandy Hook we road out a few miles to take some more pictures. I actually took my shoes off and walked on the beach for a bit to get some more views of NY.

After I got the sand off my feel we headed back home along the usual way with a brief stop in Little Silver for our final rest stop. On our way back to the battlefield there was even more traffic than normal as there was some kind of festival at the battlefield orchard. There were cars parked in every field and grass surface so we had to slowly make our way up the shoulder and around cars and people.

We ended up with 65 miles. This will probably be the end of beach season so any more trips to the beach will probably have to wait until next year.

Hay Cow

It is now officially fall and the days are starting to get shorter and a colder. Soon we will be riding in arm warmers and jackets. Today however was closer to a summer day. Laura had listed a ride to Oldwick which is one of the few places we haven't gone this year. Bob, Ricky, Jim and Blake also showed up for the ride.

Laura had not posed the route but I had a general idea where we were going. Laura had said she was going to be stopping for pictures during this ride and it didn't take long to get to the first picture stop. One of the farms had taken some hay bails and painted them like pigs and cows.

We also made a quick stop at Solsberg airport although we didn't see any airplanes taking off.

We eventually made our way to Rockaway Rd and one of my favorite climbs. We are still a few weeks from peak color so most of the trees are still green even though some leaves are already falling because it has been so dry from lack of rain. From the top of Rockaway we work our way over to Fox Hill and a fun downhill with a good view of the valley that we always stop for.

Its was a little hazy be we could still see over to the next ridge.

Our rest stop today was the Oldwick general store which was not as crowded as it usually is. In fact we were to only bikers there for once.

By the time we left to head back it was actually feeling more summer like. We cruised through a lot of scenic rural back roads and saw a lot of deer lurking along the roads. It almost felt like they were following us. 

We ended up with just over 51 miles. Even though we had done some climbing it was a very relaxed and enjoyable ride. It was one of the better routes we did this year and one we should do more often.

An Entertaineing Ride

After doing hilly rides for the past two weeks it was time to do something flatter. I didn't feel like going to the pinelands or toward the shore so decided to just head south of New Egypt. The ride started from MCP so it was close enough to ride in. I was joined by Jim, Martin, Ken, Laurie and Laura. This was planned as a low key ride on familiar roads.

We headed out across Rt 130 and towards the Assinpink where we meet a pack of hound dogs walking down road presumably heading out to a fox hunt?  It was then on to Rue Rd and past some donkeys and alpacas. The last set of animals we saw was a herd of long horn steers south of New Egypt. It was more wild life than we normally see.

It did however smell really bad by the long horns.

We stopped at Charleston Coffee at the intersection of 528 and 539 and a preferred stop when we are in this area. They have good coffee and a decent selection of baked goods to eat and if don't like the selection there a bagel shop next store. Today there was even a guitar player singing at the shop so we had entertainment while we ate.

A couple months ago when Laura lead a ride in this area she tried to get from the top of Hawkins Rd to Charleston Coffee but ran into some dirt roads. Today I decided to try to see if I could find a way to do it. I look at google maps and checked out the satellite image and found a way to zig zag through some developments to get through. I wasn't 100% we won't run into some dirt but wanted to give it a try. Not only did we not run into any dirt roads but it actually turned out to kinda scenic.

It was then back to more familiar roads for the last 15 miles back. The only hitch on the way back was that Laura got her chain jammed in her front chain ring. Her front derailleur had not been working since just after the beginning of the ride. Then she thought it working and tried to shift only to have it jam.

It took a few minutes to release the jam and then we road the last few miles back.

Although this was suppose to be an easy boring ride it ended up being more interesting and entertaining than expected.     

Lying Bastard 2019

I'm not sure why I do my lying bastard ride each year as it always leads to my posse abusing my character (not that they don't do that on my other rides). This ride annoys them and they complain more about this ride than the other hilly rides I do even though on paper its not the hardest ride I do.

This year I did not get much of a turnout for the ride. In fact I thought it was going to be the lonely bastard ride as nobody signed up for the ride until late Friday. It ended up just being me, Jack and Pete who just got back from his vacation up state. Laura, the traitor that she is, decided to do Neils longer but flatter ride.

It was a perfect day for a ride. It was just 60 degrees when we started but sunny enough not to need arm warmers. We crossed the bridge into PA and had a couple of miles on river road before the climbing started. Its a six mile climb to get to the top the ridge. It a gentle climb with a few steep bumps here and there but actually a relatively easy climb as shown HERE in the route we did.

Once we got to the ridge we ended up on some traffic free roads with good views of the valley below. For some reason on the PA side the roads on the ridge are more lumpy and bumpy than on the NJ side. I think that one of the things that makes this ride seem harder. Even when you are cruising along the ridge there are a lot of short 5-6% climbs so you can't really relax.

There is not a lot of civilization by Lake Nockamixion so its hard to find a place to take a break. We usually stop in Perkasie and then again at a Turkey Hill on 412. Since Jack and Pete don't mind doing a break later in the ride we skipped going into Perkasie.

