During the early morning a wet cool front passed through our area leaving the roads wet. The rain stopped around 9:30 but the clouds remained and the temperature hovered in the low 60’s for awhile. Slowly the clouds thinned and the streets began to dry off but by that time my window for biking shrunk too small for a meaningful bike ride.

I decided to drive the Jeep Wrangler on a route I haven’t ridden since June 12th, 2015; route reconnaissance. I label the route “New Caney – FM 1485 E – Huffman”. It travels north from Kingwood to FM 1485 in New Caney heading east on FM 1485, through The Commons of Lake Houston, onto FM 2100 to Huffman and then back to Kingwood.

The reason I haven’t biked this route is the approximate 2 mile section from the Plum Grove Road intersection south to a side road into the Commons of Lake Houston with no shoulder. Traffic used to be light on that section years ago but over time it increased making me uncomfortable. My recon trip today was to see if that had changed.

Driving to FM 1485 covers roads I currently ride but east of the railroad tracks is where the route is over the old route. This area includes Grand Parkway construction which I picked up around where Peach Creek crosses FM 1485 and continued east on the north side of the road. Numerous homes, businesses, and churches no longer dot that side of the road but the 2 to 3 foot shoulder remained. The asphalt roadway is in reasonable condition along this segment with dirt from construction traffic on it. Nothing here would inhibit me riding. When I came to Plum Grove Road the first thing that caught my eye was the “No Shoulder” sign meaning nothing changed. On top of the no shoulder the drop off is about 4 feet down a bank into a ditch. The drop off gradually becomes shallower as the road goes south but the reason I don’t ride there remains.

Conclusion: continue to not ride this route.

Now onto a temporary construction on W. Lake Houston Parkway at the San Jacinto River scheduled to last until May 24th. The northbound bridge is closed for repairs to 14 bearing pads moving the traffic to one lane of the southbound bridge. So far I avoided biking this area since the April 27th repairs began. Driving through the area I saw the southbound right shoulder remains the same as before the repair work which means I can bike that direction. The question is getting back across the bridge riding north. Previous to the construction the left shoulder on the southbound bridge had white lane dots to mark the left shoulder. Those have been replaced with yellow dots about 30 inches from the concrete guardrail. This is about the same size as many roads I currently bike on so I think I can ride north without a problem. The problem is at the north end of the bridge where the lane moves back to northbound lanes. There is a sharp transition around the curb where the 30″ shoulder disappears. This lasts about 20 feet and I think I can get through it when traffic breaks occur.

Conclusion: resume biking south along W. Lake Houston Parkway but avoid early morning and evening traffic.