Today’s ride post was delayed because our internet was down from around 9 am until a few minutes ago. The bike ride went on even if the internet didn’t. I rode the “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman Extended” route to get a couple of extra miles for the first bike ride of May. The ride totaled 35.43 miles towards my goal of 660 miles for May. Yesterday we went to the medical center in Houston for my wife’s cancer checkup. She is doing good with her new medicines. Side effects are nothing compared to the previous treatment, a research drug.

Starting at 11:11 am I was few minutes earlier than usual but the weather is warming up now. The weather during the bike ride: start 85 (76% humidity), mostly cloudy, wind SE 16 mph, gusts 23 mph. Finish 85 (70% humidity), mostly cloudy, wind SE 17 mph. Wind continues to challenge my legs as can be seen in the max watts during the bike ride: 572 watts (Strava wasn’t as generous showing my max to be 555 watts). Not equal to the pros but strong for me. There was a spot along the route where my power was jumping above 500 watts for several seconds biking into some wind gusts. With the warmer weather my wardrobe was shorts and short sleeve jersey.

No rest stops today. I saw three other cyclists along the route: one in Kingwood, one over Lake Houston and the final one on Atascocita Shores Drive. Later another cyclist caught my eye as I rode behind the stores on W. Lake Houston Parkway north of Kingwood Drive. He was on a mountain bike riding along the drainage bayou on the way to Tree Lane where I saw come onto the street and then bunny hopped the curb to continue along the bayou north of Tree Lane. He had a large backpack which looked full but didn’t seem to slow him down any.

The extended portion of this route goes north of FM 1960 in Huffman to Smith Street which connects to E. Lake Houston Parkway and then back to FM 1960. I figured this adds about 1 1/2 miles to the unextended version of the route.

Riding west on FM 1960 from E. Lake Houston Parkway I went over Lake Houston. To the south the wind was pushing the water in waves toward the causeway while on the north side of the causeway the water was calm.

Making the right turn at the Atascocita Shores Drive traffic light I rode about a 1/4 mile and stopped to take these photos.

Lake Houston is in the background coming into the small inlet with houses and boat houses. The sign in the first picture warns people about unauthorized use of the boat ramp and other facilities. To the right and out of the picture is an open field where some people have camped maybe causing the sign.

After snapping the photos I continued on Atascocita Shores Drive with a nice tailwind and onto Kings River Drive to get back to W. Lake Houston Parkway. On W. Lake Houston Parkway a white pickup truck with Halff on the door has been surveying and inspecting the area around the bridge for a week or more. Today the truck was parked in the right shoulder lane blocking me which forced me to stop and wait for the passing traffic to get by.

With the somewhat earlier start I was well in front of the Kingwood High School traffic and crossed Kingwood Drive without any waiting. From there I rode on and finished at 1:47 pm.

More warm weather on Thursday. I plan on riding.

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary