Weekend's Rides: July 22 & 23 - East Mountain Mosey

Another great set of rides in the books.  We are approximately half way through the training season, and 34 days until the Bike MS.

Saturday:  We escaped the mid summer heat for a quick jaunt in the East Mountains. Due with some problems in the road conditions on the 217 rollers (road condition combined with aggressive drivers) we switched up our normal ride and added a quick loop out through Gutierrez Canyon (route here).

In the cool mountain morning!

From O'Neill's five of us headed east across the city to meet with the majority of the group at the Smith's at the base of Tijeras Canyon.  We picked up another 13 riders, and headed out old Route 66 and wound our way eastward and upward.  We gathered another 4 enroute, making our total ridership 22 for the day.

Heading south for some downhill!

From O'Neill's, the first 26 miles of this ride is all up hill, picking up 2300' of elevation to the top of South 14.  After a quick break, we headed back down the hill and over to the start of Gutierrez Canyon for another dose of hill work winding up eventually at Frost Road where we had our last break before the last 14 mile descent back to town and the end of the ride.

Getting our kicks, on Route 66!

Sunday: Something Route here. Dennis, John M., and Ali left O'Neill's at 6 and headed out for a quick out and back to Bernallilo to rack up some easy(ish) miles.  John made the mistake of commenting on how nice it was to ride with "no wind" so, of course, we had a headwind for the rest of the ride.

It's a fairly unremarkable ride so we amused ourselves by playing "i spy".  Of note were almost enough tools for a tool box; a giant bull frog, snake, and skunk (all deceased unfortunately); some wild turkeys (good spot, Dennis); a jackrabbit; and a Vespa cruising along on the diversion channel.

This was also the first time any of us had to stop at a train crossing to allow the Railrunner to speed by.

Mostly done and still smiling!

While not the most exciting ride, it was great company and goes to show that we can have a great time anywhere when we are riding together.  Thanks!