Another day, another record.
The Duck! City reached a high of 95° last Friday, and boy, did I feel every degree of it heading back to the rancho from the Rio.
The climbing is no big deal, about a thousand feet of vertical from the Paseo del Bosque’s intersection with Mountain Road NE. But most of it gets served up in the last 12 or so miles, with a side of stop-and-go on the mean streets and the Paseo de las Montañas bike path.
It should go without saying that a fella feels considerably warmer on the uphill leg of this 37-miler, even with steam escaping from the helmet vents.
We’ve either been breaking high-temp marks or missing them by a single degree lately. So it has been a delight to suddenly enjoy a little rain, straight out of the blue — 0.28 inch in the past 48 hours, which Noah might snort at but no New Mexican would sneeze at. Not here in the upper reaches of the Chihuahuan Desert, where we have been drier than the proverbial popcorn fart.
The Monday-Wednesday Geezer Rides have been on hiatus, so when the rain started pelting down early yesterday morning I thought, “OK, fine, good excuse to go for a run.”
But I wasn’t really feeling it. I’ll be doing plenty of running if we ever get anything like winter around here. So when the rain abruptly shut off, I pulled a fendered bike from its hook in the garage — the rim-brake Soma Saga, which is wearing a rear Tubus rack with a strap suitable for packing a rain jacket — and off we went.
Why a fendered bike, when the rain had stopped? Simple. There may be puddles, and I don’t like collecting that famous damp brown stripe up the backside. It’s undignified for a man of my years and may lead to ill-informed gossip and speculation.
“Ah, look at the poor ould fella, would you now? Your man has gone and shite himself midride. Must be all alone in the world. No one to wipe ’is hole for ’im.”
“That’s a pretty nice bike, though. Someone must love him. Or at least tolerate him, manky arse and all.”
I am blessed in that regard, and also when it comes to bikes sporting fenders. I have three such at the moment and have had them all out in the past week to see if I could tempt the rain gods into having a wee. No joy. Rain before and rain after, but never during.
Maybe fenders don’t work that way. Maybe the rain gods see them and say: “Stand down, lads. We’ll never give the manky arse to that ould gobshite whilst he’s rocking the mudguards. Leave us wait until he takes that custom Nobilette for a long go into the East Mountains.”
Started raining for real up here around 4 in the afternoon, and still raining cats, dogs, and politicians as I type this.
So, given the darkening skies, on my ride over to Broken Spoke to get three new patch kits, an inner tube or two (my old patch kits were so old that the rubber patches were brittle and the unopened glue tubes empty) and some advice on an annoyingly loose rear hub for the CAAD5, I pulled out the Long Haul Trucker with its full fenders. Ran into three neighbors along the way who complimented it, having not seen a Surly (the bike, not me) in quite a while.
So we are getting some long overdue rain. Not sure what it will save.. The raised beds have been struggling just to survive, even with the midnight watering system running all summer.
That LHT is a fine piece of machinery, and beaucoup affordable. Ready to ride and under $2K? What’s not to like?
Likewise, any rain is good, I suppose, even when it arrives too late. The neighbors haven’t had the usual success with their garden this year, but we did score a few tomatoes from them.
And the bears and other woodland critters continue foraging in the foothills, soaking in water features, drinking from dog dishes and bird baths, snacking on bird seed and dog food … reg’lar NextDoor video stars they are.
Before much longer they’ll be kicking in doors like ICE and dragging us off.
“Fuck you people, you’re ruining our country. Away wit’ yis!”
More rain today and more expected later this week. Amazingly, there is water flowing down the “Santa Fe River” today. It’s been dry as a popcorn fart for months.
LHT was a fun build and was my “daily driver” when I was working, or whatever it was I was doing. I bought the frame and fork and put it together using bits and pieces I had in the garage. Full story here, for those bored to death:
https://labikes.blogspot.com/2011/10/is-it-touring-bike-or-monstercross-bike.html
6 days I’ve been wringing my paws. Thanks for getting back at it. The Greenville Watershed is emptying quickly judging by the amount of shoreline visible last weekend. Hot here also, but cooled nicely yesterday. Looks like plenty of wetness in the near future so let’s get it on!
Good to hear from yis, you old mountain goat.
You wouldn’t believe how many posts I started only to see them stall out in the past week. Fuck me running. I don’t want to make every post about politics, but it’s hard to avert one’s eyes as the relentless jagoffery continues unabated.
You could visit every XXX theater in the nation and not witness such a plague of pud-pounding. You know the janitors can’t keep up. Ain’t enough mops and buckets in the world. ’Tis a wonder anyone can walk the Halls of Government without a fatal slip-and-fall.
The government is simply servicing the citizens. BOHICA.
For real for real. We could recruit better representation from any tank-town zoo’s primate house.
Reading today’s the Athletic on fecal incontinence during endurance events?
No, I held my breath and jogged past that one. …
That chapter is coming soon rather than later. So, I will skip that one too.
Michael Reno Harrell has something to say about that. Remember? BTW, my hair will look like that soon. Why can’t they just impeach the asshole?
and continue the odorous commentary.
I suppose that’s one way to shed some weight before a steep climb….
Either youse desert rats are getting aqua from the heavens today or CBS News was lying. (They wouldn’t would they?) The Mitten State is socked in with rain, fog, more rain and lawns knee high. And no I won’t be running errands via bike any time soon. I’d be certain to be run over by a behemoth SUV or pickup no matter how many blinky lights I installed.
The non-soon has become a mini-monsoon, you soggy ol’ dog, you. Glad I mowed the lawn before this started.
I’ve been cranking out weeks of 130-150 miles for quite a while now, so I don’t suppose becoming a pedestrian for a spell will kill me. These silly shits out here can’t drive a straight line on a sunny day.
The crazy rain up here in Santa Fe taught me a valuable lesson – half fenders don’t do shit. I have since upgraded to full fenders just in time for the dry haha