Snow Biking

So far this winter is shaping up to be a cold and snowy one a little like last year. We had a big snow storm right after Christmas and a few small ones since. This have left the roads unrideable and with the temperatures not getting much above freezing it could be a while before I am able to ride on the road again.

This has lead me to try out mountain biking in order to continue biking this winter. Chris, Laura, Mike and others have been doing this for years and it looked like fun so I decided it was time to give it a try. I don't have a mountain bike and did want to keep borrowing other peoples so I went the Trenton Bike Exchange. The Trenton Bike Exchange has a lot of old used bikes that are relatively cheap $25 to $200. They didn't have a lot of choices in mountain bikes that fit me. I ended up getting an old Giant mountain bike that is at least 10 years old and a little beat up but is good cheap bike that will let me try mountain biking an see if I really like it.

After cleaning up the bike and adding some new pedals I headed to Mercer Park this past Sunday. We had just gotten a couple of inches of snow which was enough to be fun but not too deep to make riding impossible. Chris and Mike M joined me for the ride which is good since they know the trails better than I do. They called me a snow virgin and did seem to take some joy at the fact that I hadn't ridden in snow before which meant they were going to enjoy watching me fall on my ass.

Riding in the snow was fun but hard. I don't have a lot of experience riding mountain bikes so my handling abilities are not that good on smooth dirt let alone slippery snow. Keeping my balance was tough especially in deep snow. I went down a number of times which I'm learning is just part of mountain biking. As Mike said "when you fall on a road bike its called a crash, when you fall on a mountain bike it is just a fall". Luckily the snow was still soft and fluffy.

It was really pretty riding through the snow although I was concentrating on keeping from falling. We ended up going around the other side of the lake and for the most part the snow was only a couple of inches deep but there were spots where the drifts were deep so we did a bit walking. There were also spots where there was a lot of a ice under the snow which were impossible to ride through.

Chris's mountain bike skills again impressed me. He seems to be able to ride though almost any thing and was a lot faster than I was. It was cold and windy but being in the woods blocked the wind. Riding a mountain bike is hard work especially in the snow so I warmed up pretty quick and was never really was cold.

By the time we got to the other side of the lake we were a little tired so we took an easier way back. We ended up on the paved bike path which was snow covered but ridable until we got near the tennis courts where the drifts were too deep to keep riding. We switched to the road for the rest of the way back to the boat house. This was the only time on the whole ride that I felt how windy it really was.

We ended up spending over 2 hours riding/walking in the snow. I was a little tired and sore. My wife thought I was crazy to go riding in the snow but it was a fun time. I got to test out the bike and do a different type of riding. I can't say I'm a mountain biker yet but I am not longer a snow virgin I am a snow novice.

Chris and Tom's Excellent Mountain Bike Adventure

Whenever its got too cold to ride on the road some of my friends get their riding fix by doing some mountain bike riding. It sounds and looks like fun but I've never joined them mostly because I don't own a mountain bike. I have done some mountain bike riding out west in Moab on vacation and few other times have and enjoyed it but never really went any further than that.

This past Saturday the high was only suppose to get to 35 degrees which is too cold for me to ride on the road. Lucky Chris emailed me asking me if I wanted to join him in Mercer County Park for a mountain bike ride and I decided why not.

Chris has an extra mountain bike so I didn't have to worry about finding or borrowing any equipment. We met at the boat house at 9am and the temperature was all of 25 degrees but it was sunny with no wind so it wasn't that bad. The bike Chris had for me fit pretty well and after a quick ride around the parking lot we were off.

Before I got use to the pedals and gears we were in the woods and I was more concerned about not hitting the trees than learning how to shift. I was a little surprised how narrow the trail was but got use to it. I consider myself to be expert at handling a road bike but mountain biking requires a slightly different mind and skill set. It did take me long to realize that I would need to learn some new skills to not fall on my ass and keep up with Chris. Things that you avoid at all cost on a road bike like sand and tree limbs are just part of normal mountain bike trail. So when I come over a small rise and see a sandy path with roots and tree limbs across it the road biker in my mind tells me to stop and walk the bike along the trail. Then I see Chris breeze through it and I tell myself that this is a mountain bike and it can handle it.

