Wheels down and out today at 8:55 am biking the “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman Extended” route. With an early start (for me anyway) I expected to see other cyclists along FM 1960 at Lake Houston, Fairlake Drive and Old Atascocita Road but the first one was on W. Lake Houston Parkway at Kings River Drive. We exchanged waves. I probably saw 15 other cyclists along the route. Photos of the ones I stopped in time to take. While I biked over Lake Houston on FM 1960 I had a rare opportunity to pass a Chevrolet Tahoe: he had a right rear flat tire and was driving slowly to the east end of the causeway.
After the third photo I saw two cyclists in the church parking lot loading bikes into and on their vehicles. At FM 2100 when I turned left this was the last opportunity to see others unless they came onto FM 1960.
With the early start time the humidity was high but the temperature was up yet. The weather during the bike ride: start 82 (89% humidity), a few clouds, wind S 6 mph. Finish 92 (63% humidity), mostly cloudy, wind SW 10 mph. It’s not a good sign when the humidity is higher than the temperature. The dew point was 78 degrees at the start which didn’t leave much room for sweat to evaporate. At the end of the ride it was 79 degrees.
The PowerPod and Elemnt computer decided to not communicate during the ride today for some reason. They connected but power readings did not show up on the Elemnt. I tried to restart the PowerPod a couple of times but it didn’t help.
I stopped at the Huffman Chevron for about 15 minutes to rest and cool down some while drinking ice water. I refilled my bottle and headed out to finish the ride.Just before I rode away the man store clerk came outside to ask if I got ice and water for the rest of the ride. They are very nice at the Chevron.
The wind was hard to pedal against whenever I headed west and my legs bogged down some. I never did get my overall average speed above 14 mph though there were places where I rode at 18 mph.
As I bicycled north on W. Lake Houston Parkway on the way back home I decided to not go through Kingwood Greens and stay on WLP. This almost was a bad decision. On the greenbelt trail just north of the Life Storage buildings the trail has a section where construction is ongoing to the right of the trail. On a previous ride I rode across some gravel they filled in where the trail was removed. Today I came around a bend and looked ahead to see a section of the concrete trail gone with a deep hole where it was. I grabbed the brakes and slid for 10 feet or so because the concrete had dirt and sand on it from the construction. When I determined I wouldn’t stop before I got to the hole I veered to the left and onto the dirt between the trail and the street. Glad the Canyon Endurace CF SLX had 28mm tires and the dirt was kind of dry after the rain otherwise I might have crashed. I got back on the concrete trail and then rode over the gravel section. Disaster averted.
Not sure this was the case at the south end of the bridge over the San Jacinto River on W. Lake Houston Parkway just north of Kings River Drive. A group of people were there with one lady sitting on the ground rubbing her leg, her bike leaning against the railing with another cyclist standing nearby. An older man was sitting on the concrete bridge ledge. Not sure if there was a collision.
From there I headed home to wrap up the bike ride at 11:50 am.
With today’s bike ride I am at 640.31 miles for the month leaving 160 to reach my 800 mile goal. The weather forecast for the next several days looks bike riding friendly.
SportTracks Bike Ride Summary
