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| Road Biking | 14.14 Miles |
116 AEG |
| | Road Biking | 14.14 Miles | 1 Hour 40 Mns | | 8.48 mph |
| 116 ft AEG | | | | |
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none
[ show ]
| no partners | | I recently bought a GoPro ball-joint mount, which allows the camera to simultaneously rotate through both the x- and y-axis. Coverage is nearly 1080°, except through the mount itself.
Besides my route, my other plan for today was to change the GoPro’s angle every mile or so, showing the beauty ahead of me, to my right, below me, to my left, and of my own smiling mug.
From I-10, there’s a zippy little drop into Guadalupe. A FedEx semi took the marked speed bump at speed. 
The crushed gravel path on the south side of Guadalupe Rd. was the firmest dirt path between South Mountain and Freestone Park.
You can stay on concrete -- the official path -- the next 11½ miles to Freestone Park. (For variety, I sometimes rode the gravel canal road, or even broken blacktop pavement.) The official path changes canal sides several times.
The "canal" changes to muddy ditch east of Alma School Rd. I assume it runs underground (?), like an Arizona river, as it re-emerges just west of the canal paralleling Lindsay Rd.
All the major roads have a bike crossing signal. (There are no tunnels, and the only bridges are over I-10 and Loop 101.) The minor roads, just a hashed crosswalk.
The trail passes numerous small parks but only larger Carriage Lane Park and McQueen Park have restrooms. Several of the parks -- serving as 🌧 runoff sumps -- were underwater. McQueen Park had a nice duck pond.
Maybe my favorite part of the day was zipping down the Maricopa Trail railroad overpass. My kart racing days paid off: At the bottom, I took the quick left-right at speed, without crashing.
The next half mile skirts the north edge of downtown Gilbert. I enjoyed the smell of frying grease and dodging tourists on “electronic bikes”. 
The Maricopa Trail continues north along the west side of the Consolidated Canal East Branch, to an unprotected crossing. Instead, I used the signalled Lindsay Rd. crossing to access Freestone Park, where my supportive wife / shuttle driver was waiting for me with her haul of tasty Asian goodies from Lee Lee Supermarket in Chandler.
I’ve now completed 154.43 miles of the Maricopa Trail.
Bike Video: https://vimeo.com/809592702 |
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Wildflowers Observation None
Not really that I recall, other than brittlebush going nuts at Lindsay Rd. crossing. |
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| _____________________
| http://prestonm.com : Everyone's enjoyment of the outdoors is different and should be equally honored. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
