Naked Legs

This past Saturday I went on a ride with the Philadelphia Bike Club (PBC). The ride was out of Lambertville so it was close by. I had planned to be on this ride a couple of months ago when Linda, president of PBC, asked me to help her with a route in the area.

Of course I didn't know what the weather would be a couple of months ago but it turned out to be a warmish day. At the start it was 55 and sunny so I debated for a few minutes whether to wear the tights or not. Most people were still bundling up in jackets and tights but I hate carrying discarded cloths so I ditched the jacket and tights.

As we headed up Alexauken Creek Rd I felt almost naked compared to the bike cloths I have been wearing for the past few months. I was also a little chilly but by the time I got to the top of the hill I was warming up.

Linda had a good crowd there were 11 of us including Joe and Dave who I persuaded to join the ride. The goal of the ride was to explore Hunterton County so we zig-zaged our way through the Sourlands towards Flemington and onwards towards Round Valley although we didn't go to the reservoir itself.

I was concerned with the hills since I have not done many this year but I actually didn't feel bad. The real problem was the wind which was gusting to over 20 mph. By the time we got to the stop in Flemington Dave and Joe decided to drop from the ride and take off on their own and make a shorter ride. The rest of us continued on and although the wind didn't stop we got into a rhythm and keep cranking the miles away.

Although I don't know a lot of people in PBC there were a couple on the ride that I knew so it was a good social ride. Jim had some deep thoughts on bike friends in his last blog post. The question is are the people we ride with week in and week out real friends or just people we like to bike with. The answer is they are real friends and in fact they feel like a family to me. When Jim had his accident last week we all responded like a family would and did what we could to help give him some emotional support.

This is partly because we all like Jim and partly because we are bikers and when anything happens to any biker we all feel the pain. Being an avid biker means entering into a larger community of shared experiences that all bikers have. I have met many bikers on the road who are total strangers but after a few minutes of exchanging stories we quickly build a connection.

The fact that I don't see my bike friends much outside of biking has more to do with everybody having our own busy family life which doesn't leave much free time for other social events. Still I spend 4 to 5 hours a week with riding and talking to my bike friends so I think I know more about them then most of the other people in my life. I'm sure like most friendships some will fade and disappear overtime and some may grow stronger as life and circumstances evolve. Although they say you can choose your friends the truth is you find some of them as you are riding along a road.

So even though I don't see Linda or some of the other people from PFW or PBC that often I still consider them to be friends and will always enjoy the social aspect of biking when our paths cross.

Twinkies vs Dreamies

Its Easter again which means we are hosting the family for the celebration. Besides all the good food my wife makes she also tries to make a visually interesting dessert with an Easter theme.

This year it took her a while to come up with an idea but finally settled on making cars with rabbits in them. The cars are Twinkies with a peep rabbit and a pretzel for the steering wheel. The wheels themselves are marshmallow. 

Actually the cars are not real Twinkies but the the Tastycake equivalent (Dreamies) We actually ended up buying both Twinkies and Dreamies while shopping because we wanted to make sure we had enough. This gave me a unique opportunity to compare the two. I know many people were concerned when Hostess announced they were shutting down in November 2012 that the Twinkie would be gone and for a while it was. This lead other bakeries like Tastycake to try and fill the void.

So here the verdict. The Dreamie is close but it is a little drier and not as sweet as the Twinkie. I also think the filling in the Twinkie is a little better. You would think that a bakery like Tastycake could make a perfect copy of a Twinkie but I guess the secret recipe is still safe. I don't eat this type of food a lot but given a choice I would stick with the Twinkie. 

Middlesex Highpoint

This Saturday I started my quest to ride to every high point to each county in NJ. I started with a close and easy one, Middlesex. Now the highest point in each county may not be on a road so we get as close as we can. To figure out that point I use a couple of different sources. The first is NJBikemap,com which has the highest point in each county as well as the highest rode in each county. I also used Peakbagger.com to verify where each counties high point is. Lastly I used my Delorme mapping software which has a detailed topographical map.

Still with all these resources it is still hard to find the exact highest road in any county. When all else fails I just rely on NJBikemap because I just need to get close. As always it is about the adventure not the actual goal. There are 21 counties NJ and even though some are close enough to do together in a single ride it will probably take the entire ride year to get to them all.

Going to every high point in each county of the state should lead to some interesting rides as it may take me to roads I have not seen before and will allow me to explore some weirdness that is spread through out the state.

On today's ride we hit the high point of Middlesex county on Sand Hill Rd just west of Rt 1. At the point on the road where NJBikemap says the highpoint is my GPS said 282 ft which is close to the actually 300 ft official high point which is just south of the roads in the woods. As we road up Major Rd up to Rt 1 it seemed like road was actually a little higher on the east side of Rt 1 but according to my GPS it was about the same. Where the actual high point was doesn't matter we rode through it at some point.

The plan for each high point is to stop for a group picture to record the moment. I also take a picture of my GPS to record the height. So in the picture above you see the group that came along with me as well as the reading from my GPS. One down 20 more to go.

For this ride the weirdness was to see a giant cow. Animals have been used since the beginning of advertising to help sell products. One of the original animal spokes creatures was Elise the cow who helped Borden sell their milk and other diary products. She was one of the most popular animals and although she started out as a drawing Borden eventually had a real cow making public appearances at county fairs, baseball games and even the worlds fair. Elise was actually a NJ cow and is buried just off Plainsboro Rd. You can see a brief history of Elise here.

