Albuquerque NM

Well here we are. It has been three months since I posted anything at all but we have been busy. Vermont to Albuquerque NM. Big changes in geography and climate. 300 + days of sunshine here and the days that aren't sunny by their standards are by mine Back East. It is even sunny when it rains here. Clothes dry on the clothesline about as fast as it takes to hang out a full load so you can almost finish hanging at one end and go back to where you started and start taking them off again. Of course Albuquerque is an enclave of green in the high desert provided by the Rio Grande. Go to far in any direction (especially south) and it gets dry like you read about. This country was notoriously difficult to cross before the railroad and the advent of paved roads and internal combustion. Between the natives and the environment a white man would be hard pressed to survive here for long. When I was in Death Valley years back there was a big picture of some famous party crossing Death Valley complete with tattered Conestoga wagon etc. These poor souls eventually became so thirsty and hungry that they resorted to cannibalism to survive like the Donner Party. In the painting there are natives lying down behind a small ridge watching the party traveling across the floor of the valley. Natives who knew how to survive in the valley, natives who knew where the fresh water springs were. I always wanted to go back and pen in what the natives might have been saying to each other like Mystery Theater 2000: "They are looking mighty dry eh?"

So I have been here a week and have ridden my bike in the city a bit and am pleased to say that Albuquerque is doing a fair job making the city bike friendly. As usual the folks that drive in the city aren't always in possession of a clue about cyclists but at least there is a terminal mass of cyclists andthe motorists are used to seeing them. There are bike lanes, and bike routes and even a bike boulevard (albeit on just one street). There is a published map showing all aforementioned bikeways and various published books on both roadbiking and mountain biking routes and trails. I have had two pretty amazing mountain bike rides on canyon singletrack that was GOBS of fun. It is a great city to have various bikes in your quiver so I am glad that I brought all of my bikes in spite of the space that they took up in the truck.