first freewheeler ride after covid-19 restrictions lifted.

Today's was the first ride I led after the listing of the COVID-19 restrictions by the Princeton Freewheelers. Some things worked, and some things didn't.

Things that didn't work:

• Despite my reconnaissance last week, the porta-potties at the park on Amsterdam Ave and the ones at Vet's Park in Montgomery were all gone.
• Two riders did not appear to have masks at all. One was not a member. I have contacted the other and asked that rider to be sure to have a mask on future PFW rides until the COVID-19 special rules are lifted.
• I heard from a source (I did not hear the rider say this myself) that another rider said that s/he had lost taste for a while, ten days before today's ride. It is not clear that this is a COVID-19 symptom, but it is suspicious. The rider and the listener were maintaining social distance, and both were wearing masks. (Edit 6/9/20: I have subsequently learned that the rider who reported losing taste was not masked at the time, although had worn one earlier.)

Things that worked:

• Especially in view of the unavailability of toilet facilities or places to buy food, the shorter route (30 miles) appears to have been a good decision. (My ride was longer, but it includes my rides to and from home, and some more reconnaissance.) 
• The members on the ride, in general, were glad to see one another, and did appear to adhere to the special COVID-19 rules, except as noted above.
• One member, new to me, came out; it appeared he enjoyed the ride and may come back. 
• Another who has been an occasional rider may develop into a Usual Suspect; she is also being prospected as a candidate for Hill Sluggishness.
• Even though it weighs north of 30lbs, the Krakow Monster, in its new incarnation as a monstercross bike, did pretty well today. I'll have a harder time trying to use the weight of the bike as my excuse on a slow day after today's ride.

To remember:

• Access to parking at the Blackwells Mills/Six Mile lot is still blocked by piles of gravel. The porta-potty has been removed from there, as well.
• The Philly Pretzel Factory store in Montgomery... the last local one, as far as I know... appears to have closed for good. I know it's only salted white flour... but I liked it as a recovery junk food after rides.  

I do intend to continue listing Club rides (I know other leaders are deciding not to do so), but I intend to be a bit less forgiving for the time being.

round valley the short way

Tom H invited a few of us on a ride today that was gonna be up to the Round Valley Reservoir from Hillsborough, either a little over 50 miles or a little over 40 (he'd plotted two routes). The sense of the meeting was to go with the shorter (if more scenic) of the two.

We gathered, observing social-distancing rules, at Woodfield Park.

We headed off through what I later recognized as some of the same roads I lead through on some of my rides. Perhaps my navigational hopelessness is fading.

We headed toward the bridge at Neshanic, where Laura OLPH called for a photo stop.

And then we went up to Round Valley, passing the Stanton General Store, and heading up.

Just before the climb started,I saw this neat barn with the logs in front.

We huffed an puffed our way up to the reservoir, to see...

We could get to the boat launch,but we wouldn't be able to proceed along the road at the top of the reservoir. We pulled into the boat launch area for a rest stop (the toilets were open!).

The reservoir still hasn't recovered from the drought from a few years ago. The far boat lunch, in the upper left of this photo, is still far away from the water.

After the break, we dropped to route 22 to get back on out original route (there was a wide shoulder; it sounds worse than it turned out to be). Soon we were back toTom's original route.

Tom & Laura appear to have a rule that if you're that close to Solberg Airport, you have to stop in.

By that time, we were only about 12 miles from the end. I'm sure it was a tailwind that blew me the rest of the way in, because I should be far more tired than I am.

Some of the gang were discussing the re-opening of Freewheeler rides, concerned about adherence to social distancing rules and the like. I've got a ride scheduled for tomorrow; let's see how that goes.

Ride page.

ride for june 7

OK. I'm planning to do a Princeton Freewheelers Club Ride on June 7, starting at 9am.

First, this ride will be subject to the current COVID-19 club rules. That means having face coverings, limits on the number of riders, and keeping your distance. I'm limiting this ride to ten riders, and pre-registration is expected required.

As far as signing the sheet: if you've been out with me, and you pre-register, it's likely I'll have your information pre-printed on the sheet. You'll only have to sign. You can bring your own pen, or you can have me sign for you if you'd like.

We will be starting from the Claremont School, 175 Claremont Road, Franklin, NJ. The last time I was at Blackwells Mills, the lots looked like this:

We are NOT gettin' in to park there.

There are no toilets at the Claremont School. I expect we will pass a couple of porta-potties, but some folks would rather not use them, due to fears of the surfaces, or the quality of the air inside. I will plan to stop if people want to respond to (ahem) renal emergencies on the ride (I respect that you might not want our full attention at the time!). If you DO choose to use the porta-potties, this article from the New York Times suggests that you can greatly reduce your exposure to the virus by flapping the door vigorously a few times.

We will also not stop at a store for a break. I will stop at about mile 20 on this 30-mile ride for a break at Veteran's Park in Montgomery. Bring your own sustenance.

Probable route.

9am start. I hope to see a few of you.

covid-19 dose response

Mostly because I suspect I'm gonna want to link to it again later, I'm posting this link to the NYTimes article on COVID-19 virulence dose dependency.

From the linked article:

A windowless public bathroom with high foot traffic is riskier than a bathroom with a window, or a bathroom that’s rarely used. A short outdoor conversation with a masked neighbor is much safer than either of those scenarios.

