A Happy July 4th Weekend

 

I always look forward to long weekends as I can usually get an extra ride in. The weather for this weekend was actually close to perfect with no chance of rain. I attribute this to the use of the holy kickstand last week.

 

Last week I almost had to cancel my Saturday ride because of a possible rain storm. Luckily the rain stopped before the ride started. To make sure we won't get wet on the ride I used the kickstand and held an umbrella over the it and asked for relief from the rain as well as a safe ride. The holy kickstand does have magical powers but the rider using it must be pure of heart and only used it for the good of the peloton.

The 4th was on a Friday and I ended up doing a ride on my own down to the beach to meet my wife. It was a cool morning with light winds so it was a pleasant ride to the beach. Being the July 4th weekend it was a little crowded as I rode through Mansquan and up Ocean Ave into Belmar. After the ride I relaxed for a little while in our condo in Avon before heading out to the beach to join my wife and her friends. Normally my wife doesn't go to the beach on weekends because of the crowds but she was there on Thursday and decided to stay because some of her friends were going to be there on the 4th. 

When I got to the beach I had a hard time finding my wife because of the crowd. The beach was packed wall to wall with people.

 

However my wife and her friends were right by the water and had space for me. So once I found them I spent a couple of hours hanging out and talking to her friends. This is the third time I have been on the beach this year which is a lot. Although it was fine hanging out for a little while I probably won't be back on weekends anytime soon. 

Saturday I led a ride out of Bull's Island. I hadn't been up that way in a while and wanted to do a hilly route in that area as it is usually quiet on holiday weekends. I had planned to do a route that Blake design years ago and was one of the first hilly rides I did on my Synapse where I felt how well it climbed. The route just flows well. It does start out with a long climb on Upper Creek just past the covered bridge but then just has some rolling hills. There are a lot of quiet roads and good scenery on this route as well as some long gradual downhills. 

Our rest stop was in Frenchtown at the Bridge Street cafe. After the stop the plan was to cross to the Pennsylvania side and head up to Stover State Park. However the bridge to PA was closed to westbound traffic and pedestrians. 

Even though I'm a master at getting over closed bridges, short of hiring a motor boat there was no way we were getting across the river. Instead we stayed on the NJ side. I knew the roads good enough to make something up on the fly. We headed down 29 then up Warsaw and stayed up above the Delaware. I set my GPS to find the shortest distance to the starting point of the ride then ignored most of it's suggestions. It did tell me about how many mile we had left to get back to the starting point so I used it to tell me when we should head downhill to 29 and back to the starting point. I had a general idea in my head where I wanted to go. I knew we would probably go down Federal Twist but when we pass the road I thought we could go a little further before circling back however it looked like we were going in the wrong direction so we turned around and just took Federal Twist down(I looked at the map after the ride and realized we could have kept going straight). Federal Twist is a steep downhill and if you're brave you can let it rip, which I did. I got up to 47.8 mph which is faster than I should go but it felt good. Jack made it down the hill a little slower but made it down safely. We ended up with 41 miles and a little over 2000 ft of climbing which was 3 miles shorter and 500ft less of climbing of the planned route. I do want to do some riding our in PA around Frenchtown so will have to find a different place to start and cross over to PA from NJ. 

After getting home from Saturday's ride I relaxed for a few hours before heading down to Avon again. This time to see the fireworks at Belmar and Bradley beach. Avon is between to two so we just sat on the beach and watch the Bradley fireworks to the north before turning around and watching the Belmar fireworks to the south. We were luckily to find a parking spot close to the beach. It was strange seeing this many people on the beach after sunset but it wasn't as bad as it was on the 4th. Each firework show was about 20 minutes and they coordinated them so that Bradley firework show ran first before the Belmar show started. There was also a show in Asbury but we were not able to see that. 

I did manage to get a few good good pictures of the fireworks. 

 

If you want to see all the firework pictures click this link.  

It was a long busy weekend but I had a lot of fun so it was a good 4th of July for me.  

The Hills of Somerset and Morris County

When Laura set an invitation to a hilly ride out of Somerset county I reluctantly accepted. She and a few others had plan to do the Morris Area Freewheelers Revolutionary Ramble a couple of weeks ago but decided not to do it because of rainy weather. Now that we actually had a non rainy Saturday she wanted to do the route. 

After a few edits from the original Revolutionary Ramble route we ended up with a 46 mile 3000 ft ride. Most of the hills on the route I had done before except for a couple south of Gladstone. I have been riding pretty well this spring so was confident that I could do the hills my only concern was has fast I could be and if the amount of climbing would cause cramps. 

We started out of Raritan Valley College. It was in the upper 70s when we started and sunny going up close to 90 by mid afternoon. The first hill was Rockaway Rd which was 5 miles into the ride. This is a long but gradual hill. This was followed by Sawmill which is a little steeper. The pay off for this climbing was bombing down Fox Hill Rd. I have done this downhill enough to be able to go down at full speed. 

