Bike riding

Last weekend, I bicycled down to Tempe from my home in Phoenix, basically following the path I used to take to get to work when I was living in Tempe. Without an exercise regimen more strenuous than walking the ten minutes to work and back every day, the ride took a lot out of me. It should also be noted that I was wearing jeans and sandals and I was not carrying water. At the time, I hadn't planned to go to Tempe, I was just stir crazy and wanted to go for a ride, and then the idea occurred to me. That time, I took the light rail back from Mill Ave. It's about nine miles if you follow the canals from Mill avenue in Tempe to uptown Phoneix.

Today, with a little more preparation, I decided to venture a bit further and pursue a more ambitious route, a loop, to be specific, with the idea that if I got too tired, I could hop a bus back to the neighborhood. I ended up in a full loop.  Oak street across the midtown and over the 51, then a long path along one of the canals, which runs diagonally southwest to Tempe. In Tempe, I crossed under Priest dr and wound up back on the surface streets at Mill avenue just north of Tempe Town Canal. Following the north shore path, it brought me northwest, and then joined the Scottsdale greenbelt which took me farther north. At Indian school, I hopped off the Greenbelt and headed west on the surface streets, through the heart of old town Scottsdale. At Goldwater, I jumped back on the canal for an extreme long and boring stretch, against the wind I might add, all the way to 40th st where I picked up Camelback heading west. At 32nd st, I decided I'd earned a break and grabbed a small gelato. I continued to follow camelback all the way to central avenue, where I turned south and biked all the way past Thomas to get back to my apartment. Overall distance, 27 miles, in about four hours including my breaks. My new tires held up pretty well.

Here's the map of the route.