Mercer County Park has a wide variety of trails that could keep you busy for a good part of the day. There are narrow deep wood trails along small streams, sandy trails along the lake and some open grass land. Chris lead me through a number of different trails and I lost track of where I really was but I starting to relax and enjoy it. I was still cautious but Chris gave me some good tips and as I practiced some more I was got use to jumping over tree limbs and handling the twisting trails. There are a couple of cool areas in the woods. One is called the bowl which is a little like a half pipe on a ski slope where you can ride in and out of a sandy bowl shaped area. There is also a place along the trail that has some ramps and other man made obstacle. I didn't try any of them but Chris tried the pivoting ramp out a couple of times. The first time up the ramp it didn't pivot correctly because it was frozen to the ground so Chris had to bail but made it OK the second time.

After about an hour and a half I lost sight of Chris and must have made a wrong turn because he was no where in sight. I figured Chris would give me up for dead at some point and come back to his car so I headed back towards the parking lot. Once I got there I saw John P who also decided to do some mountain biking. Ten minutes later Chris was back. I decided I had enough for today but John and Chris headed out for another loop. All and all it was a lot of fun and something I think I would like to do more of.

Road Closed

For the past 3 weeks every ride I have done has involved a detour of some kind. This usually involves adding a few more miles to the ride which is not a problem in the summer but when the weather gets cold the extra miles mean that it will be a little longer until you can warm up again.

The roads that are closed are Windsor Rd. The bridge over the turnpike is under construction so from Rt 130 you can take Perrineville to Allens to get around this.

Iron Ore Rd is closed just south of McCaffery so you can't get to Daum Rd.

Sweetmans Lane has a bridge out just west of Kinney Rd. To get around this from Kinney you can take Thompson Grove to Mill to Oakland Mill Rd.

Most of these closures should be gone by spring and aren't hard to get around but it is always nice to know about them so you can plan your rides accordingly. Since they have started widening the turnpike I suspect there will be a number of intermittent road closures around the bridges crossing for the next few years.

Home Improvement

This pass summer saw some construction at my house as we added a sunroom over an existing patio. We have been thinking about this for a few years and finally decided to go for it. We wanted the sunroom so that we could extend the summer and enjoy the outdoors when the weather starts getting colder. So we now have a sunroom and when the sun is out the room heats up quickly and we can sit in the warmth and feel like we are sitting outside. The room has floor to ceiling windows and a couple of skylights so it feels very open.

As with any construction project it took longer than we expected and cost more than we wanted to spend but the results were what we wanted. Although this will improve the value of my house this expense was definitely a unnecessary luxury but one we will really enjoy. The other unnecessary luxury we decided to spurge on for the room was an indoor pool. Now this is not a large built-in pool like you would see in a hotel but more like a portable above ground pool. It was relatively affordable and is going to make this winter a lot more fun.

My wife is a water aerobic instructor and loves the water. During the summer she lives in our pool. The saddest day of the year, for her, is when the pool is closed for the winter. I'm don't enjoy the pool as much as my wife but there is nothing better after a ride to take a dip in the pool to sooth my tired muscles.

So now that we have an outdoor room and an indoor pool winter is going to be a lot more enjoyable because when I get home from a cold winter ride I will be able to take a soak in a pool no matter what the weather is outside.

The Long Cold Winter

Although my Vegas trip was fun I rode by myself so it’s been nice to get back home where I can ride with my friends again. The days are getting shorter and the weather is getting colder. This usually means shorter rides closer to home as I try to maintain some level of fitness through the winter. Riding to me is more than just exercise it also very social as I usually try to do a least one ride each weekend with some of my friends. I have been with the Princeton Freewheelers for almost 20 years and have come to know a lot of people in the club. Even though I don't see most of these people out side of biking when you ride 3 or 4 hours a week with some one over the course of many years you get to know them pretty well and become good friends. I am lucky because I have a good core of people that I ride with that I really enjoy being around.

