Today the Albuquerque Caravan Club and the Albuquerque Amateur Radio Club sponsored a "Tailgate" affair at the Team Solutions parking lot just off South Eubank just outside the Kirtland gate.
Since we were going to stay the night in Albuquerque, I thought about riding my bike or the trike over to the tailgate instead of just driving. I looked up the route on http://maps.google.com and, according to that wonderful source, it was only a 10 mile ride requiring a few minutes more than an hour to accomplish.
Well, of course, I should have factored in the fact that I often average around FIVE MPH and thus such a trip would take 2 hours minimum.
Add that to the fact that "Bike-Friendly" areas on ALL maps are notoriously inaccurate.
This Google route tried to take me across I-25 on the new bike overpass but I was already familiar with the North Diversion channel route, though longer. Google also wanted me to ride through the Los Altos golf course on their so-called "Bike Path".
When I crossed I-40 on the bike overpass adjacent to Los Altos Golf Course, I rode into the golf area looking for the so called bike path, and seemingly the only path I could find, I took. It was rough as the dickens and wound around through the course and - be advised - I will never enter this golf course again. Especially on a Saturday morning like today.... the place was full of golfers and golf carts and I repeatedly had to pull off on the grass to avoid colliding with golf cart drivers who seemed unable to bother allowing ME to stay on the narrow paved path. I finally exited on Copper and was unable to find any bike path leading across Central. So I turned on Conchas and crossed Central there. I was ready to turn around and abort the trip but an unusually long gap in traffic allowed me to get clear across and continue my way down to Southern. Southern wasn't too bad and when it intersected with Eubank, there was the predicted bike path leading the last mile to the tailgate parking lot.
Thus it was no wonder I arrived at the ham tailgate about 10:30 when most of the participants had already left. Lilly and I wandered around the area visiting with the remaining hams for about an hour until almost everyone had gone and then we returned. I was in no hurry to engage the return trip since my out-of-shape legs were so tired.
The return trip wasn't as tough as I thought it might be, likely because going west is slightly down hill or level, unlike the eastbound mild climbing involved on the trip out.
The trip was supposed to be only 20-something miles but with my detours it came in slightly over 25 round trip.
This was the Puppy Lilly's first belly-pack ride on a people powered machine in many many months, and unlike her agony when a new puppy, she enjoyed this long ride with a minimum of complaining.
This turned into a several hour tiring ride, but it reminded me of several things:
-Albuquerque brags about having over 400 miles of bike paths, but SO many of them are largely unmaintained, with debris, large cracks in the pavement, and of course unrepaired pot-holes.
-Many, if not most, of the barriers trying to prevent motor vehicles from entering the bike paths are so poorly located and close together that it is still dangerous, and sometimes impossible, to get through with the 28" wide trike.
-The wooden bridges over so many of the bike areas, especially along the North Diversion Trail, don't seem to have been maintained since I rode them in discomfort several years ago. The floorboards of the bridges are splintered, rough, and downright nasty. The entrances and exits to all of them are horrible, causing stuff to fall off my trike repeatedly and jarring my very skull, and I was taking it SLOW.
-Albuquerque has a few smooth bike paths, but only within a few months of new construction. One pleasant surprise was the intersection of Pennsylvania and the bike path paralleling Constitution.
-I reiterate my supreme desire that Albuquerque's bike path engineers and designers be REQUIRED to personally ride bikes on these routes they tout so often.
Poor Lilly - she was EXHAUSTED before we got back. She went several hours without a speck of nappy-time, and crashed immediately when she had the chance.....
Ride Started: 7:46 AM Ride Ended: 1:42 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.2 Ending Voltage: 13.0 Lowest: 12.6
Lowest Temp 49 F Highest Temp: 71 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 25.38
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
4.2 MPH 6.5 MPH 16.5 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
5 hours 59 mins 3 Hours 53 mins 2 Hours 6 minutes
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