Drought Warning

Although we have had a few droughts in New Jersey over the years I can't remember one like this where there has been almost no rain for a month an a half. We had no mensurable rain in October and only slightly more than that so far this month. Since I live close to the Manasquan reservoir I pass by it on a regular basis, on my bike rides, and have seen its level drop over the last few months. Here is a picture I took by the marina back in July 2017 and is normally how the dock looks.

Notice the relationship between the pilings and the dock. Here is a picture of the same location from a different angle in Sept 2022. This is when they took the level of the reservoir down to do some work on the dam and marina.

This is was the lowest I have seen it until today. 

This is what it looked like today

Again look at the relationship between the pilings and the dock. It's only got a few more feet before the entire dock is just sitting in the sand. There is some rain in the forecast but it is going to take a lot of rain (over a foot last time I checked) to get us back to normal.

Wildfire Update

 

I did a ride this week past Rova Farms to check out the remnants of one of the wildfires that have been popping up because of the dry weather. As I mentioned last week there was a wildfire in my area called the Shogun fire. It was on S. Stump Tavern Rd and was started by a person firing a shogun at a firing range using ammo called "Dragon's Breath" which has some extra magnesium in it so that the blast is brighter and has more sparks. First that ammo is illegal, second using something that creates "more sparks" when the fire danger is this high is plain stupid. They did find out who started the fire and he has turned himself in. However the damage is done with over 300 acres burnt. 

The burnt forest isn't as badly damage as I suspected. Yes most of the underbrush is gone or burnt but most of the trees looked undamaged. There are scorch marks on the trunks of the trees but that is about it. The Jackson fire department did a good job of containing the fire. 

The main reason I wanted to check out the damage is that the back of my house faces a forest so I wanted to know how dangerous that could be given the current conditions. During the Shogun fire the Jackson fire department did have to protect a few houses that were in the path of the fire. The created fire breaks around the houses and had fire trunks in the neighborhood to put out any fires that threaten any homes. There was no damage to any structures during the fire so I suspect that the fire department could prevent a fire from damaging my house if there was a fire was in the area. Of course I am hoping for a lot of rain so soon so that I won't have to worry about that possibility. 

On a completely different subject. I led an off the books ride this Saturday up to Jamesburg. We found a good coffee shop that would makes good muffins and fritters so I may head up that way more often. While we were in the area we stopped to check out on of the posse members that we haven't seen in a while.

We snuck into his community and did a surprise visit. He didn't join us on today's ride because he was providing some narration for a production in his community which I know he will be good at. It was good to see him and hopefully he will join us on our rides again soon. 

The Fall Riding Season

You know it is fall when you have to put on a jacket to do a ride. For the past few weeks I have been enjoying some fall rides. We haven't had any rain in over a month so there has been no excuse to not get out and ride. Even with the dry weather the foliage has been pretty good. The leave are mostly off the trees now but we had a couple of good weeks of color. 

Besides rides through the Assimpink and the Pinelands to see the foliage I also did a couple of rides to see the Halloween display. 

The decorations in Lambertville were the usual strange displays. I was a little disappointed by the ones in Bordentown. I did a few extra passes through the town on my normal Bordentown ride but did not see anything spectacular as I have seen there in years past. A lot of people are just buying some blow up monsters or skeletons so there wasn't anything real original.

The weather has been warmer than normal for fall. We actually have a few 70 and 80 degree days that I took advantage of. The dry conditions have led to a few wildfires in my area. There was one fire called the Shotgun fire (caused by some jerk who used illegal magnesium in his shotgun shells which caused the ensuing sparks to ignite the firing range) that is only 7 miles west of where I live. Although there is no danger of the fire coming my way it has made the air unhealthy at times when the wind it blowing in the wrong direction. 

Now that the leaves are off the trees I know the weather will be getting cooler and my rides will be getting shorter. Hopefully the mild winter predicted will be true and I can get through the winter without having any major interruptions in my riding.

Bushkill Falls

On my way home from the trip to the Grand Canyon (of PA) I decided to stop at Bushkill Falls as it was only a little out of the way and it had been someplace I had wanted to visit. Because of the lack of rain I knew falls won't be that spectacular but I knew it would probably interesting anyway.

Bushkill Falls is a set of eight waterfalls with a set of trails that you can walk to see all the different falls. To see all the falls you have to take a hike of around two miles in the woods.

But most people just use visit the main falls which is a short walk from the entrance. 

I opted to walk the full trail as why not try to see all the falls while I was there. The walk through the woods was nice. There weren't a lot of people so it was quiet enough to hear the running stream and get some unobstructed pictures of the stream and falls. I had my R10 Mirror-less camera with me so I spent some extra time trying to get the best shots I could. The light wasn't really great and there wasn't a lot of water over the falls but I managed to get a few good shots.

 

I still have a lot to learn about getting good pictures of rivers and waterfalls but I was able to play with shutter speed to try to get the waterfalls to looks silky smooth. The two pictures below show the difference. The first picture is what you see with your eyes.

