Winter Respite

We got a break from the cold weather over the last couple of weekends. Last weekend it made it to the mid 40s and I got out on Tru's ride where I was joined by a few regulars. Because I rode in to the ride from my house I ended up getting in 48 miles. This weekend the weather forecast was even better. It was going to start out a little cold but end up in the mid 50s. Because the Prince Freewheeler ride calendar has now caught up with the internet age I can post rides at a moment notice. So I  posted a ride to the pine barrens and sent out mail to the usual suspects.

It was 35 degrees when we started but sunny and given the cold weather we had in the beginning of January it felt balmy. I got some of the regulars to join me including Chris, Laura, Bob, Pete and even got Jack to come out of hibernation and join us.

This was the first long ride of the season so we went off at a modest pace especially because of a constant head wind. That and the fact that Jack had found a cut in his side wall before starting out. He put a couple patches on the inside of the tire and even wrapped the outside of the tire with duct tape. None of us were sure if it would hold or not but it didn't pop in the first few miles so that was a good sign that it might last until the end of the ride.

The weather warmed up quick as the head wind also picked up. At Smithville there was a bridge out but it was no problem riding over it. If fact it didn't look like they had made any progress on it since we came by this way last summer so it may be out for a long time.

We made our way through Vincetown and eventually to the Wawa in Browns Mill. I had an option for a few extra miles but we were all a little tired so we came back the direct route. The wind was still strong but mostly at our backs until the last 4 miles. Although we kept a modest pace I was feeling the lack of miles and felt that I was on the edge of cramping. It may have felt like a spring day but my legs knew it was mid winter.We ended up with 51 miles which is long for this time of year but you have to take advantage of the good weather when it comes around.

The Long Cold Winter

After three weeks of bone chilling temperatures it finally got warm enough for a ride. So how cold was it? It was so cold that a stalagmite formed below my furnace vent. The flew gases from my furnace vents out the side of the house and contains a some water vapor. The water vapor usually just evaporates into the air but because of was so cold the water vapor immediately condensed then froze. After a week it was 3 feet tall. I was going to knock it down so it won't clog up the vent but on Friday we had 60 degree weather and rain that melted the snow and stalagmite.

The rain stopped early Saturday morning but the temperature was 35 degrees and heading lower. Laura, Pete and I had a email discussion, Friday night, about road vs trail ride. Road would be cold and possible icy but trail would be muddy. On Saturday morning with a 20 mph winds a blowing we decided to do the Lawrence Hopewell Trail because the wind made it too cold to ride on the road and the LHT trail is mostly pavement and would not be as messy.

Both Pete and Laura biked to the starting point on Princeton Pike where we started. It was around 30 degrees for most of the ride but the paved part of the path were ice free. The gravel parts were a little mushy in spots but mostly passable. We did avoid a couple of sections which we knew would be two wet to do easily. It was a tiring ride but not as bad as when I did it in the snow. You can see more details about the ride on Laura's blog

On Sunday to make up for some of the exercise that I have missed because of the cold weather I did a hike with Jack up Bald Plate mountain. On the drive to the hike I stopped at Washington Crossing park to take a picture of the semi frozen Delaware.

In parking lot was Chris who was going to do a mountain bike ride on the canal path. I talked to him for a few minutes before meeting Jack for the hike. We ended up doing an 8 mile hike. It was a hilly hike since we walked up to the top of Bald Plate but I'm glad it was a bit strenuous since it was 20 degrees out. I didn't have a problem staying warm though after the first half mile.

I had never hiked here before and didn't realize how big the park is. We also got some clear views of the Delaware and surrounding hills. I know now that hiking in 20 degree weather isn't that bad so if we get another cold spell I have another way to get some exercise in.  

So Long 2017

Happy New Year!

2017 is now history and I'm looking forward to what is to come in 2018. From a riding perspective I road a few more miles in 2017 and had some memorable rides. My last ride of the year was with Winter Larry on Christmas eve. I was hoping to get a couple of rides between Christmas and New Years but the weather have been too cold for even me to ride. When it is close to 20 degrees my camelback freezes up and so do most parts of my body. It looks like it is going to be another week before it is warm enough to try and get back out again. Until then I will see if I can come up with some interesting ride for the coming year.

