Oh What Big Beams You Have Bike Ride to Gene Campbell Blvd.
Before leaving on today’s bike ride I checked to see what route I rode last year on April 17th. Turned out to be the same route I planned on riding today: “New Caney – Gene Campbell Road”. Somehow I got ready and pushed the start ride button on the Bolt computer at 11:51 AM.
The sun left leaving an overcast sky for today’s bike ride. What the weather look like as I biked around SE Montgomery County: start 78 (79% humidity, 70.7 dew point), overcast, wind E 8 mph. Finish 82 (70% humidity, 71.2 dew point), overcast, wind SE 7 mph. Thankfully the wind let up from yesterday and the temperature went up. I wore shorts, long sleeve jersey, and a short sleeve USA Cycling jersey. The wind didn’t bother me until I turned onto FM 1314 to ride back to the SE. Headwind tried to slow me but I held my average speed at 14.0 mph improving it to 14.1 mph by the time I reached Old Sorters Road where I turned right. This put me among some trees to block the wind some.
As I approached Community Drive traffic backed up on the frontage road. Tonight the contractor will place big beams over the southbound lanes of US59 and they have some of the barriers out forcing three lanes into two. Later as I went under US59 at the Caney Creek u-turn I saw the long trucks loaded with the beams parked on the southbound frontage road shoulder waiting until tonight to go about a mile south to unload. As big as those beams are the cranes lift them into place gently. I think the northbound lanes will be closed next weekend. The slow traffic ruined my average speed, dropping from 13.8 mph to 12.9 mph as I crawled north. It took me all the way to FM 1314 to recover it.
When I got home and checked my email there was one from the Houston Mayor Pro Tem alerting Kingwood residents of the northbound W. Lake Houston bridge over the river will be closed starting April 27th to replace a bunch of bearing pads. This will disrupt my biking to the south.
Before the ride I took this photo in my backyard. I couldn’t resist the bright blooms of the Knockout Roses.
Near the end of the ride I became concerned about rain but I finished the ride at 2:46 PM dry (not counting the sweat). The ride covered 37.44 miles. I noticed the Canyon Endurace only needs 15 miles to reach the 16,000 mark.
