One advantage of working for yourself is that you can simply take off during a work day and go for a nice ride. My brother Peter is in town and we drove about 40 miles northwest to the town of Jemez Springs, in the Jemez Mountains of course, and veered off to NM 376, a tiny, almost one-lane dirt road that must have been a logging road at one time.
On the way, you pass a mile or so of red, sandstone cliffs that are so strikingly red that they are almost cartoonish -- the color reproduction on the iPhone photo is simply not true. At any rate, you climb steeply on a 1 1/2 lane paved road through several arches cut through rock, to a pullout where the ride begins. After about a mile you hit dirt and gravel -- and gross washboarding. Supposedly 2,400 feet in 16 miles, though because of time constraints we turned around at the 18 mile mark, still climbing, probably just a mile or so short of the junction with NM 126. 2 1/2 hours including several stops for talk with fishermen -- trout, flies, -- I am no fisherman, pissing, watering, and once to adjust a caliper and once to reflate my tires -- climbing steeply with 12 psi is a drag in the best sense of the term. I figger, 2:10 to the 18 mile marker. 1 hour even back, with one conversation stop, through some of the worst washboard I've ever ridden -- I couldn't see and I couldn't draw breath. Peter, with his early '90s ti with racing wheels -- very light wheels, ~25 lb overall -- left me behind on the climbs riding the 35 lb Fargo with, mistakenly, the fat SnoCat wheels. (On the way down, he left me behind, too, because of some 30 lb additional mass, ability to pick a better line. But I am better looking.) A total of about 34 miles, 3+ hours, a sore left knee, and incipient bonk since I did not eat breakfast or bring food -- though with my metabolism, this is only a venial sin and not a mortal one. I didn't feel low until a few miles from the starting point. Very beautiful -- must do it again sometime. Photos: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos?pid=5903926146371522226&oid=106181942408196036547 (I hope Google plus, damn it to hell, cooperates. Snarl, curse, splutter.) Wanted to trade: almost new (just a few miles) pair of 622X60 Big Apple LITESKINS for 622 X 42 to 48 mm, 500-600 gram knobby or dual purpose. Rock and Roads would be ideal, of course, but any sub 600 gram 42 to 50 mm tire considered. OK, so trade for little used 35 mm, 700C, 330 gram (Kevlar bead) Kojaks? -- http://resumespecialties.com/index.html [email protected] http://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickmooreresumespec/ Albuquerque, NM -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
