Goathead Season

With the second wettest July on record, it's no wonder that this August's goathead crop (Tribulus terrestris L.) is the stuff of legends.  Already the chenopods and amaranths are over my head.  Mentzelia and Psilostrophe are out there along with plenty of cheat grass.

Lizards scurry out of my way as I peddle down the ditch banks, road runners scoot to the side, but the big harvester ants are oblivious of me.  I find myself always on the lookout for ants and take evasive action to avoid hitting them.  At least the mosquitoes and sand flies are less numerous now that things are drying out a bit.

That said, my last outing was the morning after a good thunderstorm.  Sandy areas were hard packed (yeah!) and the water had drained away, but I hit a couple muddy spots near San Lorenzo Ave.  After that, I was kicking up clods all the way to my checkpoint north of Eakes Rd.  I did a quick check of the pulse (110) and of my time (27 minutes), which compares well with 117/26 from a year ago.

I suspect time and pulse could have been better if I hadn't stopped to hack the Metal Horse Ingress portal.  My biking of late has taken to pursuing Ingress portals.  I'm particularly proud of the green fields in the ABQ Botanic Garden, northward to the Rio Grande Nature Center, and into the Aldo Leopold Bosque up to Montano Blvd.  It's a shame Ingress doesn't have a badge for cycling, but my Trekker badge shows that I've walked 364 km (226 miles) while playing the game.  #ftw

Cycling and Ingress

Recently my old colleague Joe Lewis conned me into playing Ingress, an online augmented reality game.  It turns out to be quite addicting, combining features of geocaching, capture the flag, Risk, and the oriental board game Go.  Ingress is ideally suited for walkers, runners, and cyclists.  Get to within 40 m of a "portal" and take actions--hacking, deploying resonators, and/or making modifications.

So I struck out on a windless spring day (hurrah!) to bike 4 miles over to the "Crying Face," a piece of street art.  The opposing faction, the blue Resistance, had made it the focus of a large control field.

The trails were hard-packed, smooth, and free of goatheads.  I made good time and I had my Google Glass with me for easy photography.  The ditches are running full, the early spring weather meaning that farmers need water in their fields.

I used a Jarvis virus to destroy the Crying Face and turned it to the green team, the Enlightenment.  #goodtimes

The Treaddesk

Even though I'm getting regular rides in, one can see the writing on the wall.  Or as they say in Game of Thrones, "Winter is coming."  To combat that season of weather-enforced curtailment of acequia riding, we've converted the treadmill to a treaddesk. 

NordicTrack treadmill with desk

The small plexiglass shelf and hardware cost about $30.  Designed and installed by my friend Kent, it comfortably holds a Kindle, an ASUS tablet, or the Toshiba netbook (pictured). 

Toshiba netbook on the treaddesk

It's very functional, enabling one to read and respond to e-mail, pay bills online, and check-in with social media while getting some steps on the ol' pedometer.  I use it at about 0.6 mph, but expect that to increase as I get more comfortable with the setup. 

Installation detail

A small hole inside the plastic cupholder of the treadmill allows adjustable mounting brackets to hold the plexiglass level.  A touch of SuperGlue locks things in place--we were concerned about vibrations from the treadmill loosening the screws over time. 

The only other adaptation was to get a small Logitech cordless mouse.  Neither the touch pad nor a touchscreen is particularly good for fine control of the cursor while you are moving. 

With all this in place for the season, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this afternoon was warm and sunny.  Instead of a walk, I took a quick ride down to the Rio Grande Nature Center. 

Along the Griegos Acequia heading towards the Nature Center

Fall colors are warming up and some trees are amazing against the bright New Mexico skies. 

Cottonwoods in the Nature Center

 I took a moment to walk in to the viewing area for the pond near the Visitor's Center and saw a few ducks and over a dozen turtles.  The turtles can just be made out sunning themselves on the foreground logs in the full-size version of the photo. 

The pond at the Nature Center

Autumn Rides in the Bosque

The Great Acequia Clean-up

This time of year, the ditches typically look like this:  

The Alameda Interior Drain along North 2nd St.

Bullrushes, grasses, sunflowers, and horsetails happily take in the autumn sunshine along the acequias that are still flowing.  But recently the MRGCD has been making things tidy.  My local drain now looks like this: 

The Alameda Interior Drain adjacent to Matthew

Even the smaller ditches have been cleaned up, but the Alameda Drain requires heavy fuel. 

The Machine

This beast has a 4' scoop and a huge arm enabling it to scour one side on the down sweep and scour the near side on the up sweep.  They've been working for a couple weeks and have turned the corner now to the south. 

The good news is that in many areas, the goatheads are gone, but the bad news is that the ground surface is often churned up and very soft.  I find myself mostly risking the goatheads and riding on hardpacked surfaces.  Some of these are as good as pavement. 

North of Montano aloong the Griegos Interior Drain

The other good news is that my workout frequency is getting much better.  Certainly I'm adapting to retirement with more exercise than last year at this time.

Also, in preparation for a cold and wet winter, the treadmill has been turned into a treaddesk.  More on that in the next installment.

Blog Action Day -- #Inequality

ABQ, the North Valley

I took a bike ride along the acequias of Albuquerque's North Valley late this afternoon.  Armed with a $350 mountain bike and $2000 of digital equipment, I peddled along the centuries old water courses that irrigate the city.

With this year's Blog Action Day topic in mind, I expected to be able to reflect on and photo-document the wealth of the landed gentry in ABQ.  I did not expect that I'd take a turn that would lead me to some of the best street art in the city and some of the dingiest neighborhoods on the "wrong side of the tracks," quite literally.

Fall Goathead Report

Cap'n, Thar be Goatheads!

I've been remiss in blogging about this fall's bike rides.  With temperatures in the low 80s and upper 70s, it's been a great season for late afternoon pedals.  The long shadows make for very pleasant scenery along the ditch banks.

Griegos Acequia

Early August Rides, Part 2

On another cool afternoon with only moderate wind, I was able to ride up the Griegos Interior Drain, where the goatheads were proliferating despite the mowing by the City.  Heavy machinery tracks showed their efforts, but they largely missed the dreaded patches of goatheads.  Fortunately, they haven't yet matured into hard, dry, tire-killing calthrops. 

I then crossed west near Valley Haven Park to briefly follow the Albuquerque Acequia up to the Duranes Lateral.  Fewer goatheads in the shady sections here, but horse nettle and other obnoxious plants were making a start after the recent rains. 

I followed the lateral to Veranda (where the ditch crossing was in poor repair and the water level quite high)...

... and peddled past the Candelaria Nature Center before heading home via the east bank portion of the Paseo del Bosque Trail and thence east on Campbell Rd.  For variety, I used the Campbell to Matthew segment of the Albququerque Acequia to finish things up.