Long Distance Rider looking for cycling partner for Great Divide, ABQ to Steamboat, June/July 2013

Anyone interested please contact Scot directly at the email down below.

thanks,
Khal
==========================
I just posted the following to crazyguyonabike, but might as well see if any ABQers are interested who don't frequent that site...any replies most obliged....

I've put this ride off long enough, and will be eschewing my now-typical "spend tons of money riding the cycling autobahns of Europe" model this year. The plan is to ride out my front door in Albuquerque to Steamboat Springs, using the Great Divide MBR from Cuba, NM north.

I'm used to riding solo, but this tour needs a partner, but not one of those "you must stick together 24/7 and talk the whole way things." Periodic contact, help when needed and plenty of space is what I've looking for, someone who might ride to the next village when Scot busts a clavicle..that sort of thing.

I'm a teacher whose last day is May 23rd or so (school snow days permitting), and am leaving a window of roughly June 1 (mtn. snows permitting) to July 30 to get this done. I'm guessing it will take about four weeks for me, and I'm free for any stretch anywhere in that 6.1./7.30 window.

I'll be "training" with some off-road rides in coming weeks, but this won't be one of those Leadville 100 crazy-ass shindigs. Steady progress up, careful descents and lots of time to stare at the beauty of it all. Camping primarily, but with divey motel splurges when offered.

Those interested in starting with me in ABQ have a free place to stay, obviously. Those wishing to meet further along...that'll work, too.

scot key
abq, nm usa
jscotkey (at) gmail (dot) com

So Long, Tom Roach

From this morning's Daily Post, including the picture here.

County Pavement Manager Tom Roach Retires

Tom Roach with Traffic Manager Nancy Talley. 
Photo from the Daily Post

Tom has done a great job over the years keeping our streets paved and clear of snow, usually working with tight budgets. He has done this with good cheer and dignity. As our Transportation Board chair, I worked with Tom for several years and believe me, being pavement manager sounds like it can sometimes be a thankless job--if the phone rings, someone is mad at you. 

As a cyclist and former T Board Chair, my hat is off to Mr. Roach and I wish him well in his retirement. Those will be big shoes to fill.

Plus, sooner or later, I'll edit out all the poor writing from this short post.

Easter Homily from the Mountainbike Saddle

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
--Albert Einstein

"What good is diversity if you don't avail yourself of it?"
--something I said at the Co-Op and one of the staff members made me repeat it so he could write it down.

In a recent op-ed piece in the Los Alamos Daily Post, my friend the Rev. Paul Cunningham of our First Baptist Church asks why more folks don't attend church services. He hits quite a few points. Here is mine.

When the subject of religion comes up, I am reminded of the Eastern story of The Blind Men and the Elephant**. What much traditional religion fails to address is that in spite of, or perhaps because of all our argument and bickering, it is likely that none of us fully fathoms what brought the Universe, and with it our little species, into existence. As hard as we try, we can only approximate the universe even as we try to measure its physical properties and test our models of its nature. Scientists, like theologians, are blind (or at minimum, visually-challenged) men measuring the elephant. So I get a little uncomfortable in any church that puts a roof over my head. Except, perhaps, with some Jesuits I spent some time with back in Hawaii. Maybe that's because it was Hawaii and the building was quite gossamer rather than sturdy and opaque. Metaphorically and literally.

Looking east across the Rio Grande Rift on 3/24/13

My meditative moments are often spent sitting on the saddle of the mountainbike. Los Alamos provides many opportunities to think about stuff bigger than ourselves. Whether it is sitting at the back of Kwage Mesa looking across that great continental rift zone to the Sangre de Cristo mountains or my favorite place, a small knoll in Bayo Canyon where our local version of Michaelangelo's Prisoners live, mystery abounds. 