During the winter I don’t see as many of these people because of my shorter more local rides. It’s always fun in the spring to reconnect again. This year unfortunately I will not be able to reconnect with one of my friends, Joe McBride, who was killed in a tragic bike accident just over a week ago. Laura posted a good Eulogy about Joe in words and pictures that describes him pretty well. There is also a Facebook page that has similar words about how much he will be missed. I really can’t add much more about Joe that hasn’t already been said. He was a great guy who's colorful language and sarcastic nature made him unique and fun ride with. Although riding during the cold weather can be fun and interesting in its own way, it is a little tough at times and makes you wish for the longer days and the warmer weather of the spring and summer months. This winter will be a little tougher as I know during some of the rides my thoughts will turn to Joe and how much I will miss him.

Vegas Baby !!!

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When most people think of Vegas they think of gambling, extravagant shows, CSI, and maybe a few of sinful things that this town is famous for. Vegas is a gaudy congested mess of a city that is fun, in its own way, for a couple of days. Its one of the most popular places for business conferences so chances are if you attend these types of things you will make it to Vegas at some point in your career. If you travel a little outside of Vegas you will find some beautiful desert terrain and some nice mountain ranges. This makes for some good mountain biking and some decent road biking so when I had to attend a conference this week in Vegas I added a few days to the front end of the trip to explore some of the roads.

One of the most popular places to ride outside of Vegas is Red Rock Canyon. Red Rock Canyon is nestled in the mountains north west of Vegas it’s only about 20 miles from the strip. Planning the route to ride was pretty easy because there aren’t many roads out by Red Rock. You basically just get on Rt 159 and head towards the mountains. I started my ride from a shopping mall where interstate 215 and Rt 159 meet. There is a bike lane here that turns into a wide shoulder so although Rt 159 has some traffic you really don’t have to worry about the cars.

I started my ride early in the morning to take advantage of clear skies that were supposed to cloud up latter. The first couple of miles were a slow constant climb to get over a small hill that was in front of the mountains. I was on a rented bike, a Cannodale Synapse 5 Alloy which is the next model down to my Cannodale Synapse 5 Carbon so if felt pretty familiar although it took a little bit to get used to the gearing which was a compact.

Once I got over the hill I caught the full view of the mountains. As I rode the next 4 mile I watched the sun slowly light up the mountains. This was a really cool effect. What happens is as the sun rises and shines more light on the mountains the colors get more and more vivid and it looks like the mountains are being painted before your eyes. It was partly cloudy so the sun was going in an out and the effect was some what muted but still cool.

I had a 5 mile ride from where I started to get to Red Rock. Although the road looked flat it was actually a constant shallow climb. Red Rock Canyon has a 13 mile scenic road that is run by the park service. This scenic road takes you up into the canyon to get a closer view of the mountains and the valleys. From my research I knew the terrain would be hilly and require some climbing but it wasn’t anything tougher than I have done in NJ just a lot longer. The first 5 miles of the road is mostly uphill where you climb a little over 1000 ft in 5 miles. The grade is 4-6% with some small spots in the 10 percent range. What’s different here is the perspective. The mountains that surround the canyon are tall and steep so when you see a road next to then that is going up at a 10% grade it looks almost flat. So as you are riding you are reluctant to down shift because you mind is telling you that the road is flat.

