Almost Summer Ride, June 18, 2016

On June 18, we had an “Almost Summer” bicycle ride. Participating, were Ed Witten, Professor of Physics at the IAS; Chiara Nappi, Emeritus Professor of Physics at Princeton; Marco, Chiara’s nephew who had arrived from Italy the evening before; Katerina Visjnic, Lecturer in Physics; Mark Ioffe, Grad student in Physics, Avaneesh Narla, rising senior in physics; Susan Duncan, Astrophysics Department Manager; Susan’s friend Lance; me, Ed Groth, Emeritus Professor of Physics at Princeton; and my friend Candace.


We rode the Columbia Trail from High Bridge through Califon to Long Valley and back. In Long Valley, we had lunch at the Long Valley Pub and Brewery. The Columbia Trail used to be a railroad right of way, then the Columbia Pipeline Company built a pipeline along the right of way and donated the surface for a trail. The ride was 23.4 miles. An interactive map of the ride is on ridewithgps.com.


Susan and Lance carried themselves and their bikes in their car. They arrived late and messaged the rest of us to start without us and they would catch up. When we got to Long Valley we still hadn’t seen them. Turns out they had a flat just when they were ready to start riding. So that made them even later. But they did get to the pub in time for lunch! A long winded explanation for the lack of photos of Susan and Lance before lunch.


Another interesting thing about this ride, is that I carried all the other bikes. Candace and I rode in the front two seats of the van and all the other seats were removed. Five bikes were inside and three on the bike rack in the back. Pretty much maxed out. Possibly could have gotten another bike on the rack or another bike inside.

Ed, Chiara, and Marco came in their car and Avaneesh rode with Mark and Katerina in their car.