Jim's Pond - Go, Explore, Contribute

"The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits."

-- Albert Einstein

Wednesday, January 4, 2006

Joshua Tree

Earlier this week I was in California and fortunately had my bicycle with me. I took a ride from Twentynine Palms into Joshua Tree National Park. What a grind! Perhaps I wasn't so fortunate after all. It was 16 miles from lovely, beautiful, Twentynine Palms (motto: what the moon would look like if it had palm trees and bunny rabbits) to the top of the hill in the park.

I've since looked at a map and now realize that I wasn't that far into the park. I did get past Jumbo Rocks but not quite to the Ryan campground. There was a brief respite of cycling on some flat ground. But that wasn't great. I realized after going an extra mile or so that I'd benefitted from a tailwind and struggled into the breeze to get back to the downhill return.

I did have that 16 miles of coasting, hitting a top speed of 39 MPH (plenty fast on a bike) and staying above 30 MPH most of the way. Once back in Twentynine Palms I had a short ride back to the hotel. Nothing to complain about. Except the cold. Down hill isn't all breeze in your face and easy coasting. Sometimes it's bugs in your teeth and sometimes it's frozen fingers...........

3:05:26 PM