Pennypack 2016

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The trek to Pennypack park has become an annual tradition.  When there is too much snow on the ground to hit the road Pennypack is a good place to get a ride in. The parks paved bike path is a designated commuter route which means it gets plowed when it snows.

Last year I convinced Laura to join me. This year we got Ed to join us. It took a few emails to set up the logistics. Ed ended up meeting me at my house then we picked up Laura on the way to Pennypack.

We got to the park about 9:30am and were on our way about 10mins later after getting all our gear on. It was just around freezing so I was concerned about ice on the path but it was clear for the most part except over the bridges. Although we had a lot of melting this week there was still a good amount of snow on the ground. This made for a scenic ride where we stopped for the occasional picture along the way.

The first 7 miles went quick with only a closed bridge to slow us down. As most people know I haven't found a closed bridge I couldn't get around. This was the same bridge that was closed last year but this year they actually put a fence across to bridge that made it even harder to get over. You can check out Laura's blog for a picture of me climbing over the fence. 

The trail has 3 main parts. The first 7 miles gets you down to Frankford Ave. There then is a short part that gets you from Frankford to Torresdale and the last section gets you from, Torresdale to State Street and on to the Delaware river.

The section from Torresdale to State had not been plowed so although we could ride through some of the snow and clearer spots there were a few areas we had to walk over instead.

We did eventually get to the Delaware river to take in the view before heading back.

It took us about an hour to make our way back as we retraced our steps taking a few more pictures along the way. This is a very scenic ride and is different every time I do it so. It is not easy or fun to ride in the winter around here but Pennypack park is one of the places I look forward to ride when winter comes around.

Snowbound

Unlike last Saturday there was no doubt that riding would impossible today. At 7 am I had to dig through 6 inches of snow before I could let the dog out. Three hours later we had close to a foot and I made my first of pass with the snowblower over the driveway. The storm is going to continue into Sunday so there won't be the possibility of riding this weekend let alone leaving the house.

This did give me some time to finish my latest home office project which I started last weekend. What I built was a charging station for all my electronic. Normally I charge all my "stuff" by just plugging it into a plug strip but it is unorganized and takes up a lot of space.

I already had a 4 port USB charger and plug strip with individual switches for each plug. This made it easier to charge multiple USB devices but it was still a mess of wires.

I looked online to see what was available to buy as well as to see what other people had done. I found some repurposed  shoe boxes and bread boxes that were simple and functional but didn't fit exactly what I wanted so I took the best ideas from what I found and made my own.

I started by mounting the plug strip I already had on a board so it stood upright.

I then built a box around it. The idea was to hide all the plugs and wires in the box and just have the cables sticking out.

I had to build some special plug adapters to connect plugs that won't easily fit into the plug strip because of it now being inside a box. I then started plugging everything in and feeding the cables through the slots above the plug strip.

There is still a mess of wires connected to the plug strip.

However once the top is on the box all you see it the end of the cables.

And when everything is plugged in it is a lot more organized and takes up about half the room it use to.

The main innovation that I made over other charging stations that I have seen is that I added a slot in the back of the station so I can stand up an iPad or other type of tablet. This helps to minimize space and gives me place to store the tablet when I'm not using it. The other part of this charging station that is different than any other one that I have seen is that each plug has its own switch. This means I can turn off the plugs when I am not charging. Although most charging plugs use little to no power when they aren't being used to charge a device I like the fact that I can be sure I'm only powering the plugs when I need to charge something and am not wasting any power when I'm not.

This was actually an easy thing to build. It only took me a few hours to put it together. I probably spent more type designing it then building it but it was a fun diversion that kept me busy inside while I wasn't able to ride.

Wet or Cold

Somewhere around 35 degrees is my limit to riding in the cold on the road which is why I decide to do a mountain bike ride today. Saturday was close to 50 but the overnight rain had made the roads too wet to ride. When I woke up on Sunday it was just above freezing and so I knew I wasn't going to be on the road. I decided to ride along the canal from Washington Crossing.

I ended up going up just past Stockton and back. The trail along the Delaware is well maintained so it is a smooth ride for a trail. In the grey clouds of the winter day it was not a very scenic ride. The best part is between Lambertville and Stockton where you ride next houses along the canal. I ran into an interesting bridge just outside of Lambertville. It had some kind cruiser bike hanging from the bridge. Not sure it this was art or a warning to bikers who don't yield to pedestrians.

There are a few points along the path where is splits. The branches off the path are usually a little rougher but still don't require any stump jumping skills.

One of the branches had an abandon train car rotting that I took a picture of. No sure why this car is here but the tracks are missing a few hundred feet down the path so this car is here to stay .

I was on the trail for about two hours before I got back to the start. The temperature hadn't changed much so I was glad to get into the car and warm up. 

