Pennypack 2022

It was another Saturday that was too cold to hit the road so I decided to take a trip to Pennypack park. It's a bit of a drive but I wanted to do something different and I hadn't been to Pennypack since 2017. At least this time there was no snow to deal with so it made riding easier. 

This year I got Laura and Ricky to join me. We started at Pine Hill Rd which is the northern end and headed down to the Delaware. The first few miles are some short but steep little hills. The trail follows Pennypack creek and so it is scenic although it is a little barren this time of year. It's much prettier with a little snow. 

When we got down to the river we found the SS Minnow in a cove next to a fixed up pier which is now covered with grass. 

We were also able to get further down the path and saw where Pennypack empties into the Delaware. There is actually a new bridge that goes over to an island but the bridge is only open in the summer. 

We did have a couple of mechanicals.  A screw came out of Ricky's cleat and made it almost impossible to get his cleat off his petal so he took the cleat off and rode without it. I also dropped my chain a couple of times on a one by which shouldn't happen. I kept it in the bigger gears and that fixed the problem but there is probably an alignment issue that needs to be addressed.

One the way back we stopped for some pictures. There is a waterfall that I always try to get a picture of. It never comes out good but I keep trying anyway. The first shot below I got photo bombed by Pennypack Devil

Here is the second one with a close up of the falls. 

One of these days I get a good picture of it. 

It was a good ride and a nice change of pace. The weather looks like it is getting warmer so hopefully I will be on the road for a real ride next week.

Henry Hudson Trail

It seems like all my post this year are about riding in the cold and snowy weather because that is how it has been this winter. I did get out in last weekends and did a nice flat 40 mile ride. It was a good break from the cold although I was pretty beat by the end of the ride since I don't have a lot of miles in this year. 

This Saturday although the weather was close to 40 I decided not to go out on the road because of the 20+ mph winds with even stronger gusts. Instead I decided to ride the lower end of the Henry Hudson trail. The trail is through mostly wooded areas so has some cover from the wind. The trail starts on the east side of Freehold and goes all the way to Sandy Hook but I only went as far as Keyport. The trail is paved so I didn't have to worry about it being muddy from the rain we had during the week. It also meant I could use my road bike. There are a few spots where tree roots make the trail a little bumpy but overall the trail was easy to ride on my road bike. 

The trail is not real scenic but I did detour off the trail in Keyport to get a view of Raritan Bay. You could actually see the Verrazzano Narrows bridge and the NY skyline. I only brought my phone with me so I didn't get any zoomed in shots of the skyline. Maybe I will come back with a real camera in the summer when the weather is better. I didn't spend much time by the water as the wind was wiping so hard you had to lean into it.

From Keyport I just followed the trail back to Freehold. It seem to get colder and windier so I was glad as I was on the trail as it blocked a good part of the wind. By the time I got back to Freehold there were some snow flurries. It wasn't as bad as the snow squall we got later but was a reminder that it is still winter. 

Still it was good to get out for a ride even though it was a cold one. It did give me a chance to test my new pedals and cleats. 

They no longer make the version of the Speedplay pedals and cleats I currently have on my bikes and although the pedals had some more mile in them my cleats did not. Wahoo bought Speedplay and revamped the pedals. I got the new Speedplay Comp pedals which are similar to the ones I had. They do have better bearings and more adjustments an are better version of the pedal in general. The cleats also have a built in cover that makes walking much better. Even better than the cleat and cover I use to have. They feel a little different than my old pedals and took about half the ride to get use to the feel of them. I'm glad they didn't discontinue these pedals. I know this is not one of more popular pedals and they don't do well if they get dirty but I really like the amount of float the pedals have and the way they feel so will be using them as long as they are available. 

Another Cold Ride

Snow storms and cold weather has made it almost impossible to get out for a ride. We had a few days of warm weather and rain, this week, which got rid of most of the snow. Of course then it got cold for the weekend. It was just warm enough for me on Saturday to attempt a ride. My go to place for a cold ride from my new home is Allaire state park. There is a pave path to Manasquan as well as some dirt paths and single track. 

Even though we got a small dusting of snow Friday night the path to Manasquan was mostly clear. The couple of spots with snow were crunchy and not icy. When I got to Manasquan I rode along the beach the before riding the roads along the Manasquan river to get back to the path

 

It was cold but I had every piece of warm weather gear I own on so I was warm enough. It was the strong west wind that made the ride painful. Still I don't like indoor trainers so I would rather deal with the cold and wind than spin on a trainer. Hopefully the weather will warm up a little so I can get longer ride in.