The second is the smoothing affect you get with a slow shutter speed which makes a better photograph.

Again the light was not perfect and you really need a tripod to do it right but I understand the technique better now. Handheld I could get down to about 1/3 of a second of shutter speed. Anything lower was too blurry. Getting down to 1 second would be ideal but that would require a tripod and I didn't want to carry that with me for the entire hike.

The end of the trail leads you back to the main couple of waterfalls so it was more crowed here. There were also a lot of steps here to give you a view of the waterfalls from a lot of different angles. It was fun just viewing the canyon and waterfalls from the different angles but my legs complained about all the steps especially after two days of riding.

The view of the waterfalls and creek were worth the trip. Even thought I didn't get the best pictures I really enjoyed the hike and view of the falls and river. I would like to come back sometime in the future when there is more water to see the falls in their full glory.

The GRAND CANYON...(of Pennsylvania )

Click HERE for more pictures

The Grand Canyon(of Pennsylvania) is not really a canyon and how "grand" it is is very subjective, however its a good place to go for a bike vacation. The "canyon" is actually Pine Creek river valley and has a 60+ mile rail trail along it that is suppose to be picturesque especially during the fall season. The canyon is located in north central PA near the city of ...(actually it's not close to any city in PA). It was a 4 hour drive to get there but I didn't mind the drive as fall is at it's peak in PA so it was a very scenic drive through the hills. We stayed at Hotel Manor in Slate Run PA which is on Pine Creek rail trail near its center.  

The hotel was more a restaurant with a bed and breakfast added upstairs. The rooms were just a bed and a bathroom with no TV or place to really sit down.

Which was fine as we weren't planning on spending a lot of time in the room. There was a comfortable sitting area on the same floor as the rooms that had a TV, sofa and tables and was a good place to gather. 

The sitting area overlooked the restaurant which had good food. 

That was good as we were an hour from any real town so we didn't have to worry about taking a long drive to eat. After settling in I actually went across to river to a general store to try and get some shots of Comet A3. Since we were in a rural area without a lot of lights I thought I would be able to get some good shots and I did (click on the photos below to get a larger view). 

The next morning we set out for the top of the trail. It was a cloudy and a little foggy but there was only a slight chance of rain.

We used the shuttle service to get to Welsboro and the start of the trail. The shuttle service was a van with a rack on the back that hung the bikes from the front wheel and seemed to hold the bikes securely. Which was good because the hour ride up to the start was on a twisty turning narrow road. The driver gave us a lot of information about the area on the drive up including the best places for food and some interesting facts about the dreadlocks she had.

We got started at the top of the trail at 11am. We didn't mind the late start as it was just about freezing when we got up and now it was around 40 degrees.

 From the starting point we headed south towards Pine Creek and after a few miles were seeing some of the hills that make up the "Grand Canyon"

The trail was wide and well maintained. It took us just over 8 miles to get the start of the canyon which starts at Darlington Run.

 

We then had 16 miles in the canyon itself. It was very scenic even with the mostly cloudy weather we had. We were all just looking up as we were riding. It was hard to get a good picture of the scenery but we stopped once or twice to try. 

As with most scenic landscapes its not easy to capture what is was actually like to be there but I will just say it was worth the trip. After 16 miles we left the actual canyon but were still riding in the river valley. There were a few more towns as we headed south and by towns I mean there was a few buildings and a road or two but we didn't see a lot of actual people. The clouds got thicker and thinner as we rode and we have a few moments of light rain but nothing that bothered us.

When I researched the trail one of the not to be missed sites was Rattle Snake Rock. It was a 100 ft walk down a path from the trail to see... a large rock on the river?

I was expecting something more based on the write up but I guess some people are impressed by a big rock? We took a few pictures and moved on. 

At just over 35 miles we were back at our hotel. Luckily one of the two general stores that are open along the trail was right across from our hotel so we stopped for some sandwiches before going back to the hotel. It was 3pm by the time we got back so we cleaned up relaxed and then had a light dinner at the hotel. 

The next morning was sunny and a little warmer. We actually drove two of the three cars down to Jersey Shore PA, which is at the south end of the trail. It's weird to have a town named Jersey Shore in PA that is no where near a beach. You can read how they named it here but it seems that even in the 1800s they were making fun of people from New Jersey.

Yesterday we road south on the trail which was downhill. Today we road north which was slightly uphill but not real noticeable.  It took us a few miles to get out of the actual town before we were riding along Pine Creek again. This trail is very popular and well maintained and it has the most number of bathrooms per mile of any trail I have done. There was one almost every 4 or 5 miles so I guess they really don't want you peeing in the woods here.

 

The valley down here is more wide open so the vista were a little bigger. We stopped a couple time on some of the old rail road bridges we crossed to take in the views.

We ran into a few Mennonites walking along the trail which brought up the question what is the different between the Amish and Mennonites. Here is the best answer I could find. 