More Snow Biking

For the second week in a row, snow made it impossible to ride on the road on Saturday so it was time to do more snow biking. This week I decided to ride the canal path from Princeton to Rocky Hill. The ground was below freezing when the snow fell which made the snow more icy than last week. The path had about 2 inches of snow on it which made it another tough ride.

I was glad I still had the knobby tires on the mountain bike as I needed the extra grip. There were a few icy puddles under the snow that caused a little fish tailing but I managed to keep upright for most of the ride. I almost lost it on the spillway where the ice on the jagged stones on the spillway were as slippery as an ice rink. After trying to ride it for 10 feet and almost falling twice I put my feet down and walked the rest of the way over the spillway. I didn't want to risk breaking anything.

After the spillway the rest of the ride to Rocky Hill was uneventful. There weren't many people on the trail so it was a quiet ride where I could concentrate on enjoying the scenery.

One way back I stopped at the dam to take my usual picture of the red house in Kingston.

It was there that I noticed the strange spider cracks in the ice like shown in my picture at the top of this post. I assume something like falling ice from the tree caused these. I was only on the trail for a little over an hour an a half but according to my average heart rate it was a pretty good work out. Hopefully the weather will get a little better so I can do a little road riding over the Christmas break.

The Line between Fun and Stupid

There is a fine line between fun and stupid. I will confess to being close to the line and have sometimes been little over it. This weekends snow made it hard to get a ride in but I was determined. I try to ride as much as I can in the winter. If it is too cold to go on the road then I will mountain bike on a trail. We got somewhere between 4-6 inches which would make it hard to ride even on the trails. However because the ground was warm it didn't really stick to much to roads and paths.

I sent out an email to a few people but didn't get any takers because they were concerned about slipping and falling in the snow. I was concerned too but have ridden enough in the snow to think I could do it. My plan was to ride the Lawrence Hopewell trail starting from the parking lot on Princeton Pike. When I got there is was just below freezing so quickly got ready and hit the trail. I road down the road for the first mile because the trail was snow covered and looked mushy.

Once on the actual trail it was slow going but not hard. The trail had somewhere  between no snow and a couple of inches on it. The snow was very powdery so it wasn't hard to ride through. Since the pavement and ground had been warm before the snow there was no ice to speak of.

I was being cautious since I it was hard to see the path in spots. On most of the paths although there were some foot prints there wasn't any bike tracks. When I got to Mercer Meadows I saw some other mountain bike tracks in the snow. After a little while I saw three people on mountain bikes. I caught up to them when I got to the pole farm and it turned out to be Chris, Ken and some one else I didn't know. They had started from the dog park by Rosedale Lake and were doing an 8-10 mile loop.

I hung with them to for a while heading towards the lake. The snow was a little thicker here so it was slow going. Riding with them added a few miles to the trip as they took some tails that took me off the main trail. Eventually I left them and continued on my own.

The Rosedale lake area was very scenic with the snow. By the parking lot was a lot of kids sledding down the little hill on the other side of the lake.

It was at this point that I realized that this was going to be a very tiring ride. Riding the 20 mile LHT loop is a good work out without the snow. With the snow it was going to be a longer ride than I wanted to do. I kept going and made my way along a couple or roads where there is no trail. These roads were actually a little icy and more dangerous than the trail. When I got to Wargo road I decided to not do the northern part of the trail because that would have meant riding  a long stretch on Carter Rd which I didn't want to do because of the conditions. Instead I took Bayberry then a quick section on Carter to get to the ETS center. I stopped on Bayberry to take a couple of pictures for Laura

Cows....

....and sheep

From ETS I jumped back on the LHT trail. There was still snow on the trail and my legs were feeling tired but I kept going because I knew I wasn't far from the end. The last stretch on Province Line was much better this time since they added a new path along the road so I didn't have to deal with traffic.

By the time I got back to the start I was pretty beat but glad I did it. I spent 3 hours on the trail and it was fun but a little tougher than I expected. If I road this trail again in the snow I would probably do a shorter loop. Still I think I kept to the fun side of the line this time. I'm sure I'll have chances to hit the stupid side some other time this winter.

