Twelve Miles

A few weeks ago, I mentioned to Jack that it would be nice if some Saturday we could take the bikes and check out the Santa Fe Trail. We pass the trail head every time we leave our valley, but I have only walked on it a few times.

We took the bikes in the truck to the Baptist Road trail head, and decided to ride north, toward Monument. I figured we would get to Monument if we were lucky, because it had been a long time since I had been on a bicycle.

The stretch between Baptist Road and Monument is probably one of the least pretty sections of the trail. When we got to Monument, I told Jack I thought I could go a little further. There is a very gradual climb after Monument, but it didn’t seem to be bothering me. After a mile or so, Jack and I realized that we weren’t more than two miles from Palmer Lake. We knew there were several places to eat there, so we decided to press on. The section between Monument and Palmer Lake is quite scenic, and I wished I had brought my camera. Aside from the lake, Palmer Lake has a number of places to eat, many of which seem to be frequented by motorcycle riders.

We ate at a small restaurant called the Depot. We didn’t have anything to lock our bikes with, but they are so old (and in my case, decrepit) that we didn’t worry about leaving them outside tucked out of the way. From the window, we could see the tiny Palmer Lake, which is more mud than water at this point. (Not only is it suffering from the years long drought, but there are evidently engineering problems that are decades old.)

When we left the restaurant, the wind had come up, but it was still fairly pleasant. By the time we got back to Monument it was even windier, and I realized to my chagrin that the trail was flat between Monument and Baptist Road. This wouldn’t have been a problem, except we were cycling into a fifteen to twenty miles per hour wind, and there was no coasting. If I had been in a gym, I would have turned down the intensity on the machine. As it was, I stopped and rested in one of the little shelters provided along the way, just so I could face away from the wind for a few minutes. I was very happy to see our trail head.

Altogether, we cycled about twelve miles today: not much for real cyclists, but good for someone who hasn’t been on a bike in over a year.