We stopped at the other open general store in Waterville before heading back to our hotel at Slate Run. I faded a little at the end and felt like I might cramp so stopped a few times to stretch. At 27 miles we were back at the hotel. Since we started earlier and had a shorter ride we were back by 1pm and back at the general store for another sandwich. 

Since we had some extra time we walked the trail behind the hotel and took some more pictures of the grounds. Here is a panoramic of the hotel and river. 

And another one looking north of the hotel. 

For dinner we had to drive back and get the cars in Jersey Shore and stopped for dinner on the way back at the Pine Creek Inn. 

It has been a while since I did an overnight bike trip so it was fun to get away again. Every time I do one of these trips I come up with some ideas for other ones so I know I will have more trips like this in my future. 

Sunflowers and Dahlias

 

The early fall season is some of the best time to go out and enjoy the outdoors. I took an extra day off this week to do some photography. Holland Ridge Farms has a sunflower festival in the fall that I wanted to go to. The farm is on Rue Rd and we have passed it numerous times on our bike rides but I didn't really realize how big the sunflower festival was until some of my friend in the community told me about it. The has acres and acres of sunflowers 

 

and a small section of other types of flowers like gladiolas and dahlias. The festival is mostly a family event. Besides the acres of flowers they have food trucks, hayrides, photo booths and other activities. I wasn't really interested in any of the activities but just wanted to go and take some photos. I got there early and walked to the far end of the farm (which was farther than I thought) to try and get a panoramic photo of the sunflower fields.  

I have never seen so many sunflowers in one field before. It was overwhelming and the picture doesn't real convey what I saw. There were also many different types if sunflowers from small short ones to tall ones that were the size of a car tire. 

I took a lot of pictures of the sunflowers including some with bees on them.

I now have a full portfolio of sunflower pictures so if you need one let me know. 

The best pictures I got were not of the sunflowers but of the dahlias. There are so many varieties of dahlias that they don't look like the same type of flower. 

 

I really like the geometric pattern of the orange one. I also got a good picture of a bee on one of them.

I have been working on my technique for flower photography and I am finally getting results that I'm proud of. I still have more room for improvement but that will just take more practice and will give me more excuses to spent more time outside in some arboretums and gardens.

New York Skyline Ride

The New York City skyline is unique and ever changing. Every time I go in our by the city I always spend a little time enjoying the skyline. This past Wednesday my other club had a ride from Liberty State Park up the bike paths and multi-use trails on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River and I decided to join them. 

It was an easy drive up to Liberty State Park. It took just over an hour and I didn't hit any real traffic. There were 12 people on the ride, a few which I knew. I brought my mountain bike because I thought the roads and paths might be a little bumpy. 

We road north along the path in Liberty State Park until we hit a canal we had to go around. There was a mile or two where we had to ride on the street but there was a bike path most of the way so although we were in traffic I didn't feel worried about getting hit by a car. 

Once we got off the street we road on bike/walkways along the river.

These public paths are required for any new construction along the river but each office or condo complex could design it however they wanted so there was no consistency to the design or material. Most were brick and cement but there were a few sections that had wood like a boardwalk and there were a few asphalt paths along the way. This isn't a true bike path or multi-use trail but more an interconnected set of walkways you can ride on. 

Since there was no overall plan for this walkway there are no signs showing how to get from the walkway of one complex to the next. So basically you just make right turns until you hit the water and if the path goes away from the water you make the next right. As long as you take your time its not too hard to work you way along the river. 

Besides the office building and condos there are also some nice parks and playgrounds along the way. Forty years ago when I went to school in Hoboken the area along the Hudson was mostly docks and warehouses that were rundown or abandon. It's made quite a comeback since then.

I like the fact that they do have some public spaces and parks interspersed with the builds so if you can't afford a waterfront condo at least you can enjoy the parks by the waterfront. 

The walkway ended about 3 miles below the George Washington Bridge. The plan is to eventually continue the path all the way to the bridge but that will take a while to complete.

It took us 15 miles to get to the end of the walkways where we took a look back at the New York skyline. It was a mostly cloudy day so most of the pictures I took are kinda dull. 

On the way back we made more stops just to take pictures of the skyline as the light was a little better. We stopped across from the Intrepid aircraft carrier which actually looked small next to the cruise ships.

 

I also got a few pictures of some interesting new buildings. There is the Via 57 building

Which is a pyramid like building that really sticks out in the sunshine. Then there is the Vessel in Hudson Yards.

It's been closed because people kept jumping off it but is schedule to reopen later this year.

Lastly there is the Twist which looks like it is leaning over but is really just twisted.

These are just a few of the cooler builds we saw. There were also a few monument to 9/11 along the walkways.

On our way back we rode through campus of Steven's Tech where I went to college.

It's changed quite a bit since I was last there.

The biggest change was the addition of two new 15 story builds for new dorms. 

We stopped for lunch in Hoboken and ate at a park by the train station.

The last stop on the way back was in a park where they had a sculpture of a ladies head schussing people.

Then is was back to Liberty State Park where I took one last picture of lady liberty.

It was a long day but it was a interesting ride and something I won't mind doing again sometime.