Once I understood this though I was better able to grind my way up the canyon. I stopped 3 or 4 times to take pictures and let my heart rate come down but it wasn’t too tough of climb. I don’t know if I could do it with out stopping with the compact gearing I had but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. There were only a few cars on the road and maybe 3 or 4 other bikers so it felt as I had the place to myself. When I reached the top of the climb I looked back to where I came from and saw a smoky haze in the valley below. The smoke obscured the mountains but was pretty. The pictures I took don’t really convey the size or majesty of the view but it made the climb worth it.
The rest of the scenic road was mostly downhill with a few small climbs here and there. The scenic road is one way but I saw a constant stream of runners coming at me. When I left the scenic road and got back to Rt 159 I saw a rest stop for what looked like a marathon run. As I headed towards the town of Blue Diamond I ran in to more and more runners and a lot of support vehicles cheering them on. Most of the vehicles where decorated with a theme “Secret Ninja Monkey”, “The A Team”, “Saturday Night Fever”, and many other bizarre ones. This made the ride to Blue Diamond entertaining.

Blue Diamond is only about 20 miles out side of Vegas and it’s a totally different world. The sign welcoming you to town Reads:

The town itself has a bike shop, a little food store and a few small houses spread around a couple of streets that make up the town. The town makes you feel like you are in the middle of the desert hundreds miles away from any civilization. The bike shop was the satellite branch of the one I rented my bike from and had some Gatorade, food and a couple of nice chair out side. I spend about 20 mins there talking to some people working at the shop and a few other bikers.

After the break I headed back the way I came along Rt 159 back to where I started. The wind and elevation was against me most of the way so it was a slow going but the mountains surrounding the roads were pretty so it was a nice ride. By the time I got back to the car I had done a little over 40 miles and around 3000 ft of total climbing. It was a fun ride mostly because of the scenery.

Sunday I headed towards Lake Mead which is on the south east side of Vegas. They just completed the River Loop Trail which is a paved bike trail that is a 35 mile loop that goes through the mountains of south east Vegas and along the west side of Lake Mead, I was a little unsure of the exact route because the information that I found online was a little vague about the details of the trail and so I had a hard time finding the where to park to get on the trail.

I ended up just parking close to where I thought it would be and heading towards Lake Mead on Rt 146. Worst case I would end up riding along the roads instead of the trail. After 7 or 8 miles I was at the entrance to the Lake Mead recreational area and found access to the trail. I looked over information about the trail and it looked like a good route to take. The one thing that gave me pause to getting on the trail was the warning about mountain goats. Apparently according to a biker I ran into later there are quite a few mountain goats in these parts and every now and then they will try to head butt some passing bikers.

The spot where I hopped on the trail was right before a small hill that I needed to climb to get to the valley where Lake Mead is. Although the trail was paved it was laid out like it was a mountain biking trail with switch backs, hairpin turns, and shear drop offs on both sides of the trail. The path was very twisty, steep and windy both going up the hill and down the other side. With the shear drops on both sides and no barriers it was fun in a scary kind of way. Once I was at the valley and riding along the west side of Lake Mead the trail got straighten out and got a lot easier to ride. There had actually been a lot of rain the week before I got to Vegas so although the trail was wider and flatter there were a number spots where dirt and rocks covered the road and required me to walk the bike acrossed some of them.

I meet a few other bikers riding the trail and spend about 5 miles talking with one of them. Lake Mead is really low, the lowest it has been since the 1930s when it was first formed by the Hoover Dam so the lake looked really empty and not real pretty. Eventually I saw the point in Lake Mead where the Hover Dam starts. I was going to take the road to Hover Dam and try out the new bridge over the dam since I hear it was open but couldn’t get any reliable information about it. Since Sept 11th 2001 no trucks have been allow over the Hover Dam because fear that some one might try and blow it up. This caused all trucks to have to take a 20 mile detour which added a lot of time to each trip. Nevada decided to build a new bridge and road about a mile south of the dam. This new bridge had just opened this past weekend. It was suppose to be an engineering marvel as well as provide a great view of the dam.

It might had been cool to try and ride over the bridge but by the time I get near the dam I was running a little late and wasn’t 100% sure how to get to the dam and back. Some of the biker I ran into said I could take a rail trail off the River Loop Trail that was paved others said it was still dirt and a few others suggested to just take the road. I decided I didn’t want to risk getting lost so I just continued on the River Loop Trail.

