Lunar Eclipse

 

On Sunday night there was a lunar eclipse. Despite predictions of overcast and cloudy weather there were a few clear stretches that allowed me to get a few pictures of the eclipse. Even when the clouds cleared there was still a lot of water vapor in the air so the view was still hazy. I managed to get a close up pictures of the moon. One right before the total eclipse.

And a couple after the full eclipse started.

Because of the conditions these aren't great pictures but I'm glad I did get a chance to see part of it. Each lunar eclipse is a little different. This was the darkest moon I have seen during a lunar eclipse. It was almost hard to see. That was probably because of the conditions. A little after midnight the clouds started to close in so I didn't get to see the rest of the eclipse. The next one will be November 7. Hopefully the conditions will be better.

Rainy Weather

As the weekend approaches I always pay attention to the forecast when deciding where and when to ride. Last weekend was a washout so I didn't get a ride in. This weekend the forecast was a little better but there was still the possibility of rain in the forecast. The forecast for Saturday was fog and clouds in the morning followed by heavy showers. The hourly forecast from the couple of sources I use showed only a 20% chance of rain until noon. 

Sunday's forecast was better but Jack had sent out an email wanting to get a ride in Saturday before his trip to Missouri so we took the chance and did an ad hoc ride in Saturday. Now I knew the forecast Saturday was not great and I did expect to get rained on a little but the weather we got was a lost worst than the prediction. 

I did do the blessing of the Holy Kickstand at the start as the insane posse had some health and family issues and I wanted to do something to ward off future problems and protect the posse. The Holy Kickstand does not control the weather so we had to leave that the other bike gods. 

The ride started off with a little fog but that lifted to a hazy cloud cover as we headed south. I was optimistic about our chances to stay mostly dry until it started to rain a little and then got harder. As the rain got harder we had to stop to change one of the four flats that we had on the ride. The rain let up for a little while then started and stopped a couple of time. The rain was harder than the light sprinkle that was predicted and eventually the number and force of the rain caused us to cut it short and head straight back. The only good thing about the weather was that it was warm so we were wet but not cold.

We got back with 36 of the planned 48 miles. One of us didn't make it back as they had a flat a few miles before the end but Jim went back and picked them up.

I know weather is not a precise science but I expected the forecast to be more accurate. I know that weather models use  "Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow" (i.e. Chaos Theory) to predict the weather so there are a lot of conflicting factors in the model that can prevent it from converging to get an accurate result. I could blame the fact that we got caught in the rain on a bad forecast or the fact that Jim and I were on the same ride (which for some reason this year has been very rare) or the fact that I brought my hill bike to a flat ride but the truth is if you ride enough and push the envelope you are some times going to get wet.

Crossing the Delaware

I do quite a few rides near the Delaware because of the interesting roads on both sides of the river. Most of the rides I do involve crossing the Delaware at one of the bridges. This usually means walking across since the law doesn't allow bikers to ride across bridges with pedestrians on them. However the new Scudder Falls Bridge now has ridable bike lane that makes it easier to cross the Delaware. 

This new bike lane has been open for months but I have not had a chance to use it yet so I took the opportunity this weekend to check it out when I did a ride out of Yardley. We did this route which takes us uphill to Tyler State park and then over Jericho mountain before a stop in New Hope for a break. After the break we headed toward the bridge to NJ. I took a new route to the bridge that involved going the wrong way up a one way street, walking over rail tracks and over a bridge with broken and up heaved asphalt. It wasn't as bad as it sounds and the road on the other side is now my favorite way to get to New Hope and over the bridge. 

After the long walk over the bridge to the NJ side we headed uphill and wound our way through Hopewell and the outskirts of Pennington before heading back down to the Delaware. This route has around 3000 feet of climbing but I didn't feel too stressed by it. I was able to turn the peddles up the hills without my heart rate blowing up and didn't cramp. It probably helped that the weather was cool. I of course wasn't as fast as the rest of people with me and I actually think Pete new knee has actually made him faster than before.

The trip over the Scudders Falls bridge was interesting. The surface is a little rough and bumpy but it is nice to be able to ride over the Delaware. I definitely will use it again the next time I need to cross the Delaware in this area.