Then it was our first rest stop at the Oldwick General store. Laura had planned two stops because of the amount of climbing. Then it was more hills. The short but annoying Vliettown Rd then longer grind up Potterville Rd that brought us downhill into Gladstone. We then took a loop around Gladstone up Mendham Rd which was a gentle climb and down Mosle and Branch back into town. Of course no road around here is a straight up or down there are always little bumps and dips that strain the legs. 

After the loop around Gladstone we ended up in Coco-luxe for our second break. It was getting hot so was glad to have to break to re hydrate before our final climbs. 

The final 15 miles of the ride were on more main roads that would have a little more traffic so it was less about scenery and more about getting back to the starting point. There were still a couple of climbs on the way back. The first one was just after we crossed 206. It was another long but gradual climb up Liberty Corner. Not sure where we were but the road we climbed had a large drop off to the right into a forest. 

The last real climb of the day was on Somerville Rd to get over Rt 78. This is one of those climbs that gets steeper towards the top. It was the hardest climb of the day and I almost switch to the granny gear as my heart rate hit 170. We gathered at the top and then headed down a windy and steep downhill. About three quarter of the way down the hill I heard some one yell something but kept going. 

At the bottom of the hill I gathered up with Laura who said she heard someone yell "FLAT". I eventually got a text that somebody had fallen. They had some road rash but where okay. The person had hit some water and fell. They tried to fix the flat tires and bike but couldn't get it back to a rideable state. 

Someone stayed with the downed rider while the rest of us went back. We were about 7 miles from the starting point and it was mostly flat on the way back. The only hill left was the small one to get back into the college. I cramped about half way up the hill but just pushed through it. 

We then went and retrieved the fallen rider and headed home. I'm sure the bike and fallen rider will be back riding in a few days. 

This was the hilliest ride I have done in a few years. My legs were sore and I had a few cramps after the ride but I climbed better than I thought so will probably do some hillier rides going forward since I know I can handle them.  

Birds in Flight

Today is yet another Saturday where rain or threat of rain has kept me off my bike. This has been a rainy spring as 11 out of the last 15 weekends have had some kind of rain. Hopefully I will be able to get a ride in tomorrow. 

While I sit inside today I have had time to process some photos of some birds in flight I took down at the Edwin B. Forsythe bird sanctuary.  It's a quick hour drive from where I live and usually worth the trip as there are always a lot of birds there feeding in the marsh. This time there weren't as many herons or egrets as usual but there were a lot of terns flying by the road and managed to get a good shot of one in flight as shown in the top of the post. 

There was also an osprey hovering over the road. There are 3 or 4 osprey nest in the sanctuary but this is the first time I saw one flying around. Click on the picture if you want to see it up close. Since it is a slow flying bird I was able to get it in perfect focus and the lighting was good. 

For some reason there were a lot of turtles walking around so I had to be careful not to run over them. 

There are always seagulls and I manage to capture one with a crab in its mouth. 

 

I just wish the lighting was better as the colors are washed out. With my camera on rapid fire mode I took a lot of pictures most of them not worth showing but shooting a lot of photos is the only way to get a good photo of rapid moving wildlife. I am improving my technique so am getting a better ratio of keepers but there is still a good amount of luck and timing involved. 

This picture of a red winged black bird was mostly luck as I was just taking a picture of it sitting on a guard rail when it took off. Luckily my camera kept it in focus and because of was shooting at a high shutter speed it came out pretty sharp. These birds fly really fast so these are not birds that are easy to track in flight. 

I still have room for improvement but enjoy the challenge of this type of photography so will keep trying until I get it right. 

Bridge NOT Out

I led a ride from Yardley this past weekend that went over the Lamberville/New Hope bridge. The bridge was close to pedestrian and car traffic earlier in the year. Last year during some other work being done on the bridge they found that a 4 inch diameter pin was failing which could have caused the bridge to collapse. We go over the bridge on a regular basis so I'm glad the fixed it before it fell into the river. As part of the repair they refurbished the walkway. It's now wider so you don't have to duck into beams to let some on pass you. 

I had a full ride with a few riders that I haven't ridden before. Most of the new riders seemed to like the route and the ride and said they may join me again on my next ride. I don't really believe them because I have a lot of new people come on my rides but very few of them come back. Not sure why. Sure we are a little sarcastic but are a friendly bunch. 

It was a little cold at the start but ended being a beautiful day with no rain for once. We didn't even have any of my normal bridge out crossings or dirt so one of my better rides. This was one of the hillier rides I did this year but felt good so now that it is getting warmer I may venture a little further up the Delaware and explore some of the hills on both sides of the river. 

In other news. I did a ride around the Manasquan Reservoir today and can report that the reservoir is now full as you can see from these pictures of the visitor center

 

and from Georgia Road.

 

So I guess all the annoying rain we have been getting filled all the rivers and reservoirs. 

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