Winter Blues

Although I'm happy I got a ride in today, winter riding is a little depressing. I usually go out if the roads are clear and it is above freezing but it usually isn't a lot of fun. Today was warn enough to ride but the heavy overcast with occasional misty rain took some of the enjoyment out it.

I did have a few people join me today. Dave, Joe, and Mike meet me at Mercer County park for a 40 mile ride over some local roads so that part was fun. That and the fact that we had to negotiate a bridge that was out. I could go into detail about the crossing but since this is all too common on rides I lead all I need to say is that we made it across with out getting our feet wet and only a little mud was involved.

Last Ride of 2015

I had my last ride of the year on Wednesday. I did try to invite a few others to join me but got no takers so ended up doing the ride solo. Even though it has been very warm this December it hasn't been that great to ride as when it was warm it was overcast and rainy and the few sunny days we had it was cold. Wednesday was one of those overcast days when the roads were dry enough to ride but still wet in spots. I ended up with just under 40 miles. It wasn't a great ride but I wanted to get out when I can since we are now in winter and you have to get out when you can.

Since this is the last ride of the year I looked back on my year of riding which can be summed up in one word HIGHPOINTS.

I had a theme this year to get to the high point in every county of NJ that was on a rideable road. Except for Union Essex and Hudson. which are on roads too busy to get to, we got to every other highpoint in the state. I'm still not sure this whole highpoint theme was a good idea but we did have some interesting adventures along with a couple of rides that sucked. I have included a set of links to the high point rides below in case anybody is interest in reading about our adventures. It is amazing to me that after over 20 years of riding in NJ that I am still discovering new roads and new routes.

I did some riding in Virginia and Tennessee this year and they have some good roads there too but I still think NJ has a lot of variety and good scenery to offer any type of rider.  I don't have any theme or ideas for 2016 but I'm sure I will come up with something stupid to do.

Happy New Year. See you all on the bike in 2016

Middlesex high point
Mercer County high point
Monmouth  County high point
Ocean/Burlington high points.
Salem and Cumberland high points
Somerset high point
Hunterdon high point
Camden, Atlantic, Gloucester high points 
Sussex,Warren high points
Morris, Passaic,Bergen high points
Cape May high point

Muddy Monday

Decided to do a solo ride today since it looks like it will be raining for the next couple of days. Because of the cold I decided for a short trail ride to make sure my mountain bike is ready for the winter season. (Besides a slight seat height and rear break adjustment it worked just fine).

I started from Carnegie Lake and went up just past Rocky Hill and back. It was just over 40 degrees when I started and really didn't warm up much. It was sunny for the first time in about a week. The cloudy and rainy weather we have been having meant there were a lot of puddles to go around on the trail. Of course some times the only way over was through so I splashed some mud on me and the bike as I had to ride through some puddles that covered the whole path. 

My sun glasses were the cleanest part of me and from the waist down I was 50% mud. Despite the messy ride I do like this part of the trail as it has enough scenery to enjoy and it a little different every time.

I stopped by the dam to take the picture of the mill. This is the same shot I take almost every time I ride this trail. It looks much nicer when there is ice and snow.

I also got a picture of the lock by Kingston that had an interesting sun glint in it.

It looks like we might have one more mild day on Thursday so if the forecast holds I will probably try to organize a ride from Mercer or Etra.

Ye Olde Cranbury Ride

Our families really don't exchange presents since non of us needs more stuff. Christmas, for us, is more about getting together as a family. We do exchange some little trinkets like ornaments or candy. My sister also tries to find the most horrendous cheap Christmas decoration to give to us. A few years ago she gave us a rapping snowman which dances and raps Christmas songs and is offensive on many levels. We have tried to find something to one up her but there is nothing worst than the rapping snowman. This year a plastic deer that plays Christmas songs with flashing lights was the worst thing she could find.

With Christmas over it is now time to get back to riding. Today I lead a pick up ride out of Cranbury. When I first started riding with the club I would go out of Cranbury every week because if was a close and easy ride to do and I really liked the people that rode out of there. For the past 10 years I only go to Cranbury occasionally as I tried to add more variety to my riding.

 Today I didn't have any thing in the book but the HoneyDo ride listed the C++ leader as volunteer so I sent out a email to let few people know that I would be there and hoped a few would show.

When I got there at 9am Chris and Joe were waiting for me and then Peter and another person decided to join us. We did a 45 mile loop to Millstone and back with a stop at Roy's Deli. I have not been out in a couple weeks since I had a cold last week. Because of excess of Christmas food and the lingering cold I felt a little out of shape. Still it felt good to get out.

I am off for the next week so I hope to get a couple of rides in between the forecast rain.