Although the route I do for this ride is mostly the same I do tweak it a little every year. This year I changed it so we won't have to cross Rt 313 which is hard to do since it always has a lot of traffic. This actually meant going down by the lake on the south west side which I haven't been before. There is a boat launch on that side where we stopped for a look at the lake.

From there we followed the usual route around the back roads on the north side of the lake. This area is a little strange as it has some "healing centers" and a Greek temple. It was more quiet roads with just enough hills to make us keep working. There were also a few roads that were rocked like last week.

Eventually we made our way to the stop at the Turkey Hill and then headed back to the start which is mostly downhill. I got a flat just after the break when I ran over some sharp rocks in the road.

The last feature of this ride is the descent down what I call the Red Circle of Death (Red Cliff Rd). Its a road that starts off really steep and so the first few hundred feet can be a little dangerous if you aren't careful. What made this even harder this year was that after seeing no cars on the roads we were riding there were two cars at the top of this hill that we had to get around as it started. We managed to make it all down safely and then cruised along the river back to Frenchtown.

The ride ended up being about 2900 ft of climbing and didn't feel as hard as it normally did. Maybe that is because of the weather or because for some reason I didn't get abused as much on this ride as previous years. We'll see what happens next year. 

GAP Trail Afterwords

Click Here for All the Pictures from the TRIP 

I'm home now and thinking about all we did over the past four days. We packed a lot in this trip and I'm glad I took an extra day off work to recover. The trip was better and different than I expected. The trail was as nice and scenic as advertised what surprised me was all the sights around and outside the trail. This trail is through some of the more depressed area's of Pennsylvania. The lost of the steel and coal industry that sustained this area for over 100 years is still very much affecting this area. The amount of abandon and rotting plants and empty fields is epic. On the first day of ride besides all the empty factories we saw a lot of coal and coke ash around the trail as well as a lot of run down and abandon houses. However even with all the issues this area has, the people were really friendly. Some of the rest stops along the way had volunteer greeters that would answer any question about the trail like how far to the next stop or the best place to find food. Then there was the work that the people in these town mush have to do to keep this trail in shape. I mean the surface was PERFECT. There were no holes, ruts, soft spots or even debris on the trail. A road bike with wide tires won't have a problem with any part of this trail.

Then there were the bathrooms which were always clean even the port-o-johns. There was one that Jack stepped into and the bottom broke but is was clean and I'm sure it has been replace by now. There were also a lot of displays and small museums along the way that were worth stopping for. That made the ride take longer but also broke it up and made it more interesting.

There is also art scattered around the trail. It usually has some pieces of bike in the art. It was impressive to me that as depressed as this area is that they still have energy, ingenuity and funds to not only maintain this trail but make it one of the best in the country.

This trail mostly follows the rivers in this area and unlike the Lehigh Valley trail you almost always had a good view of the river.

One of the coolest parts of doing this trail was going over all the bridges and through the tunnels. I lost count of how many train bridges we went over. It have to be in the 15 to 20 range. They were all pretty high and had good views of the valley and rivers below

However the tunnels were even better than the bridges. I don't think there is anywhere else where you are going to go through tunnels this long. On the way home we actually stopped off at the Paw Paw tunnel which is on the C&O trail. This is the continuation of from the end GAP trail that goes along the canal from Cumberland all the way to Washington DC.

The tunnel is a kilometer long. We drove to the campground near the tunnel and ended up doing a 3 mile hike to and through the tunnel. At a kilometer long it gets pretty dark when you get to the middle.

You definitely need a flashlight to make your way through. The picture above it what it looked like when I turned my flashlight off.

One thing that did make this trip more difficult to plan was that we road point to point and would always end up 30 to 50 miles from where we parked our car in the morning. I worked out the logistics before hand so that we would always have a car at the end to go pick up the one we drove to the start. This took a lot of thought because we had to get 4 bikes and 4 people in one car to either get to the starting point or back from the ending point. Luckily Jack's van can hold a lot of bikes and people. It also helped that Bob had a roof rack that can fit any car. This meant  that I we could put his roof rack on my Baja and get 3 bikes in the back and one on the roof and 4 people in the car. Although we made some minor tweaks to my original logistics plan it ended up not being too much a pain in the ass to go back and get the car we left at that start. I would always try to get dinner or see some sight like Bike Heaven along the way. The only thing issue was the extra time each day it took to drive back to the starting point after the ride which made the day longer. This added about an hour or more to the stuff we had to do each day.

Like any bike trip it is always best as a shared experience. Jack and Dorthy are platinum members of my travel club and are always fun to travel with. In fact the reason that we did this trip was because of a conversation we had during the Philly club bike trip to Gettysburg. Jack was asking a couple what is the best bike trip they ever did and they told us about the GAP trail and the idea stuck and now we did it. Bob also fit in well and is now an honorary member of the insane  bike posse.

The last thing that this trip showed me was that there are a lot of possibilities for fun bike trips on mountain bikes, Now that I have a good mountain bike that I know I can do long rides on I now have a whole new set of places I can go and explore. A lot of people we met on the trail were doing the C&O trail to DC so that is now on my list. There are always new trail being created so there will be more trips like this in my future.