Pushing Through the Cold Weather

The weather this time of year makes it harder to enjoy a bike ride. I use to be mostly a fair weather rider and not bother going out if the temperature was below 50 degrees. Last year was a warm winter and I ended up riding most of the winter. This involved riding in colder weather than I usually ride it. It was not always fun and some times I'm not sure I really enjoyed it but I learned how to ride in the cold with out getting too cold. I still won't ride when the weather gets below 35 especially if it is windy but I am hoping for enough warm days to get a few rides a month during this winter.

This past weekend was Thanksgiving weekend. I ended up riding on Friday which was in the low 40s. I put together an adhoc ride with Herb, Bruce, and Mary. We made did a Mendokas run which ended up being around 45 miles. At Mendokas I got something I hadn't seen before called ButterCrunch which was a crumb cake wrapped in a danish baked in deliciousness. It was the best thing I ever had there.

It was a little cold at the start of the ride but it warmed up towards the end. The worst part was heading back into Cranbury where we hit a nasty head wind. It was a tough 5 miles but after that the it wasn't too bad. I plan to continue to push my limits as the weather gets cooler. For those interested in riding with me just keep watching the blog and I will try to post the time and place where the ride will start. We usually start somewhere around East Windsor or Cranbury. During the winter we usually start around 11 am and do between 30 and 40 miles. It's usually not as fun as the summer rides but its a lot better than not riding.

Sourland Scenic Ramble

This past weekend I actually had a couple of good rides. I was off on Friday so I ended up on Dennis's ride out of Etra park. Even though the roads where wet he had a good crowd, 9 people. It was relatively warm but the roads were very wet and it misted a little while riding so it was a little messy. It was fun riding with Dennis, George, and a few of the others I haven't seen in a while. I felt a little younger on this ride since the average age was probably in the mid 60s. Even though these guys are a little past their prime they can still move along at a good pace.

We ended up going to Freehold and back. Herb and I split off from the group at the rest stop to put in a few more miles. We ended up going through Turkey Swamp and by the time we got home we had almost 55 miles in. It was a good ride but the wet roads really made a messy of the bike so I ended up spending a good 2o mins cleaning it up after I got home.


Saturday's rain made it too messy to do my Sourlands ride so I ended up doing it on Sunday 11/9. I ended up doing the ride with just Herb and Mike M. It was a little cold with a stiff west wind but it was sunny so riding was pretty comfortable. We headed over the Sourlands the easy way up Hollow Rd then down Lindberg. From there I zig zaged around some of the farms and rivers in the area. Although the we are past the peak foliage there were still some nice colors to see.

We eventually made it to Stanton and enjoyed a chocolate cheese cake muffin. From there we headed back around the top of the Sourlands so there was no real climbing involved. We also had a tail wind some of the time which made the ride back a little easier then the ride out. It was a good ride I just wish a few more people had shown up. I probably won't be doing rides out this way until the spring since I usually tend to say closer to home during the winter months. I did not put any rides in the book for December but instead will use email and the blog to organize rides when the weather is warm enough.

It's Getting Cold Outside

Click Here for more Fall Foliage Pictures

It's that time of year when the riding season is winding down. Even though we haven't changed the clock yet it's already too dark to ride at night. It's also starting to get cold.

I don't have a hard limit of what type of cold weather that I will ride in but once it gets down around 35 or 40 degrees I have second thoughts about going for a ride.

We have been relatively lucky so far on the weekends. A couple of weeks ago I had a ride out of Etra Park. It was about 45 at the start and didn't get much about 55 but the Sun made it feel a little warmer than it was. We did the coffee run to New Egypt which ended up being a nice ride except for the wind on the way back.

I was very busy this past weekend and didn't have time to organize or join one of the club rides so I ended up just going out on my own for a quick 50 miles on Sunday. Although it gets a little lonely after about 30 miles I do enjoy the occasional long ride by myself. I don't have to worry about dropping people or looking like I know where I'm going. I'm free to get lost at my own pace and just enjoy some solitude on the bike. Sunday started out a little cold with wet road from the night before but as the morning when on the roads dried out and it ended up close to 60.

The foliage is close to peak now so I took the opportunity to take some pictures to capture the colors. No picture can really do justice to the scenery but I keep trying any way.

Even though I was riding by myself I almost always run into other riders. I ran into a couple groups of people and road with them for 5 and 6 miles each. It's fun trading stories with strangers and sharing the road for a few miles.

Although we are closing in on winter I will continue to try to get out on weekends when I can. I have a couple of rides in the book for November as long as the weather is good. After I will just do ad hoc rides when the weather is warm enough.