A Day at the Beach

We were blessed with good weather for the Thanksgiving weekend. This allowed me to get two good rides in. On Friday I did a ride with team social security. I try to ride with these people a couple of times a year to get a peak at my possible future. It actually looks pretty good. We had a brisk ride to Jackson and back and with riding from my house I got 45 miles in. It was good catching up with some people I don't see that often and reaffirming that riding is what keeps us feeling younger than we really are.

On Saturday I did a solo ride to the beach to do a check on the codo in Avon to make sure it was ready for the winter. It was hovering between 40-50 degrees for most of the ride so it was not as much fun as a normal ride to the beach. This was a one way ride since my wife met me at the beach so I didn't have to worry about saving anything for the way back. Because it was sunny the beach was actually a busy place. There weren't many people sunning themselves on the beach but there were a lot of people walking along the boardwalk and visiting the shops. By the time I got to Avon I had done another 45 miles and enjoyed some scenic views of the beach.

Then is was a little maintenance on the condo before stopping at our favorite BBQ place for well deserved meal on our way home.

The long range forecasts are calling for a mild winter so hopefully that is true so I can keep riding during the winter months. 

Community

It was cold today. For last weeks ride I had a light jacket and it felt like early fall. Today, a week later, it felt like the middle of with winter. I had to put on most of my winter wardrobe to keeps warm. Given the weather report I wasn't even sure I was going to ride. It was 25 degrees when I woke up this morning and I usually don't ride on the road if its not 35 or above. However I didn't feel like a mountain bike ride and Jim had the Cranksgiving ride out of Cranbury today. I wasn't really planning on doing Jim's ride but because it was so cold I was afraid nobody would join him so I thought I would just ride over to Cranbury and just say hi then do a long loop back home to get a few miles in.

When I started out for Cranbury it was 27 and I felt very constricted in all the cloths I had on. I had enough layers on to be warm but it hurt a little to breath in the cold air. It got better as I warmed up some more and got the Cranbury.

Right before I got to the park I saw Jim, and to other people (Joe and Ricky) riding out of the park. It took a few seconds for them to recognize me in all my gear. I turned around and told Jim I came to support him but wasn't sure that I was going to be able to do the ride as I really didn't have a way to carry anything. He said that he could carry things for me if the Cranksgiving team didn't have people at the store to carry the food back for us. Some where along the way to the start of the ride I decided to actually do Cranksgiving. It just seemed the right thing to do.

After we got to the starting point at the fire house I had the boys pose for another picture for Laura. She again backed of joining us for a ride because of glass blowing class. We could have done the whole giving her the finger thing again but we decided to do something nice (which is so unlike us) and sent out the heart sign. I got the appropriate "Awwww" back but knowing Laura I think she might have been a little disappointed about not getting another middle finger picture.

Because Jim was leading the ride we got to the start of the Cranksgiving ride a half hour early. Since it was cold I wanted to keep moving so we did a loop to the Caspersen Rowing Center which is directly across from the Mercer Boathouse on the other side of the lake.

The Cranksgiving ride itself was interesting. We did a twenty mile loop on local roads that I'm familiar with. They weren't the best roads in the area because we had get to the different foods spots but it wasn't a bad ride. We stopped at three different places and bought some food. Stopping to buy food at each stop wasn't as hard as I was expecting and there were people at each stop to carry the food back to the starting point. All in all it was a simple well organized charity ride for a good cause.

When I do these type of rides I feel a sense of community. Its not just that I helped out a local charity but the fact that I was doing it with other people which gives you as sense of connection to others and the community as a whole. I also realized that this event helped me to connect to multiple communities. First I only went to Cranbury because I wanted to support Jim who is part of the Princeton free wheelers and a member of my insane bike posse. I sent the picture to Laura because she is part of our group and knew she would appreciated it. I did the Cranksgiving ride even though I hadn't planned on it because it gave me a reason to ride with people I like riding with. I had fun on the ride because I got to hang out with other bikers who are part of the overall biking community. I got to contribute, in a small way, to the Trenton area soup kitchen which helps the local community.

This ride reminded me that there are a lot small ways to connect to the different communities that I am a part of and have some fun while doing good.