From Lake Mead the trail heads to Boulder City which is on the top of the mountain above the lake. Getting to the top of the mountain required a 1000 ft climb that lasted 3.5 miles. The climb didn’t look bad from the map I had looked at but actually doing it was tougher than I thought. Again the mountains make the road look flatter than it is. The hard part wasn’t the grade which was 4-5% it was the fact that the hill just keep on going and going. It was more a mental challenge than a physical challenge. The scenery here wasn’t as nice as the somewhat similar climb in Red Rock I had done the previous day. I had no problem keeping the pedals moving or keeping my heart rate in check the problem was that after 10 mins of climbing I was only half way up the hill. Getting to the top was satisfying though. It was probably the longest continuous climb I have ever done and something that just can’t be found in NJ.

After riding along the top of the ridge for a while there was one more little climb to get over rail road pass. There was a train going over the pass when I got there and I was able to actual pull ahead of the train at the top of the pass. Of course the train was pulling a couple of hundred tons over the pass where I was just getting my fat ass over it so it was a hollow victory but these are the strange games you play when riding alone.
After the pass I continued along the trail for another 5 miles of mostly gentle down hills before leaving the trail to go back to the road to find my car. I ended up with 37 miles and 3700 ft of climbing. The River Loop Trail was actually one of the nicer bike trails that I have done and I would like to do it again someday and hopefully explore a little more.

Riding around Las Vegas was a good change of pace. The scenery is a lot different than I’m used to and the climbs are longer. Although I road the roads around Vegas I ran into a lot of mountain bikers as well who told me how good the trails are so if I come back to a conference out here again I might try to do a little mountain biking.

Where is Everybody!!!

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This past Saturday I had a planned a beautiful fall foliage ride through Califon. Unfortunately the weather wasn't idea for the ride. It was overcast and really windy. I usually don't get a lot of people when I ride up in Califon but I knew I was in trouble when I pulled into the parking lot and nobody was there.

At 9am still nobody, oh well I guess I'm riding this one alone. I thought about bagging the ride because of the conditions but I am headed to Las Vegas next week for work and plan to do some rides in the canyons out there and wanted the hill work.

I knew the ride was going to suck as made a right out of Raritan college and had to pedal down the hill. The wind was ferocious but got a little better as I got into the more wooded areas. The wind was at least a constant 20mph with gusts close to double that. I almost got blown over a couple of times.

Going up Rockaway road was pretty as always and the leaves were at their peak. It was also cool the way the leaves were being blown around in the wind. There were mini tornados of leaves everywhere. Of course I was being constantly pummeled by acorns, tree branches and other flying debris but the worst thing was the sound of the wind. It was a constant hum like a freight train approaching.

Towards the top of the hill there is a wide angle mirror where Rockaway meets Still Hollow. I snapped a picture as I went by that made a cool self portrait.

I made my way through Califon and then climbed up Schooleys mountain and made a stop at the general store up there. One thing I realized is that although the hills block some of the wind when you get to the of the hill it only gets windier. I did see one other biker along the way and he looked about as happy as I was but a least I knew there was another person crazy enough to go out in this wind.

After the rest stop the wind got a lot worst. The wind went from ferocious to down right ridiculous. This did give me the chance to solve one of the worlds most important philosophical riddles.

"If Tom curses at the gale force winds and nobody is around to hear it does he make a sound"

The answer is NO! because the f#*king wind is so loud it drowns out any other sound.

I did get a couple of breaks from the wind on some of the down hills. I went down Middle Valley with and its hairpin turn with a 25 degree down slope. This hill is scary fun and as dangerous as it sounds but its was too cool to pass up. The other break I got was the last 5 miles when I finally had a tail wind. I actually hit 35 mph on the flat with almost no pedaling.

By the time I got back to the college between all the hills and the constant wind I was really beat. Even though it was a lonely tough ride it was still fun. Which goes to prove that even a crappy bike ride is still better than most other things.