Autumn in Upper Bucks County

Fleecydale Road, Carversville, PA

23 October 2016

Tom wanted to get some hills in and catch the changing leaves in Upper Bucks County. He'd planned for Saturday, but high winds and heavy rain pushed it to Sunday. I'm happy for that, because I spent all of Friday trying to stay awake, slept for ten hours that night, and woke up congested and coughing. Sunday was much better. 

"I forgot that today is the Covered Bridges Ride," Tom said as I got out of my car. That would go some of the way towards explaining why I was the only one who could make the ride. "It's windier than I thought it would be," he added. "We'll get a tailwind home."

"Mrm. Dunno about that. Not with me here."

As we were about to push off, I asked, "No Holy Kickstand?"

"Nah. We'd probably both end up dead."

We walked across the Bulls Island Bridge. When it's just me and Tom, we stop a lot for pictures.

We could feel the wind bouncing the bridge as we stood to take pictures of the river.

I zoomed in on a lonely boat moored in a mat of floating plants:

I coughed along behind Tom as he led us up Fleecydale Road. We were under a golden canopy. I didn't want to stop on the hill, so I didn't take any pictures. Maybe I'd come back in my car after the ride.

The wind was out of the west at a steady high teens, gusting somewhere in the mid twenties. Our bikes jolted sideways more than a few times. I think it startled Tom more than me; after my adventure on Cadillac Mountain, I knew what might be coming. Damned plastic bike. Damned bladed spokes.

We went uphill into the wind to the center of Doylestown, all but deserted at this early hour. I hacked my way up and down rollers to the crest above Peace Valley Park and Lake Galena.

We took the paved path around the lake, stopping every few minutes for pictures.

Tom noticed the bright orange tree behind the row of primary color canoes on the far shore. I hadn't noticed, and my camera's zoom would have been pixellated and blurry. (I've zooomed in at home instead; it's not much better. Check Tom's blog; maybe he got it to work.)

I'd remembered the canoes from the last time we were here. "We'll be down there in a few minutes," I said.

When we got to the tree, we saw that there was too much distance between it and the boats to make the photo work.

Not that I didn't try. I dismounted, leaned Miss Piggy against a picnic table, and trudged down the slope to the boats.

Meh.

Cropping doesn't help, does it?

A bluebird box along the road above the lake caught my eye:

We had a long climb out of the valley, and a handful of miles to our rest stop at Down to Earth in Perkasie. Along the way we crossed paths with the Covered Bridges riders. 

After the rest stop, and a bucket of coffee, I wasn't coughing as much. We passed through, and were passed by, groups of unruly carbon Covered Bridges riders.

We also had a tailwind. Now that we could look up, we noticed the sky, and found a field with an unobstructed view.

I'm writing this before Tom has posted the route, so I'm not sure where we were. In or near Plumsteadville, as best I can remember.

Aha!  Now we're getting some good color.

Tom said that our return route would take us down Fleecydale again. Yay!

"I'm going to take a lot of pictures," I warned him.

The afternoon light, through the clouds, lit up Bulls Island as we walked back across the bridge.

The lonely boat was still there.

There was a glow on the Pennsylvania riverbank too.

Below us, yesterday's leaves floated on the water.