Our first day in Santa Fé was warm and sunny, an ideal day for riding the 20km out to our granddaughter’s house south of the freeway. We oiled the chain, essential after 10 days of being battered by road grit, wind, rain, and snow on top of the car, and set out, with a vague mental image of the route. Relying on line of sight to keep the railroad tracks in view, we made our way through downtown Santa Fé, finally solidly on the trackside trail.

Before long, we arrived at a fork in the trail, near the high school, and took the right fork down into the arroyo, a path that continued downhill at an alarming rate, as we would have to climb back up in the heat of the day, when we would be tired. But, we enjoyed the speed, zooming over a bridge and continuing down the arroyo, forgetting that the bridge was the junction where we should have turned left (uphill) onto Richards Street. We suspected we were off our route when we arrived at Sam’s Club on Rodeo Drive.

With an “Oh, well, we’re still headed in the right direction,” we descended back into the arroyo and continued on, until the trail broke up into a series of short, twisty, uphill segments through a housing development and ended on a boulevard. There was a bike lane, so we continued on the street, eventually arriving on Cerrillos Street, NM Highway 14, the main route to Interstate 25. We’re now not lost, but not where we intended to be. Judy’s rule about not riding on the road and not riding steep grades while I’m still on anti-coagulant medication had long since been broken, so we continued on, stopping at the new Starbucks near the intersection with I-25.

Steeled by a dose of caffeine, we set off once more, dodging cars and trucks on the freeway ramps, finally rejoining our intended route, still on busy Highway 14, but our only choice until we turned off to our granddaughter’s neighborhood at the bottom of a steep hill.  When we stopped, the GPS read a bit over 20km.  Our misdirection turned out to have saved us a few hills and about 2km, at the expense of a little [more] freeway madness, but with a much-needed coffee stop.

After lunch and a visit with the great-grandchildren, we climbed back on the bike for the long uphill ride back to our lodging downtown, this time intending to take the route we had planned, a quiet road paralleling the freeway to the northeast, then under the freeway to the Arroyo Trail. However, without a detailed map and dodging unexpected heavy traffic, we turned off the highway too early and then missed an alternate left turn that would have put us on our intended route, continuing uphill on a very busy rough road with no shoulder. From time to time, we could see the freeway getting farther and farther away to the north, yet pressed on, arriving in a new housing area at the top of the hill. We flagged down a passing cyclist, Steve, of similar age to our ourselves, to ask directions. Yes, we were lost, with the choice of backtracking 4km to Highway 14 and taking the right route, or pressing on through hills and traffic to Richards Street, which would get us back on track.

By this time, we were hot and exhausted: Steve offered to get his pickup truck and take us to where we needed to be, an offer we couldn’t refuse. So, off we went with Steve and Joan, in increasingly heavy traffic and confusing intersections, which we would not have wanted to cycle through. Finally crossing the arroyo, we, not wishing our kind rescuers further traffic trauma, had them pull over. We descended once more into the arroyo, riding around the south side of the high school complex, then ascending steeply (pushing the bike) to the intersection with the rail trail, a gentler grade, which we followed back to the main rail station and then back out onto the streets for the last leg of our journey.

Our total riding today was 33km, in three segments, with lots of hills and road riding, our longest daily total since 2013, and at 2100 meters elevation. When we first arrived in the high country, a couple of days ago, we found ourselves out of breath just walking up stairs, but we seem to be acclimatizing rapidly. Professional cyclists routinely train above 2100 meters as a legal performance enhancement technique, so maybe the pain will produce gain, even at our age.

Links to GPS tracks:

Santa Fé outbound

Lost in the Desert

Santa Fé inbound (on the trail again)

Santa Fe Bike Trails from Larye Parkins on Vimeo.