On Middlebush Rd there is a remnant of Elise. A 12 ft high statue of here that was used as a parade float. So after we  got to the Middlesex high point we headed to the farm where the statue of Elise is before heading down to the canal on our way home.

I threw in one other surprise before the rest stop, a climb up Coppermine. At the top of Coppermine we were at 344 ft which is higher than the Middlesex high point but Coppermine is in Somerset county. From there we made a stop in at the bakery in Kingston before heading back to Cranbury.

The weather is still on the cold side but we go over 40 miles in and have started the official season. I have posted the tentative dates for my other high point rides so you can see what is ahead.

April 18 - Mercer County high point
April 26 - To Infinity and Beyond (Monmouth  County high point)
May 16 - Ocean Burlington high points.
May 30 - Southern Safari (Salem and Cumberland high points)
June 6 -  Somerset high point
July 11 - Schooley's Mountain (Hunterdon high point)
July 25 - Greenwood Lake (Passaic Bergen high points)
Aug 8 - Cape May high point
Aug 22 - Top of the state (Sussex,Warren high points)
Aug 23 - Morris high point
Sept 19 - Basto Roundabout (Camden, Atlantic, Gloucester high points)

* Union, Essex, and Hudson high points are on roads too busy to ride on so we may visit them by car

More Snow

Since the theme of the day seems to be posting pictures of the snowy landscape of our yards here are a few from my neck of the woods. The beauty of the snow almost make you forget that this is going to make it hard to ride any where this week end

The front of my house

Some scenes from my back yard

Frozen

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To continue my rant from last week.....

I hate those Disney douchebags. Unless you are one of those reclusive cat ladies (Laura) you are probably sick and tired of the movie Frozen and it's Let it Go theme song that is constantly being sung on some TV show. The movie Frozen made icy winter landscapes look fun and magical (and as we all know from this winter that is certainly not the case). I get that its a fantasy world meant to be the background for the story but kids, and some adults, get so wrapped up in it that they can't tell fantasy from reality. In fact some police departments have gone so far as to put out an arrest warrant for Elisa for causing this winter's massive cold and snow. All this does of course is just to feed the Disney marketing machine causing them to put more subliminal mind control voodoo in their movies to subvert our youth. 

Although it was still cold this weekend it was just warn enough to ride on Saturday. There was too much snow to try the roads so I headed back to Tyler State Park. This time I was joined by Laura, Ron and Chris.Although I had done Tyler park a couple weeks ago I didn't mind doing it again since it meant enjoying the usual disrepectful banter with each other as we ride.

We did an outer and inner loop through the park and probably ended up with around 15 miles. This past week has been very cold so all the rivers and creeks were mostly frozen over. By the end of the second loop it was still below freezing and my feet were getting cold so I decided to call it a day. We did spend some time taking about future rides and trips so I can't wait until it gets a little warmer so we can get back to our normal bike ride schedule.

It's Fucking Cold !!!!

I know it can be cold during the winter but this year has been ridiculous. It hasn't been just below freezing cold. It has been a snot freezing, balls receding, can't feel my toes, mind going numb, oh this must be what hypothermia feels like kind of cold.

I blame Canada for all this. For years they have keep their arctic blasts mostly too themselves with only occasional intrusions to remind us how miserable it must be to live up in that barren wasteland. But this year they must have thrown that Canadian politeness out the door because they sent that arctic cold down for good. January was 3.5 degrees colder than average and February was almost 10 degrees colder than normal with a number of nights below 0 (that's 0 degrees Fahrenheit for you metric pussies)

I say screw the Keystone pipeline let's head up to Canada and light up that mother fucking tar sand. Yea it may not be the best thing to do for the environment but I could do with a little global warming right about now.

Now you may think that this rant is caused by me having cabin fever but I assure you that is not the case. Unlike the dickless beantown bastards that are jumping out of their houses into the snow (i.e. #BostonBlizzardChallenge) I am not letting the cold interfere with my normal social life. In fact I was in Red Bank last night for an amazing concert by a bunch of a capella groups. This is the second year we have gone and as it was last year we were blown  away by what talented people can do with just their voices. One performance went from a beat box ping pong match to a cheesy but extremely funny fake album commercial to a jump up and got to dance version of Bruno Mars's Uptown Funk. I wish they did more of these types of shows in our area because they are some of the best entertainment I have ever been too.

This cold weather has reduced my bike riding in fact today I was going to head back to Tyler State Park but it is too cold. This will be the second weekend in a row I will not be on the bike and I can tell by the email exchanges that most of us need some riding time. But it looks like that furry fat rodent Punxsutawney Phil was right winter is going to be around for a few more weeks.

Tyler State Park

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I have been thinking of riding in Tyler State Park since the weather turned cold. I could have went on the road with Laura and crew but it was a little below my threshold for riding on the road. It was also a chance to ride through the snow again which is one of the few benefits of riding in the winter.

Tyler State Park was one of the ride I did  for my Philadelphia book. It is a beautiful park along the Neshaminy Creek with a set of paved paths among the hills by the creek. When I mapped out this ride for the book is was the summer so it was interesting to come back in the winter. Because of the cold weather the snow we got a few weeks ago is still around. However it turns out that the plow the pave paths of the park like Pennypack so the riding was snow and ice free for the most part.

I ended up doing two loops around the park an outer and inner loop so that I could explore all the different paths.  I probably ended up doing around 15 miles. The ride was very scenic. Besides the Neshaminy Creek the park is littered with other small streams. The terrain goes between open fields and dense forest and is very rolling with a couple of actual climbs. Although I am inching to get back on the road again this was a good way to get a work out while waiting for cleaner roads and warmer temperatures.