Today's Spotty Tijeras Canyon Tracking
Good Grief. No rides since Tuesday? No wonder I wasn't a speed racer today. Jacque has been drooling over a recumbent trike she spotted in a local bike store and wanted to go do a test ride on one today, so I got the bright idear of riding my recumbent into town through Tijeras Canyon and meeting her there.
Trouble is, we got off so late I would have had trouble getting to the bike store in time to watch Jacque ride or ride with her, so I encouraged her to go ahead and drive on in so she could make the bike store before it closed.
She really liked the trike, and we're now calculating various methods of being able to pay for it: Sell her existing 2-wheel 'bent, sell her long-arm quilting machine, etc, etc.
Me? I found our most recent snows have again turned our 1-mile "dirt" drive into soggy mud in too many places.
I hate getting mud and muck on the tires and brakes and chain so I tried my best to gingerly ride or push the bike over the miniscule dry or solid wet parts of the road, and when I got down to the bottom of the draw through which it goes just before getting to the paved Frost Road, I picked up the bike and CARRIED it across the mud surrounding the big puddle engulfing the road. Of course, where I carried it was soft, wet, and slick, so I nearly fell down bike and all but made it eventually across the slime with only a few pounds of gooey mud all over my shoes. Since I then had to push the bike up the last 25 yards to the pavement, I stomped and kicked as best I could to get most of the glop off my shoes before riding off toward the setting sun and Albuquerque.
The paved Frost Road was fine.... until I got to the top of the long hill where I have to turn south on Nort-14 to get to Tijeras, old Route 66, and thence on into Albuquerque proper. Again, the recent snows attracted the pesky snow plows and trucks, which freely dispense red cinders and salt all over creation, which of course then gets splattered up onto the road shoulders, and even worse on the bike trail mere feet from the roadway. It wasn't too bad until I started the half-mile climb up "Marco Polo Hill" (so named for Marco Polo's Pizza which went out of business years ago and no longer exists, but a small hand painted sign still "marks the hill".) The cinders and mess were worse on this long climb, and unfortunately for me, there were small banks and mounds of ice and snow covering the entire bike trail about halfway up.
I nearly went down trying to ride across the first slab of snow so I stopped and dismounted and pushed the bike past the second slab, using my muddy clod-hoppers to kick snow out of the way so the next cyclist would find at least a 12" wide path through the mess.
Then it was mostly downhill all the way to Tijeras, riding underneath I-40 and intersecting old Route 66 which then takes me into Tijeras. I had started feeling woozy about halfway down the hill to Tijeras and had stopped and eaten a chocolate-chip oatmeal energy bar (Fiber Ones are my favorite) but still felt a bit shaky by the time I got to Tijeras so I stopped in at the Tijeras Subway Sandwich shoppe for a potty and snack break. Blood sugar tested out at 60 when I arrived, so I regretfully (HAR) purchased a pair of warm chocolate chip cookies and snarfed them down, then rode on west on Rt. 66 to ABQ. No problems on this leg of the trip: Shoulders mostly clear and no mud nor ice nor snow at all. Intercepted Jacque at Constitution and Wyoming and racked the bike on the back of her Exploder and we came home.
Notes:
Total Miles racked up today on the GPS: 24
Note for Diabetic Cyclists: When the bike starts acting weird and wobbly and hard to control, check your blood sugar. If it ain't too low check your tire pressures. My blood sugar almost always is lower than my tire pressure by then... that's why I carry lots of snacks.
Weather: A bit cool but not bad; bit of a nasty headwind going westbound on old 66.
Starting Battery Voltage: 12.6 Ending Voltage: 12.2
Lowest Temperature: 41 degrees F, Highest Temperature: 55 F
No comments:
Post a Comment