Matt Edwards

As is about tradition for this time of year, we’ve been off visiting my family in Tarpon Springs, Florida. This means a week with good Greek food and lots of sun, and also some time out on the water enjoying a climate much more temperate than New Jersey at this time of year. The weather did not cooperate with us for ocean kayaking, so we took to the natural springs of Weeki Wachee State Park to float down along the crystal clear river. The blue-green colors and the clarity of the water is really something! ...

For the past two weeks I have been passing by the Delaware & Raritan Canal tow path, at the point where it runs underneath Route 29 northbound on the New Jersey side of the river, and noticing the pedestrian footbridge was nearing completion. Earlier in the week a few souls had been wandering along it. As a small part of the project to replace the entire Scudder’s Falls bridge, a pedestrian footbridge was constructed on the upstream span. It connects the NJ D&R Canal and the PA Delaware Canal paths. A few days ago the entrance from the canal path onto the footbridge appeared unencumbered. No barricades. No warning signs. No construction workers. Was it finally open? ...

On our way to visit my aunt’s for the holiday’s, we took advantage of being in northern New Jersey to hike along the Appalachian Trail leading to High Point, NJ. It was a chilly yet beautiful day to be outside. Starting off around 9am the temperature was 35 F. By the time we finished and arrived back at the car it had improved to 44 F. The clear skies and warm sun meant that for the hike back down we could lose the gloves and unzip our jackets. ...

A key part of visiting Skyline Drive earlier this month was the plan to camp out for two of the three nights on the trip. I’ve always enjoyed camping out in the woods (except in the snow…never again) and over recent years I’ve acquired lots of camping gear that packs up small and light for use on a road bike. Camping off the back of a motorcycle is pretty much the same thing, right? ...

macOS Monterey was released yesterday and it brought Shortcuts (formerly Workflow) from iOS to macOS for the first time. Shortcuts is a powerful yet simple to use automation framework, and along with the Day 1 release of Monterey my image editor of choice Pixelmator Pro introduced 28 new Shortcut actions. Time to have some fun! Since introducing the photo lightbox component of this website a few weeks ago, I have explored ways to layout the photos inline to a post without a disjointed layout. This is what I mean by disjointed. ...

Was watching this video the other day and it took my thoughts down a familiar rabbit hole of infrastructure maintenance! Always a fun one. When I go out and purchase a car or a bicycle or even an axe, I spend a fair amount of time thinking about “how am I going to maintain this thing?” The car will need oil changes and tire rotations. The bicycle will need chain lubrication. The axe will need its blade sharpened. All of this periodic maintenance can be called the “total cost of ownership” of the thing itself. A bicycle doesn’t cost $1,000 one time to purchase; that is the cost floor. The small bits of required maintenance add up over time and the true total cost of ownership can be a fair bit higher. ...

Getting There, and Skyline Drive About a week ago, I checked the weather forecast for Front Royal, Virginia. Since passing the basic rider course and acquiring a motorcycle last month I had been anticipating an opportunity to take it on a single trip this year. My first inclination was Vermont to enjoy the fall foliage and cruise some winding back roads, but the predicted weather in Virginia made the decision for me. ...

There’s a saying in the cycling world: n+1. Having loved math in college, I immediately recognize the meaning of n+1 to mean “current plus one more” and for cycling it means you will always need/want/desire one more bicycle than you currently have. And it’s true! I would love to own, and have room to store, an electric gravel bike, a mountain bike, a cargo bike, etc. The latest iteration of n+1 is a bit…different. ...

The spot we choose to embark on the Lehigh Gorge Rail Trail starts just outside of Jim Thorpe, PA. It splits Carbon and Luzerne counties as it winds along the Lehigh River south to north, tracing a not-so-old railway which still operates to this day. (Although perhaps just for the tourists.) The Jim Thorpe area is a popular tourist-y destination and the proximity to Lehigh Gorge only augments the allure (great for family activities or bringing a pet). I have not been up here since a few years back, hiking the Glen Onoko trail before they sadly closed it for good. The bike path is a decent substitute as you can still experience some great waterfalls, and if you’re after a good hike there’s certainly a few more in the area. ...

Went camping last weekend! Location was Timberline Campground out in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. The Pine Barrens has been a favorite spot this summer since we picked up a few low-end Pelican kayaks, because the rivers in that region are a lot of fun to float down. Our friends enjoy stand up paddle-boarding, so we all converged on the campsite with kayaks and boards in tow. The initial expectation was to put them out on the “lake” at the campsite…but it turned out to be a bit more of a tiny pond than a real lake. ...