It's Always Crappy When We Go to Round Valley

I haven't been to Round Valley since July 2023. This is a ride we do every year or two because we like the view of the reservoir at Round Valley. However 90% of the time the weather is cloudy and crappy so the picture of the reservoir looks like the one above. At least it didn't rain like it did during my Vincentown ride. There were a few drops along the way but nothing that could be consider as rain. The one good thing about the cloudy weather is that it kept is cool. In fact I had my arm warmers on for the entire ride. 

This was Laura's ride so we used her route from Hillsborough. It's 47 miles and hilly. The worst hills are the three getting into the reservoir which someone named years ago as Papa, Baby, and Mama bear. Not sure why. These are not very steep but are a couple miles long in total so it is just a grind. Everybody knows these hills are coming but there are 5 miles of rollers before you get to them and so it hard to know when they will start. I have ridden to Round Valley enough to know that the climb starts when you see the big wall of grass on the right which is one of the dams that forms Round Valley. 

I felt good on the rollers at the beginning of the ride and made it up the three bears with out feeling stressed I was a the back of the pack but not too far off the front. We made our usual stop at the parking lot of the reservoir to take a picture of the crappy weather. The reservoir was a lot fuller than last time. 

 

As the picture above shows the water was so low that the boat ramp didn't even reach the water and there was grass between the rock wall and the late. Today the water was just a foot or two below normal as the line on the rock wall on the left shows. 

After going around the reservoir we made our normal stop in Whitehouse Station at he Brooklyn Grill. It's probably a good place for breakfast or lunch but just an okay rest stop. 

We had a strong tail wind on the way back which made the ride home easier especially since it's more rolling than hilly on the way back. We did make a quick stop at Solberg  airport on the way back as we saw two marine helicopters land their. Not sure why they were there. 

I felt strong at the end and in general feel good this year riding so may do some more hilly rides in the future.  

 

Wet and Messy

 

Although I don't ride when it rains I sometimes will ride when there is a slight chance of rain as long as it doesn't look like there is a major rain storm coming. The weather this spring has been more rainy than normal and even when it doesn't rain we have had a lot of strong winds during the rides. I did manage to make it out the past few Saturdays but rain this past week prevented me from getting out for my normal Wednesday ride or even an after work ride. 

At the beginning of the week the forecast for Saturday looked like rain but the forecast improved during the week. By Friday night the rain looked like it would be gone by early Saturday morning and it was. I got a good portion of the posse to join me for a ride in the pinelands. It was cloudy during the start and getting a little darker. To be honest I expected a few miles of light rain based on the radar forecast but I didn't expect it to last for more then 10-15 minutes. 

Somewhere 6 or 7 miles into the ride there was a little light rain but it was a minor nuisance. Then somewhere towards Brownsmill the rain pick up a little. The rain itself was very light and not too bad as my glasses and garmin only had a few drops on them. The problem was the roads were really wet so the spray from the road and Pete's read tire was getting me wet and messy especially from the shorts down. As well as the line up the back. 

By the time we got around Mirror Lake the rain had stopped and after another 20 minutes there was sun and blue skies. So the rain was annoying but I'm glad I got out for the ride. 

Once the rain stopped the roads quickly dried and by the time we got to the rest stop in Vincentown there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We had a tail wind on the way home so even though it was a 55 mile ride I felt pretty good.

There was one more result of the rain morning rain. There was a large puddle on Warner Rd. I have ridden this road quite a few times and don't remember it ever being flooded and not sure why it did this time since it didn't really rain that much. I guess since we didn't hit a bridge out on this ride we had to ride through some water instead. It was probably close to a foot deep as it was almost up to my peddles. The only way through was forward so we all got a little wet again.

This is a picture Pete took as I rode through the puddle. 

This wasn't the wettest or dirtiest that I have been on a ride and I'm sure this won't be the last time I get rained on. I just wish we have a few picture perfect days ahead so I don't have to take as much time cleaning up after a ride.

May Flowers

Last week was mostly sunny and warm so I decided to take a day off work to go to Longwood Gardens to see some spring flowers. The last time I was here was about 10 years ago during the Christmas season so didn't really get to see all the different flowers and fountains. 

There were a lot of tulips in the main garden as they are in season now.

As well as a lot of poppies  

the center of the poppy is interesting and complex

 

There are also a lot of fountains 

and waterfalls

 

Which are spread out through the gardens. But of course the mail reason to be visit Longwood gardens is for the variety of different flowers. I spent a hour or so wandering through the different conservatories. I focused on some close up macro photography.

 

There are a lot of different ways to get close up pictures of flowers. Getting the right composition, lighting and focus takes a lot of practice and there are more than one way to do it right. I'm getting better but still have a lot to learn. Still it was fun to walk around the gardens for a few hours on a warm spring day