With road construction hampering biking east over Lake Houston I set out today to explore a new route to the south and west of Lake Houston. Looking at google Maps I found Timber Forest Drive extending almost all the way to Beltway 8. Several new housing developments built along this street and I thought it might be new territory to ride. I set out at 11:35 AM on my Cervelo Caledonia not sure how many miles the ride would cover. By the 2:13 PM finish I biked 33.29 miles. My total for the week stands at 140 miles and 102.34 miles for the month. Good start. I will call this new route “Atascocita – Balmoral – Walden”.

Once I got on the new section of Timber Forest the number of houses amazed me since I had not been there on a bike or driving. The roads were nice and traffic was very light. I circled the new area in blue on the RWGPS map below. One street I thought might be busy was Woodland Hills Drive as I biked north but only 2 or 3 cars passed me between Greens Road and Madera Run Parkway. Madera Run Parkway look new and portions switched from 4 lane separated to 2 lanes joined. Again traffic was light. The road I should’ve avoided was W. Lake Houston Parkway from Madera Run Parkway to Aerobic Drive. Traffic was very heavy but forgiving, passing me with plenty of room. Next time I turn left on Madera Run onto Timber Forest, right on Eagle Springs, right on Will Clayton, and left on Aerobic to enter Walden. This voids that section of W. Lake Houston Parkway. As I mentioned in the video, Timber Forest Drive will go over the railroad tracks when the road construction finishes providing a way to ride south of Lake Houston through Summerwood, Deussen Park, and back roads to Crosby. I think that ride will be 50+ miles. I’ve done it the opposite direction riding the Humble Lions Bike Ride but not on the new streets I biked today. The video clips show the new roads on the bike ride.

The Cervelo rode smoothly and the shifting is crisp. I’m hooked on eTap shifting. I didn’t shift a lot because the route was mostly flat.

Chilly weather gave way today to 70 to 74 degrees during the ride. Humidity and dew point moved up but not to summer levels. Wind was light and didn’t pose a problem. I wore shorts, long sleeve jersey and jacket. I could’ve wore a light long sleeve jersey and been comfortable.The next 3 days will probably be warmer but Monday will cool down some.

My Tickr Fit heart rate monitor worked nicely with my home made retention sleeve. I took an old sock, cut the toe off and slide it on my arm with heel bend on my elbow. The elastic of the sock held the Tickr in place and the skin on my wasn’t irritated. I order a short arm sleeve for a permanent solution.

On the map below the blue arrow points to the railroad overpass under construction on timber forest Drive. You can see it in the video.