[Here is a writeup from ride captain John, who along with Laura, led an excellent first preseason training ride of the season! A big thanks to both of them for organizing this while I was out of town.]
As usual, we started out in the dim light of the morning, but in a break
from our usual routine, we met up at the park at the east end of Arroyo
del Oso municipal golf course, which is on the north side of Osuna between
Wyoming and San Pedro. Starting out, we had ride captains John and Laura,
Olga, Gary C. and Dawn, a new rider. The route of the ride is
here.
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| The few, the proud, the ride group |
The route started out heading west on the Osuna bike trail towards the
North Diversion Channel Trail, using the pedestrian bridge over I-25 to
help us get there. It was an uneventful start for us, but Calvin had
already started the day with a flat, yet managed to meet up with us on the
diversion channel trail across from Journal Center. Now six-strong, we
took the path parallel to Paseo del Norte over to the Bosque trail and
turned south.
We had the usual assortment of folks along the northern part of the trail
to dodge until we started getting close to the bio park. There was some
kind of running event happening there, since there were large clusters of
runners (mostly heading north) spread out over a couple of miles. Our
usual regrouping point at Tingley "Beach" was not as pleasant as usual.
There was a group of workers preparing some digging for what looked to be
eventual concrete pouring. Whatever they were doing, it involved loud
equipment, but at least the restrooms were still open.
From there, we had a short ride to Bridge Blvd, next to the NHCC, then a
short, fairly unpleasant ride back over the train tracks to hook up to a
north-bound leg on Broadway into the edges of the downtown area. Once we
got to MLK Jr, the real fun began, as we put our early-season legs to the
test of a steady climb up to University. After we regrouped at University,
we zig-zagged through the fringes of UNM to connect to the North Diversion
Channel Trail again. From there, we kept a pretty leisurely pace all the
way to the big tree just south of the Osuna underpass.
We hung out there in the shade plotting our assault on breakfast, choosing
Weck's on Louisiana as our target. Unfortunately, Calvin was not done with
flats for the day. During the stop, he accidentally dislodged a goat-head
in his tire, and air started bleeding out. He decided to make a dash for
Weck's to see if he could make it there before his air ran out. Less than
a mile up the trail heading back to Osuna, it was clear this was not going
to work. Laura stopped with him to provide moral support (but not actual
support, as you can see in the picture) while Calvin practiced his
tube-changing skills.
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| The evil gods of the Goatheads claim their first victim of the year. |
Gary and Olga had other places to be, but the rest of the group eventually
made it to Weck's after the ~30 mile ride. Weck's is no Serafin's, but it
was still a satisfying breakfast, and John's son, Matt, was able to join
us and multi-task between breakfast and Pokémon on his Nintendo. All in
all, it was a pleasant, but not demanding ride for the riders who have
already been on their bikes this season, but more of a stretch for the
riders who made this their riding debut for the year.
