It Wasn't My Fault It Didn't Rain

Today's 25% Tracking Coverage

Today was blessed with quite high wind gusts most of the day.
However, back in the old days when I used to ride the bike almost every day to and from work, year round, missing only a few days a year, I rode in even higher winds.  I kicked myself out of the house and took off again today.  It was VERY windy, partially cloudy, and it almost drowned me with about 7 small drops of rain in the 2 hours on the road.
I'm really starting to get attached to Gutierrez Canyon Road, which runs about 6 or 7 miles between old Route 66 in Tijeras Canyon and Frost Road up in San Antonito / Sandia Park.  It has  a fairly high ascent but is not formidable, especially going North.  The climbs seem to me to be less stressful than most routes around here in the East Mountains.  Gutierrez Canyon is boxed in much of the way with high bluffs to the west.  This makes it hard for residents to get TV signals to their homes, and hard for weird hams on bicycles to contact anyone on their radios from the road, but it also seems to minimize the winds that roar unmolested  on either end of the canyon road.
That, plus the relative lack of traffic and slow speeds of the few vehicles that do pass through, make it a great place to doodle along with a people-powered vehicle such as a bike or trike.
There are only a few problem spots getting there, mainly due to lack of maintenance or high traffic and no shoulder on the roads leading to it:

Cracks in Sedillo Hill Road

Sedillo Hill Road loops under I-40 and intersects with Meadow Drive.  Both Meadow and Sedillo have unmaintained bumps and cracks in the pavement, and what little shoulder exists disappears abruptly when going around turns.  Go Figure.  Here on Sedillo Hill Road, the bumps are bone-shaking when riding out in the traffic lane, where normally it would be smoother.  I've found that riding either right on the white line or almost to the weeds on the right of the white line is much smoother.  Go Figure.
Then, at the Zuzax exit where I leave Old Route 66 and cross over to the Frontage Road on the north side of I-40... suddenly has some new pavement.  Normally a cause for rejoicing, except......

The Dreaded Not-Quite-To-The-Shoulder pavement

Thankfully this is a rarely traveled frontage road, and only a half mile of it is required to reach our desired Gutierrez Canyon Road.  That black pavement has about a 2 inch drop to the older pavement underneath, leaving a very narrow shoulder for a bike to attempt to ride in should a vehicle pass by.  We are thus forced to take the main lane of the road, since riding that close to the shoulder is a quick-disaster in the making.  Hitting that 2" shoulder can easily flip the bike to the horizontal plane, not a fun way to ride a bike.

Trip Started:  3:31 PM    Trip Ended:  5:32  PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  14.0        Ending Voltage: 13.1
Lowest Temp  55 F      Highest Temp:  80 F
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  13.69
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  6.8 MPH                                8.4 MPH                    33.1 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
2 hours  1 min                       1 hour 37 mins           23 mins 17 secs