Turtlin’ up

My body threw a minor fit this week. The pattern has been: 1.5 days solid computer time -> get burned out -> ride like crazy for 3-5 hours. Repeat.

Maybe the 3 hour ride in the 40 degree rain had something to do with it, but probably not.

So I’ve got to ease the throttle back for a few days and wait for the flesh to keep up. I did manage to survive a beautiful TMP ride with Jon on his SS, but it was getting pretty grim near the end.

Look what the rains drove out! This little dude was right on the side of the (Rock Wren) trail, which was actually seeing quite a bit of traffic, blue sky and all. He looked just like a rock (I rode past him before saying “wait a minute”), so we moved him down the hill a bit… only to find some guy’s dog (not allowed in the park) messing with it on the way back out.

Nice light, but by this climb my legs were torched, and I was on a tow rope for home. I had to cancel on this morning’s FR fun on Buddah and other 50 year insanity. But A52 this weekend is on.

It’s pretty much trails, suffering, photos and more suffering on this ‘blog’ (hmm, wonder why?), but sometimes there’s GPS stuff to talk about. Like the new Garmin basemaps AKA Topo US 2008.

Here’s a comparison, old vs. new.

Unlike most photos here, you can click on that one for a larger version. In short – more topo lines and updated roads. The shaded relief does NOT work on the actual GPS units, but the topo lines themselves do. This is actually a pretty major improvement in an area that has been lacking (IMO). Another bonus is that the topo lines are actually rounded to the nearest 100 foot, instead of the funky metric converted ones that were really hard to get one’s brain around (or at least my brain). Let’s see, a few more feet and I’ll cross the 7127 foot contour line. Great!

Only downside (besides getting your hands on the new dvd itself) is map size. I estimate about double size, per map. I may actually have to buy an SD card for my Vista Cx. Not yet though, I can still get all of AZ on there.

Field testing will begin… next time I ride.