Bob's blog

Back from vacation!

A week off from work can be a very good thing. Sun's offices in the United States have been closed over the July 4th holiday for the last few years. Although we weren't officially closed this year, it's usually a slow week after the hectic end of our fiscal year.

I had a nice week at home with some time to catch up on things around the house, ride my bike and sit by the pool. The 4th of July was a beautiful day in New Jersey and I had a great ride through towns like Far Hills, Gladstone and Pottersville. This was actually a five county ride, from Essex through Hunterdon counties. If you've never been west of the NJ Turnpike, you'd be surprised at the rural areas that are very close. Gladstone is the last stop on one route of NJ Transit's Midtown Direct train service into New York City. It's a picturesque town with some beautiful surrounding areas.

You can see a great view of Lake Street in Far Hills from Google Maps. It's a narrow country road that follows the (very narrow) lake. At one point, the road narrows so much that it has to split - north bound traffic goes up the hill and south bound traffic is down the hill by the lake. NJ DOT must not have a lot of choice in signs, because they put a "Divided Highway Ends" sign on this quiet street.

I had a great experience with IMBA and the Subaru/IMBA Trail Care crew to end my vacation this weekend. Subaru of America sponsors two crews to travel around the US and help build sustainable multi-use trails. I spent Saturday morning in class learning about the background and principals of trail building, including the rules of how to build trails that will last. Jason and Anna (Happy Birthday, Anna!) did a great job explaining trail planning and building for all of us newbies. The local trails have been hit hard by rain this winter and these methods will help ensure that the new trails will endure the weather. It was very interesting and we got to put our instructions to use in the local park. It was great to see the community in action - hikers and bikers from all over New Jersey came to our area to help build some tremendous new singletrack. There were over 40 people who spent their weekend planning and building trails. We built over a kilometer of new trail that will replace a completely washed out section which can now be reclaimed. I learned how to use a clinometer to measure grade changes and plot an appropriate trail. It was a lot of hard work, but definitely time well spent.

Update: Picture of the trail crew:

Posted at 10:34PM Jul 08, 2007 by bs in Cycling  |