Today’s ride is the longest one of the year so far. I rode 35.42 miles on a slightly modified “New Caney – Gene Campbell Road” route. I increased my miles for January to 315 exceeding my 259 mile goal. I hope to ride a few miles tomorrow to add onto January. Last year I managed to ride 141 miles in January so this is a nice improvement. The weather has been cooperating this year unlike last year. Today it was 76 degrees when I started at 12:25 and that was what it was when I got back home at 3:19. The clear sky hung around from yesterday with just a few tiny white clouds.
I haven’t ridden this route since October 2015. Not much has changed as far as the roads go. The Grand Parkway construction at FM1314 is still there but the parkway is supposed to open in March or April.
Today as I rode NW on FM1485 away from New Caney I saw a Lone Start Ranch fire department engine parked on the shoulder of the other side of the road near a fire hydrant. The fire engine’s lights were flashing and in front of it was a fire truck tanker hooked up to the fire hydrant. In the distance in front of me I could see another fire truck coming towards me lights flashing. This was another tanker. It drove past the one on the shoulder and I didn’t think too much about it. From that point it was about a mile from Gene Campbell Road where I would turn. Continuing to ride two more fire engine tankers passed me going towards New Caney. Traffic was starting to increase and as I approached Gene Campbell Road I could not turn left because of the traffic so I rode on past. About a half of a mile ahead I saw more flashing lights on my side of the road with traffic stopped. Cars and trucks started to turn around and come back making me think the road was closed. Another fire engine tanker came from the blocked area and traffic stopped and I made it across FM1485 to head back to Gene Campbell Road. I could hear sirens after I made the turn. At first there wasn’t much traffic on Gene Campbell Road but it started to increase. Normally this road doesn’t have much traffic except for the occasional WalMart distribution center trucks. Now the traffic was steady meaning FM1485 was probably still blocked. By the time I got to FM1314 the traffic had let up some. I went left on FM1314 headed back to Porter.
Earlier there was heavy traffic on Loop 494 north of Porter. The south bound lanes were backed up about 2 miles. During the week this doesn’t happen. I am not sure why it did today. I rode north so it wasn’t a problem for me.
At the 23.39 mile marked I pulled into the Stripes station on FM1314 at 2:01. I took a 20 minute break to eat 2 Kashi Trail Mix bars and drink some water. I am avoiding the sports drinks for now since it isn’t that hot and they are heavy with sugar. As I sat on the concrete a car pulled in and a tall man got out. As he walked by he said something about a bad time to take a break. He might have had too much to drink. When he came out of Stripes he said something again not too friendly. Fortunately he wasn’t driving. The weather was warm and I enjoyed the sun.
Until stopping at the Stripes station the wind had not been a big problem but I figured from there to home I would have fight the wind most of the way. The hardest section was on the US59 south bound service road from Valley Ranch to Northpark Drive. Before riding this stretch I thought I would ride to Kingwood Drive but the wind was so stout I decided to take Northpark Drive to hit the side streets back into Kingwood. This probably shortened the route by 2 miles and my legs were relieved. Once I was in Kingwood the wind was not so bad. When I got home I saw why I had to fight so hard: 13 mph from the south with 20 mph gusts.
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