Bike Ride, January 17, 2015
In mid January, I took a bike ride when it was really cold: low twenties. Normally, I don’t ride the tow path along the river during the winter because the path is mushy all winter; it never dries out, and it never freezes solid. On this day, however, I decided to try it since it had been quite cold for a long time. There were only a few mushy spots.
An interesting sight was the wing dam, about a mile south (downstream) of Lambertville, NJ and New Hope, PA. I’ve walked out on it may times, but never during winter. It was fun to see the ice in the river and against the dam.
Wing dams are used to contain the water flow to the middle of the river, sometimes to keep a deep channel and sometimes to prevent erosion of the banks. I believe this one was also used to provide water (for power) to the old factories (now condos) on the PA side of the river.