Peace Valley

It continues to be a hot and humid summer. That is why when Laura asked if I wanted to join her on a 80 mile ride with Neil I said no, NO and sorry but NOOOOO! I just don't enjoy riding anything over a metric especially in hot weather. Instead I lead my own ride to Peace Valley and got a few of the other regulars who are not fond of long rides to join me including Mike who is back from his adventures on the seven seas. We ended up doing this route.

Although it was in the mid 70s when we started it felt pretty humid. When I got to Bulls Island the parking lot was almost full as there was a time trial going on. I gathered everybody and we headed over the bridge to the PA side to start the ride. The way up to Doylestown is a slow climb up Fleecy Dale, which could use a little paving, but it is a gentle climb. Mike met us at the top of the hill and continued on with us into Doylestown.

At the outskirts of Doylestown Mike noticed a ticking sound coming from his back week. We stopped to take a look at it. I thought it might be the brake rubbing against the wheel but on closer inspection it turned out that his brake pads had actually worn though part of his rim. He had probably between 1 and 200 miles left before his rim would come apart so we left him on the road for his wife to come and pick up.

As we made our way through the middle of Doylestown we saw a lot of tables on the side walk as well as a couple of streets closed and full of outdoor shopping and dinning I guess as a way to keep the economy working here.

Because it is a Tom ride there was a bridge out at the Peace Valley covered bridge.

But it was no problem getting over the bridge there was enough of it there to walk over the metal grid above the safety net. Then it was on to Peace Valley which was more crowded than normal during the pandemic. We stopped at the top of the dam to take a couple of pictures before heading up hill to Perkasie.

As part of the route to Perkasie I was planned on going through the Pearl S Buck estate. The map showed that the road went through to where I needed to go but all we found was dead ends once we got into the estate. This caused some of the people with me to question my navigation abilities for some reason. In any case after a brief detour we were back on course. The roads up here on the ridge by Perkasie are have some nice views and are fun to ride. I might come back in the fall and do a ride just on the ridge.

We made a stop in Perkasie at the CVS before working our way back over a few hills and back to Bulls Island which was still crowded. It was close to 90 degrees  by the time we got back. Even through it was a hot hilly ride I wasn't close to cramping but I'm glad I decided not to do the 80 miles.