Recently, Dutch researchers used a special spray nozzle to simulate the expulsion of saliva droplets and then tracked their movement. The scientists found that just cracking open a door or a window can banish aerosols.

“Even the smallest breeze will do something,” said Daniel Bonn, a physicist at the University of Amsterdam who led the study.

...negative

In yesterday's post, I wrote about going for a COVID-19 test. I got a call from the doc-in-the-box today; I tested negative.

I'm both not surprised, and immensely relieved.

ride with bob

No, not that "Ride with Bob."

Some of The Usual Suspects were in contact for a ride for yesterday, but I didn't go. I had a fever early in the morning of the previous day. The fever had passed, but I still had a headache at the time the arrangements were being made.

The next day I got up with no fever or headache and feeling great... but in these days, I decided to go for a COVID-19 test at a local doc-in-the-box. I didn't have to leave the car; the doctor took an exceptionally long probe, and inserted it an exceptionally long way up my nose... it was not the worst pain I've ever had, but I will be grateful for an excuse not to repeat the experience. I'll know in four or five days what the outcome was. (In view of the fact that I did almost 40 miles with 1600' of climb that day, and a longer and hillier one today, I suspect the result will be negative. Does that mean I'll need to have those nasal probes done again?)

Bob N couldn't do the Saturday ride either, so he asked if anybody was going out today. I was the only taker. We agreed to meet at the Six Mile/Blackwells Mills lot. When I got there, the lot entrance looked like this:

I guess they're serious about not wantin' people to park there.

Bob had a route of about 40 miles that had a bit more climb in it than I'd done the previous day. He's been along on a number of my rides, and lives in the area my rides go, and wanted to show me a few things, like where a road is due to go in that will make it easier to get to that Thomas Sweet I like to stop at. We cut across the lawn of the Montgomery Lower Middle School:

(Bob said it was about twenty yards; I think it was longer), where we found another of those town paths.

This one has one of those relative-distances-of-the-planets setups (not the relative sizes, though, as far as I could see; I suspect they'd be too small at this scale).

EVERYBODY was out today. We stopped in front of the closed Sourlands Cycles store for a quick snack, and waved to a number of riders who passed; we went up Greenwood to Rileyville Road, pulled off to find a quiet place to relieve ourselves, and were surprised to see a convention of visitors parked there; we rode for miles on Wertsville Road waving to everyone else riding for miles on Wertsville Road.

In 2015, I had a bad crash on Amwell Road (also see this, and this). I've avoided riding on Amwell since then (I don't even drive on it much). But Bob just led away onto Amwell Road... and I did fine. I owe him for a desensitization session.

From Amwell, we turned onto a cutoff that was never completed. It's a shame it doesn't go anywhere I want to go, because it looks like this:

... and Bob tells me there's rarely traffic on it. But it did get us much of the way back to Six Mile Run.

Once there, Bob was going to make it an 80-mile day, but with yesterday's ride (and climb) and this one, I decided I'd had enough, and went home to finish the chores and continue to practice for retirement. I hope to get good at it.

intimations of mortality

So I got two things in the mail yesterday that are inescapable evidence of my advancing age and imminent decline.

The first was confirmation that my Medicare card is coming.

The second was confirmation that one of my pensions will start next month. I haven't heard yet about the other one. (Don't get excited; between the two of 'em, I can afford bagels for the month.)

In other news, I woke up yesterday with fever, tenderness, and muscle aches. With some terror, I made an appointment for a test for novel coronavirus, but it's likely that it was just a reaction to the second Shingrix vaccination I had had the day previously, as 1) about one in six vaccine recipients report similar effects, and 2) the symptoms have disappeared this morning (I'm going for the test anyway).

As for the post title, it's a reference to this. I'm a 65-year-old White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant male with too much education, and every now and again I gotta drag my culture around.

east windsor to the manalapan reservoir

Edit 5/26/20: As the excellent Steve Schraeger pointed out, Manasquan, not Manalapan, of course. Yo soy el idioto del mundo.

This morning, Tom H led a few of us on a ride to the Manalapan reservoir. Parking at his place is dodgy, so Laura OLPH and Jack rode in, and they picked me up at Etra Lake Park in East Windsor.

The park was still locked up at the time we left.

I parked among the fishermen and dog-walkers.

...and soon thereafter, Tom, Jack, and Laura appeared.

We headed out to the Manalapan Reservoir along some roads I recognized, and others I didn't, but I'm lost all the time anyway, so they might all be roads I've ridden on dozens of times. Just as we were crossing Route 9...

Of COURSE there was a bridge out, and a road closed for construction, and...

Of COURSE we got through anyway.

We went to the boat launch at the reservoir. For a socially-distanced location in these COVID-19 days, it was hoppin'.

I saw one fisherman come in in his goat, tie it off temporarily, set up his trailer in the water, drop a bow-mounted motor in the water and run the boat onto the trailer, just as pretty as that.

Then we went to the causeway.

That boat above is a pedal-driven kayak. What a great idea!

Ride page.

i feel like i'm finally getting it

The headline in USAToday reads:

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear hanged in effigy as Second Amendment supporters protest coronavirus restrictions

One of the pictures:

Another:

Not a lot of African-Americans in those pictures, either.