Great APRS/GPS Ham Radio Tracking Today
Friday was such a beautiful day. I've been trying to stockpile firewood all week and set all that aside since we were going to the Albuquerque LDS Institute to cook lunch for the weekly Friday Forum. We have been lax with our coed trike riding in recent weeks so we loaded the trike up on the roof rack and took it with us for an afternoon ride in the Big City. After another tasty lunch of Jacque's cooking we changed into grubbier clothes and took off on a ride.... the weather was even warmer than we expected. The forecast had called for a high temperature of maybe 55 degrees and by 2 PM it felt like it must be 70. I was wearing a turtleneck long sleeve absorbent undershirt and only wore my thin reflective vest over it. With that torso covering we rode over 20 miles, with an hour and a half after the sun went down, and I never got too cold. It was more like early fall weather. VERY NICE, in other words.
We like our global warming. We did not encounter any floundering polar bears along the way.
We did encounter many other cyclists, including one couple on a tandem upright, a diamond frame upright tricycle with 26 inch wheels, and several recumbents.
Our legs are out of shape, and we broke no speed records on this ride, but it was - as always - great to be out and about under our own steam, looking at the surroundings and deep breathing the air (as in Huff, Puff!)
About the time we got to the Montgomery underpass on the Bosque Trail, we approached a couple of women struggling with a flat tire. I gallantly offered to help and got the difficult tire removed and the tube replaced and pumped up. Jacque laughed when I assured her, after we rode away, that I would have helped them even had they been ugly....
This set us back another half hour or more. We had planned to get back to the car before or right about sunset but we'd now burned too much daylight and the sun set, right on time, about 5 PM, just as we arrived at the southbound return leg of the ride at the North Diversion Trail off the Paseo Del Norte trail.
After the sun disappeared, we were chagrined at how many cyclists had no
lights at all, even though much of the trail is not lit and the
darkness total in many areas. At least half of the after-dark cyclists
had no lights, which is frustrating. Even as fellow cyclists we cannot
see un-lighted riders when they approach us until we are right on top of
each other, making for scary last-ditch avoidance manuevers as they
loom out of the darkness, not always completely on their side of the
trail.
I forgot to set my insulin pump to a lower rate for the ride so I started losing steam the last hour of the ride and had to stop for a snack once, and ate another while riding a while later. The weather was cool enough that I didn't consume nearly as much water as usual. I had two bottles and had half of one left when we got back to the carrito. Usually I empty them both and another and borrow some from Jacque's water stock along the way.
Later today, Saturday, we plan to ride with the Recumbent Group for their "Sandhill Crane" ride along the Bosque. Details afterwards.
Beginning Battery Voltage: 12.9 Ending Voltage: 8.0 (Ouch)
Lowest Temp 55 F Highest Temp: 77 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 20.9
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
4.7 MPH 6.4 MPH 22.1 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
4 hours 28 mins 3 hours 15 mins 1 hour 13 minutes
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