Some Pictures for a Snowy Day

It was another cold and snowy weekend. We ended up getting some where between 15-18 inches of snow. Normally the higher snow totals are in the north and east of the state but for some reason this year the higher totals have been by the coast. 

It was very windy during the storm so there was a lot of snow drifts around including some funky one at our front door.

The only shoveling I had to do during the storm was to clear out enough room for Frisket to go out and do her business. It wasn't a lot of fun to take her out during the storm. 

 

It's going to be a while before I will be using the grill or sitting out on the patio

 

The snow does look nice in the woods behind us. But seeing the piles of snow on the street and in front of the house it's going to be around a while. Let's hope it melts enough so I can get out for a ride next weekend. 

Cold Weather

The snow of last week melted but the cold weather has stayed with us which has made it hard to get out for a ride. As long as it is above 20 degrees and there is not too much snow on the ground I can usually get out for some kind of ride. This weekend was at the edge of my limits. I initially was going to join Laura and a few others and ride the canal by Washington Crossing but the temperature was going to be below my limit and then there was the wind. The main reason I wanted to go was because I haven't been over the Scudder's Falls bridge bike lane yet but I can do that when it gets a little warmer. 

Instead I chose to ride the part of Capital to Coast trail (the Edgar Felix part) that goes from Allaire State park to Manasquan. It's a paved trail of about 7 miles. The trail ends in the middle of Manasquan and it's only a few miles to the beach.  Between the trail and the ride to and from the beach you can get put together a 15 to 20 mile ride. This included a ride on the boardwalk along the beach(which is actually not a board walk but a paved path). I stopped at the Manasquan inlet but only for a few seconds because of the wind. I didn't see any boats heading through the inlet. 

The weather by the shore was about 5-8 degrees warmer than at Washington Crossing as it was 24 degrees when I started and almost 30 when I finished. It is not the most scenic ride except by the beach but the trail is close to where I live now and gave me a way to get some miles in. I suspect this will be one of my go to spots when I want to get some miles in on a cold day. There are some spurs to this trail so I will probably explore those next time while waiting for warmer weather.

Winter Wonderland

I wasn't able to ride this weekend because of the snow we got on Thursday night into Friday. We ended up with about 6 inches of snow. I will sometimes try and ride on some of the paths if there are only a couple of inches of snow but the snow from this storm was too deep to try that. 

Instead I ended up walking around the neighborhood and golf course. This streets of this community are very quite with almost no traffic so it is very safe to walk on streets and side walk. The community did a good job clearing the snow so the streets, walks and driveways so there was little to no ice to slip on. This is the first snow at the new house. Because snow removal is part of our maintenance fee I didn't have to worry about shoveling the walk or driveway.

Although I would have rather been riding this weekend it was interesting to walk around the neighborhood. It is a big place so I'm still learning my way around and finding some of the more scenic spots.

I'm sure this will be the first of may walks around my community as it is an easy way to get some exercise in when it is too snowy to bike and another advantage of moving into a community.

The True Meaning of Christmas

Christmas means different things to different people. Everybody has their own tradition. For some people its about wearing ugly sweaters or singing Christmas carols or just getting together with family. For other people its about how many lights they can put on their house or how big their Christmas display can be. Last Thursday, I took the day off, and rode part of the Henry Hudson trail from Matawan to Sandy Hook and back. I got Jack, Ricky and Pete to join me. It was a windy day so it good that we were on a trail surrounded by woods most of the time. 

On the way through Hazlet I made a detour off the trail. I had read on NJ.com about a house that had one of the largest Christmas displays in the area and wanted to take a look. Even in the day time without the lights the amount of Santa's, snowmen and other figures was ridiculous.

After checking out the display we headed to Sandy Hook on the trail. It was about 15 miles to get there. Because of the wind we didn't go past the second parking lot. On the way back I decided to check out the Mt Mitchill overlook which I always wanted to do. 

It really wasn't a hard climb to get there and it gave a really good view of Sandy Hook. We road along the cliffs for a few miles continuing to get some views of the bay before we made our way back to the trail. On the way back the only thing of interest was some kind of cat half way house.

It was parking lot with some cat houses on one side and bowls on the other side with cats eating out of them. 

On Christmas eve while driving home we decided to make a stop at the same house in Hazlet since it was only a few miles out of the way. It was worth the stop to see it at night and was a fun thing to do. At night the brightness of the lights was almost blinding. We walked around the display for about 10 mins and took some pictures. The display is not only in the front yard

But spills over to the backyard.

Putting out a big light display may not be part of your Christmas tradition but I hope you all have a joyous holiday season.