Fall Foliage

Sunday was one of those days when things just come together to create a great ride. Laura had a ride in the book around hills of Pluckemin to try and catch some fall colors but it is always hard to tell a month ahead of time how things are going to be on that day. The last time I did this ride, in the spring, the weather was cool, damp and cloudy so climbing the hills were just all work without the scenic vistas.

This time the weather a little cool but sunny and the leaves were just starting to turn. The views were great and I didn't mind the climbs as much this time. The ride would have been perfect if I had actually remembered to put fresh batteries in my camera. The first time I went to take a shot nothing happen and I realized that there would be no photos for this ride. I did take a few shots with my cell phone but the quality isn't great. Laura managed to get some good photos with her phone and Glen actually had a real camera with him that worked. You can see all their photos here and here.

I actually didn't mind that much that my camera wasn't working. It let me just relax and enjoy the views. Laura lead us on a nice route. I haven't been in this area much but there are some nice roads around here and I definitely need to come back and do some more exploring.

Belleplain Century

Click here for more Pictures

Last year while working on the book I tried to do a lot of different bike events all over the state to find the best roads in each area. One of the events that I was unable to do was the Belleplain Fall Century because it was cancel last year.

So this year when October rolled around I was happy to see that the ride was going to be run this year. I managed to convince Laura, Mike, and Cheryl to join me. Since the start of the ride was over 2 hours away we decided to go down the night before to a hotel close to the start.

Friday night we got a late start because nobody could get off work early. We meet in Allentown and ate at a decent Italian restaurant in the middle of town. From there we just headed down 539 to the parkway and straight to the hotel. It was almost 10pm before we got there so after checking in we headed to our rooms and went to bed.

The next morning got up early because we want to be at the ride at 7:30am. Last night in normal cloths I wasn't sure I actually knew these people but this morning with everybody is dressed to ride they are looking a lot more familiar. I tell them "Now I know who the hell you people are".

It's a quick 20 minute ride to Belleplain State park where the ride begins. There is a little confusion to where the ride actually starts since the park is big and there are no signs to where the event is. We end up following some other cars and find the starting point. Its colder than I thought it would be but the sun it out so I know it will warm up.

We end up starting around 8am and go past a Lake Nummy. There is some a mist going across the lake so I stop to take a couple of pictures. We get a little confused with the directions out of the park. The arrows are hand painted and look more like the markings the gas company puts on the road before they are about to dig it up. The arrows have the number 12 after them which after some discussion we determine means loop 1 & 2 for the two different loops for the morning ride.

The Belleplain Fall Century is a little different than other clubs rides. Instead of having a full 100 mile course they have 2 50 mile loops. They also have a 35 and 28 mile loop. This reduces the number of rest stops and the support they need on the course. For the morning there are 2 loops a 50 mile and 35 mile loop.

The first 50 mile loop goes out to the the East Point Lighthouse on the Delaware Bay. It's one of the few distinguishing features in this part of NJ. The ride out to the lighthouse is nice. The roads are flat and there is no real traffic. This area is mostly pine lands, a little marshland and some scattered farms including some horse farms.

To conserve energy we road in a loose pace line. Laura keep track of lead time and yelled out when it was time for the leader to peel off. This really helped keep us moving along at a good pace with out getting tired.

The lighthouse is on a road that dead ends into the Delaware Bay. There are some houses here probably for people who like to fish. They look like part time vacation homes. We spend some time looking around and take a detour down a packed sand road to see the actual lighthouse. For here we just head on back out along the course.

At mile 37 we stop at a Wawa for a break. Unlike most club events this ride does not provide any support along the course. They also don't include any notes on the queue sheet about where would be a good place to stop. Luckily I know the area a little and with my Wawa radar on I managed to find a Wawa that was just about a 1/4 mile off the course.

After the break it was 18 miles back through some of the pine lands of the Belleplain State Forrest. There wasn't much to see but pines for many miles. This area is flat, level, no change of elevation, horizontal, smooth, devoid of hills, can see a stop light 2 miles ahead FLAT. After 8 miles on the same road with no change of scenery and no elevation change Mike made the comment that "The only thing that changed in the last 8 miles was my odometer". The other thing that make this area a little monotonous to ride is the roads are straight in fact they usually have rumble strips at the end of a road to wake up or warn drivers that the road is about to end.

After 50 miles we were back at the stop. We shed some of our warm cloths. Chowed down on some of the available food and then headed back out. I was feeling more tired than I should at 50 miles which was strange since this is an easy ride. The one plus was that I was drinking correctly. I sometimes have a problem getting enough water into my system during long rides so for today's ride I brought along a bottle of pure Gatoraide along with my camelback which is filled with water. Drinking the Gatoraide as I was riding seem really help me keep hydrated correctly.

