My poor two-wheeled baby was thinking I had totally forgotten her so I decided to let my hiking boots rest today. As little as I've ridden this year, and as hot as it is, I decided to ride where I could keep up my speed and create some wind. Great theory, unfortunately the "you have to ride hard and climb hard to build biking legs" side of my brain kicked in and I did not park conducive to a lot of speed.
I knew the bike path along Tramway lost elevation as it travels from north to south so obviously this is not what I want to do. I drove to Indian School Rd and parked. Now, had I parked at any one of several businesses and just hit the bike path that would not have been a big deal and I could have finished with lots of speed and little climbing. But OH NO I can't do that. I drove to the top of the hill to the parking for the Embudo Trail. This means I started on a short but quite steep climb,then dropped for a mile and a quarter back to the bike path, turned right and headed to the high point at the end some 6 or 7 miles or so away.
That same &^$% brain kicked in at every single overpass I saw across Tramway. Bike and pedestrian overpasses that is. I climbed, descended, turned around climbed and descended again. Some of the path itself was steeper than it looks when flying by at 60+ in a car.
On the way back I stopped at a pull out for the High Desert Landscape. Apparently a community planned, signed, walking path part on the bike path part in the sandy area between the highway and the walls. I stopped again at the south corner of Rover Ave when I heard a Gunnison's prairie dog calling. But I wasn't expecting what I saw next. A three and a half to four foot long snake, about the color of a corn snake but I did not see the pattern, laying in the sun checking out the prairie dogs. As I stopped the snake darted into a close by dog hole where it stayed for just a matter of several seconds. He popped his head out and looked around for a long time before emerging and crawling rapidly across the open to another bush to hide again. I stayed there quite some time hoping for him to pop out again and sure enough just as I was about to mount up and leave he crawled across again, this time more slowly, so I could get one more photo.
Then on to Indian School with a sense of dread. I knew the climb was my fault and would be good for me but that sunshine was getting hotter by the second it seemed. Along the 1.25 mile, 600' climb I did have to rest a few times and was lucky enough that some residents had planted some shade trees the shadows of which made it to the edge of the street. Remember now when you think of a 1.25 mile bike ride that this is the only the second time I've been out on my bike this spring.
It was very well worth it, feeling butt-kicked or not. What' next?
For other bike stories of Albuquerque's paved bike system as well as some off road rides in and around ABQ click here.
