Ride to Mesa for First Day of Class

I rode to Mesa again for the first day of class. I left at 5:30am, which is probably why it was so much easier to ride down this time. I made it to the YMCA, showered, and still got to class with well over a half-hour to spare. Although the day’s high temperature reached 105, the return trip wasn’t quite as bad as last time. I just rode slowly and drank lots of water. Unfortunately, the balls of my feet were killing me before I got home and I had to stop several times and walk them out. I realize now that my old sneakers just don’t cut it for long rides, I’m going to have to break down and get a pair of bicycling shoes.

Scouting a Path to Mesa

Okay, I admit it. I’m a wimp. I’m getting sent to a class in Mesa in about two weeks. I got a couple of maps a few weeks ago, planned my route down, and rode it today to see if it was, in fact, ridable. I also wanted to see what bicycle facilities might be available once I got there. From my maps, I figured it would be about 30 miles, one way, with about a third of it along the canal banks.

My first problem was when switching from the Arizona Canal to the Cross-cut Canal. Both have names on my maps, but are not signed or otherwise designated along their banks. I passed the intersection twice before I realized what/where it was. I also got lost once in Tempe after leaving the canal system. This wasn’t too bad and was easy to figure out but was a gross waste of time. I eventually found MCC and the YMCA and headed back — after a short stop at KZZP to pick up a “looooser” pack I won a week ago.

Unfortunately, I was baked after riding only half-way back, and the remaining miles were absolute torture. In all, I was off by only three miles: 33 miles, two and a half hours one way — we won’t discuss the other way (grin). I think that with the 6-8 hour class between directions that I could probably make it. Not sure if I can do it daily, but I’ll give it a shot and try it that Monday morning.

Bugged Out

This shouldn’t happen to anyone before their first cup of coffee:  As I was bicycling in to work this morning, pre-dawn, cruising down Rose Garden at a decent clip, I found the road to be completely covered with dried seed-pods.  So covered that the lane stripes were difficult to see.  This, in itself wasn’t so unusual — at certain times of the year I’ve seen them blown about and scattered across the road by the wind.  It was only after about a mile of spinning through them, tires constantly crunching, did I realize they weren’t seed-pods, but were really grasshoppers completely covering the ground.  Not an easy thing to try to come to terms with so early in the morning.

Riding to the Ranch

Since the desert between north Phoenix and Carefree Highway is quickly being gobbled up by developers — especially along Carefree Highway where they’ve been widening it to four lanes all the way from I-17 out to Cave Creek Road. I decided that if I was going to ride across it to the ranch, I had best go do it.

I started by riding pavement to Deer Valley Road and 7 Street, then north along 7 Street, crossing the CAP aqueduct. Just a short distance across the CAP, is a small paved road heading east which has a break in the fence, on the north side, giving access to some faded double-track heading generally north-east. A couple of short climbs into the Union Hills put me past both the Cave Butte and Cave Creek Dams. The rest of the ride was over fairly flat and uneventfull land. As a matter of fact, I got bored riding along a freeway-smooth dirt road I found and headed off along a cow path that cut across the road. I did find the herd, by the way, they were all taking it easy in the shade of trees surrounding a large water basin. I eventually made a moderate climb and came out at the top of Central Avenue and Dove Valley Road in New River. From there it was just a short semi-paved ride to the ranch. In all, it was an hour and a half to loaf along 17 miles, six of which were paved.

Off to Grandmother’s House …

To test the new bike, and show it off some, I rode out to visit my Grandparents in Sun City. It was all on pavement, but today was very windy. There were a couple of times I just about got blown out into traffic by gusts when crossing a minor street. With the nasty head-wind, it took a bit over two hours to travel the 18 miles.

Replacement Bicycle

It’s been a tough month scraping the cash together so quickly, but I replaced my stolen bike today.  John at the Golden Spoke was very helpful, not only did he discount the bike to what I had paid last year — the price had gone up because Raleigh had made vast improvements to frame and components — but he also replaced all the little upgrades I had put on the previous bike, and didn’t charge me a dime for them.  Yes, he’s gained a customer for life.

Bicycle Stolen

Ever wonder why you can’t get an insurance “rider” for a bicycle, but they’ll happily over insure your fishing tackle? It’s mildly irritating when you’re looking for insurance and incredibly infuriating when you discover you definitely had a need for it. My bike became “just another statistic” last Tuesday.