The second 50 miles ended up going east of the Belleplain State forest. I don't know this area really well but the arrows seemed to be well marked so it was easy to follow. There wasn't much to see on this loop except more pine lands and flat roads. At 75 miles we found another Wawa to stop at and took an extended break because Laura and Cheryl were getting tired. Cheryl was planning on just doing the first loop but after 10 miles on the second 50 miles loop she realized that she forgot to stop.

After the extended rest everybody was feeling better in fact it has hard to keep up with Laura for the first few miles. We stopped one more time at an actual rest stop that the club had set up which was just a bunch of cars by the side of the road. The second 50 mile loop was a little boring and I was glad when we finally pulled in to the park. I think we ended up going 107 miles at 16.3 which was a good sensible pace. I actually felt pretty good at the end and think I actually got stronger in the last 20 miles.

After the ride we cleaned up a little (There was actually a shower in the bathrooms at the park which we made use of) and headed out for dinner. We ended up in Cape May. By the time we got there it was around sunset so we headed to Sunset beach. I got a couple of good pictures of the sunset. Once the sun set we found a little restaurant on the way out of town and had a good meal.

By the time we finished dinner it was about 8pm and so I didn't get home until around 10pm. It was a long day but it was a lot of fun. If I did it again I would like to make it a long weekend and spend 3 or 4 days in the area.

Looking for the Perfect Photo

Click Here for more Photos

Since I started taking pictures on rides as part of writing Road Biking New Jersey I have learned how hard it is to take good pictures and have a greater appreciation for the work it takes to use a camera to capture a moment in time.



Over the past 2 years the I have taken almost 3000 pictures and actual got a few ones worth keeping. Most of my better photographs happen by luck so by taking a lot of pictures I increase my chances of getting a good photograph.

Taking photographs on a regular basis has given me the desire to become better photographer. I have definitely gotten better over the last two years but I still don't understand the real aspect of composition, lighting and a lot of other factor that can make a snapshot become a photograph that you want look at more than once.

Over this summer I had two really good photographic days while not on a bike. The first was at Thunder over the Boardwalk which is an airshow in Atlantic City. It was a bright sunny cloudless day and I got a lot of good photographic. Check them out. With the sun so bright the shutter speed was fast so I was able to capture the action with good clarity.

The second great photographic day was on my recent vacation to Cape Cod and Block Island. It was again another good weather day and I managed to get some great sunrise and sunset photos as well as some great scenic shots of Block Island. You can see the full set of photos here

This past weekend I went along on Mike's ride out of Rocky Hill. We road through the Sourlands with is always picturesque. I managed to take some photos. I got a couple of nice one of the canal early in the morning but else nothing really great. It was a nice ride. We took the northern route around the top of the Sourlands and then through Neshanic Station and ended up on Rainbow Road. Except for a small steep hill this is a nice road. I know Laura hates this road so I know as she reads this she will be glad that she wasn't on this ride. One the way back to Rocky Hill we passed by some farmland where the grass was florescent green. I joked it was probably a new food source Solent Green (Yes, I know Solent Green is people)

When we got back to the parking lot I kept going and put on another 8 miles because I wanted to do a few more miles and do a little climbing.

Taking photos is now part of going for a bike ride. I am hoping for a colorful fall so I can get some good pictures of the fall foliage

Belmar and Back

This week was another ride to Belmar and back. I lead this ride the third weekend of Sept every year. This is when the weather is still warm but most of the crowds have left the beach so there is less traffic. Since this ride is late in the season I take the longer route to Belmar and the ride usually ends up being around 80 miles. This is always a fun ride and I always look forward to doing it.

Although the roads were wet at the start and the weather had a 30% chance of rain I still had good group of 7 people. The ride started from Cranbury so we headed out toward Federal Rd. We had to make a detour because the bridge on Federal Rd was under constructions and impassable. Luckily there are a lot of different ways to Belmar. With George leading and pushing the pace we make it quickly to Farmingdale. On the way we went around the Manasquan reservoir because there are some nice scenic views along the way.

George headed home after a stop in Farmingdale and the rest of us continued on the long way to Belmar pass Allaire state park and through Sea Girt before ending up on the beach in Belmar. The weather had gotten better as the day progressed so by the time we got to the beach the sun was out and it was getting humid.

The rest stop in Belmar by 16th street is always inviting with outdoor tables, a lot of places to get food, and plenty of activity to watch it is easily a place you can be temped to spend the rest of the afternoon.

The wind was lite so the ride back from Belmar wasn't too bad and we maintain a good pace. We had a couple of flat tires right out of Belmar but that is just par for the course on a long ride.

It was getting a little hot and humid by the end of the ride so but still wasn't too bad. We ended up with 82 miles even with the detour at the beginning and got back around 2:30pm. Joe ended up doing another 18 miles, with Mary, so he could say he did a century.

Although I have been to Belmar 3 times this year I still enjoyed the ride and may do another shorter one next month if the weather holds out.