Snow on the Sidelines

This is us.

1 February 2014

Being able to do a road ride when there's still snow on the ground is rare.

With nudging from Ed C, I tweaked today's route, in part because I didn't feel like fighting it, and in part because I knew we'd get some good pictures if we went his way.  My cue sheet had both routes, should mutiny threaten to occur.

Before the ride, there was worry about ice on the roads.  Having already checked with a FreeWheeler who lives in Lambertville, I knew we'd be fine.  In the end, the only ice we saw was at Cheryl's front door, thanks to some misbehaving gutters:

Princeton Pike has taken a beating this winter.  It's loaded with potholes. Fortunately for us, most line up with the wheels of a car.  We had room to the right to avoid the majority of them.

We descended on the Princeton Rojo's first.  I don't like espresso as much as I think I do.

Two of our number, concerned that they weren't yet up to proper condition, left the ride 12 miles in.  I was glad they were there at all; it's early in the season.

Once we got out of Princeton we got out of traffic.  Someone commented on the view of the Hopewell Valley from Crusher Road, so the three of us with cameras stopped.  The others waited patiently.

We stopped again on Stony Brook.

 

And again at Mount Airy. Of course.

And again on Alexauken Creek Road, which is at its absolute best when there's snow on the ground:

This time the group went ahead.  We pulled into the Lambertville Rojo's a minute or so behind them.  One of our number, who had been riding off the front most of the time, decided not to stop.

So, by losing riders off the front and back, I have, once again, added to my reputation of being simultaneously too slow and too fast.

There are three reasons I don't take Franklin Road out of Lambertville:

1.  It is, for the most part, not pretty;
2.  It's a narrow road with two-way traffic on a steep incline;
3.  It cuts off too many miles because it sends us in the wrong direction.

There are two reasons I took Franklin today:

1.  To get it out of  Ed's system once and for all;
2.  From Franklin, we turned onto Highland, where we saw this:

In the end we had nearly 50 miles.  We needed this ride.