Sunny Day on Scenic Mountain Byway

Sunny Day on Scenic Mountain Byway

Friday 24^th May, 2019

Day 14

Location: Albuquerque to Santa Fe, NM

Distance: 68 miles

Temp: 44 - 68 F  sunny

 

Cumulative climbing distance:  4,934 ft

Cumulative descending distance:  3,356 ft

 

Today the wind finally did not affect the bike ride.  We left Albuquerque and the historic Route 66 and biked to Santa Fe via a scenic byway through the mountains east of Albuquerque. The road generally had a shoulder for biking and signage warning drivers of bikers.

 

 Typical mountain road scenery. 

 

   

 

 The bike group had lunch in Madrid, a former small coal mining town. 

 

   

 

 

 

  Santa Fe is 20 miles in the distance. 

 

 Approaching Santa Fe, there were many homes with unique artwork, which one would expect for a art centric area. 

 

 

 

 

 

My navigation aids - a Garmin GPS bike computer system and a daily CrossRoads cue sheet. 

 

The Garmin has many visual screens but my primary screen is shown here.  Displayed are speed (mph), total distance for the day (miles, in this case 60.37 at this point), total cumulative vertical feet climbed (ft, at this point 4470 ft), distance to the next turn (miles), and pedaling cadence (rpm).  Secondary screens provide cumulative descending distance (ft), total cycling time, average speed, and average cadence.

 

The Crossroads provided daily cue sheet list distance from one turn to the next, street or highway name, and total distance for start of the day for that turn.  That total distance matches exactly with the total distance on the Garmin.  The daily SAG points and key point of interest are also listed.

 

I have also used the Google maps on my smart phone to get a broader sense of the roads and roads in the area.

 

There is also a CrossRoads staff rider somewhere with the group each day and 2 SAG wagons watching the riders a various points along the way and providing assistance, if needed.

 

In short, we have complete awareness of our location and where we are headed.

 

In emergency, we also can call the SAG wagon for assistance.

 

 

 

 

While we were biking to Santa Fe, my daughter, Allison and family we driving from Phoenix, AZ to meet us for the weekend.  Their traveled a portion of I-40, which we had biked on during the past 4 days.  She was texting me highway signs showing her progress.

 

 

She also drove through one of the narrow single lane sections of the freeway that was undergoing repair.  In this case we had biked along the narrow white line adjacent to the concrete barrier for 2 miles.  A very scary 2 mile to be biking with all the truck traffic.

 

 

Dinner in old town of Santa Fe.

 

 

 

A Mexican-southwestern restaurant with large meal portion.  Just what we needed.