The Monsoons have arrived! The past two evenings we've experienced some torrential rains. According to the National Weather Service, they were dumping up to 2-inches per hour at times. It sure would be nice if this pattern continues and hopefully they'll be reopening the Cibola National Forest again soon.

I got out for a nice ride on the SS this morning before work. Cool, clean air, and moisture-packed trails to ride on. These rains really helped to clean the air of all the forest fire smoke that clogged the valley and burned your lungs while riding. Here's a couple shots from this morning in the Sandia Foothills. Keep praying for an end to our drought.

Been wanting to try the Dale Ball Trails in Santa Fe for quite some time, but just haven't had a good reason to head up there. However, since most of our local trails are closed due to fire danger, we took the 50 minute drive to the trailhead and really enjoyed ourselves. I can't say I'd go out of my way to visit these trails regularly, but they were fun. We only ended up having time to ride the Central and North sections, but I'd like to string the Central, North, and the technical South section together the next time I visit. There wasn't anything I'd call technical riding on the Central and North sections, except some nice tight switchbacks, most of which we encountered on climbs. The climbs made me work on the singlespeed and it was easy to carry too much speed on the decents. The area, like much of Santa Fe has a wierd feel, and the trails often wind beside multi-million dollar homes. It's really nice that Santa Fe has set aside this property for multi-use. We only ran into 3 other riders and a couple of hikers during our visit. A good way to spend a half day relatively close to home.

Weekend in the Watermelons. After last weekend's fiasco in the Jemez, Ann and I decided to stick close to home and rode the Sandia foothills. Early morning rides are the rule this time of year as it doesn't take long for the temperatures to approach the century mark. Both rides were only about 1.25 hours, but at a fairly intense pace. Sunday I felt crappy when starting out on the ride, but by the time I finished the first one mile climb in a seated position on the singlespeed, the legs started to perk up. Then I hit the climb from 365 up 230 to the wilderness boundary, then down the rock garden and picked up the nice steady climb over to Pino. I strung together some other shorter climbs, then worked my way back over to the Tram and water tanks. Nice to be done early in the day, so we hit up Flying Star for a late breakfast and back home for weekend chores and a power nap. This is my least favorite time of year in New Mexico as my body just does not like hot temperatures. Every year I can remember, I'm just dragging during the summer months, but come fall things turn again for the better.

Monsoons? We've started to get the typical buildup of afternoon clouds and have even gotten some rain this week, just not enough. Hope we get a long monsoon season. We are desperate for water. I did some reservoir projections for work and it's looking like Elephant Butte may be at only 4 percent of capacity by Labor Day. Dismal.

I've taken it easy this week as I've been feeling run down. Only got on the road bike twice this week and last night was gym night with Ann. It's harder to go to the gym this time of year when the weather is nice, but I'm just in maintenance mode on strength stuff anyway.

Got our first bid in for our bathroom remodel. Sticker shock to say the least. We're just looking to get mid-grade fixtures and inexpensive Saltillo tile, but they want $550 a square foot or nearly 50K. OUCH! That's excessive any day of the week, or they don't want the work. We'll see what the other bids come in at, and then rethink things......

Worst Ride Ever?

Indeed. That's a picture of Mark's leg after our ride. Read on for all the gory details. Saturday Mark, Ann and I hit the Jemez again to ride Tom Mayer's "Porter to Virgin Mesa" loop. The entire loop is about 26 miles, but if you've ridden Tom's routes before, you know you earn your miles as most of his trails are wilderness style, ungroomed, loose, and strewn with deadfall and other obstacles. We parked adjacent to the Rio Guadalupe near Porter Landing and were almost immediately attacked by more mosquitos than I've seen since backpacking in Alaska. Of course we had no bug repellent, but we thought they would taper off by the time we started making the 3 mile climb from the river to the top of the mesas. I brought the singlespeed so I could get an extra workout. I had recently outfitted Ann's S-works with a new 34 tooth cassette to give her some extra climbing gears, since long steep climbs have always been her nemesis. With the exception of a few dabs, and having to carry the bikes over deadfall or some washouts, I made the climb on the SS without problem. The mosquitos however were relentless and we were hammering hard, just to try to get out of swarms. Once on top of the mesas, the mosquitos thinned out some but they were still biting every time we stopped. Finally a nice breeze picked up and knocked the mosquitos down and we were able to find a nice shady spot to eat some lunch. We finished out our route on the mesas and got to the point where we were heading back toward the car. We were enjoying the nice downhill through a steep sided canyon, when Mark noticed that our gps track showed we were off the main route which was to our left, high up above us. We decided (wrong decision) that the parallel route should be fine as we would intersect the main trail again in about a mile. Well, that's where things started deteriorating rapidly. The trail petered out and we were soon having to carry our bikes over more deadfall than I've ever seen, mosquitos so thick, they were driving us bonkers, and raspberry bushes that shredded every exposed inch of flesh on our legs. Oh, and did I mention the poison ivy? It was so thick in places there was no way to avoid contacting it. Knowing the real danger poison ivy can present, I was getting worried and envisioning everyone being hospitalized, covered head to toe in a deadly rash compounded by West Nile virus. Funny how the mind works when you're stressed, tired, and dehydrated. I just kept praying that the Lord keep us safe and get us through this mess.

I didn't want to let Ann out of my sight because this was perfect territory for mountain lions and she was struggling carrying her 25 pound bike over waist high deadfall. Not an easy task considering her bike is nearly a fourth of her total body weight. It took over an hour to get through the canyon and rejoin the main trail and everyone was spent. I'm super proud of Ann for forging through this worst of days, and she must have gotten several hundred mosquito bites on each of her arms, just like Mark did. I somehow managed to only get marginal mosquito bites, but all of us looked like we'd been in a cat fight with all the scratches on our legs and arms. Knowing time was of the essence given our exposure to the poison ivy, as soon as we got back to the the Rio Guadalupe, we washed our exposed skin thoroughly, got out of our biking clothes into clean ones and made a beeline to the Pueblo gas station for cold drinks to rehydrate. It was good to get home and get further scrubbed down to try and get any residual poison ivy oil off our skin. What a day. I'm not sure how many miles we ended up doing, but I know I won't be taking that route again any time soon!

Sunday we rested, cleaned up around the house, and I took care of some much needed maintenance on our bikes, including scrubbing them down thoroughly. Put some brats on the grill and chased them down with a couple of cold Fat Tires and slept like a baby.

So far, it seems like we avoided getting poison ivy, and I'm sure we'll be healed up soon and looking forward to the next big ride.

Speaking the Truth in Love:

Do those who don't share our views on God, morality, and public policy enjoy being around us? Has the tension of moral politics come between us?

If so, here’s a question. Is it possible to remain faithful to our own beliefs while fighting for the right of others to disagree with us?

My guess is that most of us would vote to protect a person’s right to be a Buddhist, Muslim, or atheist American. Yet, who would deny that voting to protect a person’s right to reject Christ is as serious as the public policy issues that are dividing us?

Mart De Haan of RBC ministries asks these questions and I think it makes an interesting read.

I would ask too, would people in these groups vote to protect my right to be a Christian? Ephesians 4:15 exhorts us to speak the truth in love. Why? Because love without truth is dangerous, and truth without love is harsh. I can't say I know any believers that are dangerous with love, but I sure have met a bunch who are HARSH and judgemental.

Check it out and let me hear your comments: Been Thinking About..