Madonna and Child

Ganesh

Gaia

Michalangelo's Prisoners are semi-finished figures that look like they are trying to escape their stone. On a trail between North and Barranca Mesas is a small knoll where three rock shapes rise from the ground and remind me of three different aspects of mystical thought. One looks to me like Madonna and Child, representing Christianity and to some degree the three major western faiths. One looks like an elephant, representing the Ganesh of Hinduism (as well as other Eastern religions), and one is a tree that has grown through a stone, representing Gaia. Here we find three glimpses the blind men have of that mysterious elephant we call, in our somewhat simple minded manner, by various human names. I wonder if that force of the universe minds.

Interestingly, riding home on Sunday I came to a part of the trail where Saturday's winds blew down a dead tree. Time to think of Ganesh, the Hindu god of the removal of obstacles. Of course its not hard to see how an elephant could be seen as the god of the removal of obstacles...

Calling Ganesh and a chainsaw...

Anyway, happy Easter, Passover, Science, Atheism, or whatever fits your bill. Perhaps we can get Rev. Cunningham and some of our other religious thinkers onto mountainbikes to continue the discussion back in that area that my friend Louis and I call the "Church of the Happy Canine", as we call that open space where we walk our dogs and contemplate stuff.

The Blind Men and the Elephant

**  A number of disciples went to the Buddha and said, "Sir, there are living here in Savatthi many wandering hermits and scholars who indulge in constant dispute, some saying that the world is infinite and eternal and others that it is finite and not eternal, some saying that the soul dies with the body and others that it lives on forever, and so forth. What, Sir, would you say concerning them?"
The Buddha answered, "Once upon a time there was a certain raja who called to his servant and said, 'Come, good fellow, go and gather together in one place all the men of Savatthi who were born blind... and show them an elephant.' 'Very good, sire,' replied the servant, and he did as he was told. He said to the blind men assembled there, 'Here is an elephant,' and to one man he presented the head of the elephant, to another its ears, to another a tusk, to another the trunk, the foot, back, tail, and tuft of the tail, saying to each one that that was the elephant.
"When the blind men had felt the elephant, the raja went to each of them and said to each, 'Well, blind man, have you seen the elephant? Tell me, what sort of thing is an elephant?'
"Thereupon the men who were presented with the head answered, 'Sire, an elephant is like a pot.' And the men who had observed the ear replied, 'An elephant is like a winnowing basket.' Those who had been presented with a tusk said it was a ploughshare. Those who knew only the trunk said it was a plough; others said the body was a grainery; the foot, a pillar; the back, a mortar; the tail, a pestle, the tuft of the tail, a brush.
"Then they began to quarrel, shouting, 'Yes it is!' 'No, it is not!' 'An elephant is not that!' 'Yes, it's like that!' and so on, till they came to blows over the matter.
"Brethren, the raja was delighted with the scene.
"Just so are these preachers and scholars holding various views blind and unseeing.... In their ignorance they are by nature quarrelsome, wrangling, and disputatious, each maintaining reality is thus and thus."
Then the Exalted One rendered this meaning by uttering this verse of uplift,

O how they cling and wrangle, some who claim
For preacher and monk the honored name!
For, quarreling, each to his view they cling.
Such folk see only one side of a thing.

Gran Fondo: Taos-Mora-Angel Fire

From Jennifer Buntz down in Albuquerque. As I keep asking, why can't we get our community to support stuff like this?

Gran Fondo: Taos-Mora-Angel Fire

There are many exciting new aspects for this July 6 event.  First, the route is new!  For 2013 it will cover the southern enchanted circle loop, a really wonderful alternative that I think you will enjoy.  Second, another distance has been added.  There are 105, 84 and 46 mile distances to chose from.  Last, for those who haven't prepared for a ride like this before (or in a while), there are training guidelines posted at Training Peaks.

Specifically designed for the 105, 84 and 46 mile distances, these guides are available via Training Peaks.  It is free to set up an account at Training Peaks, where you can gain access to one of the training plans.  Normally $25.00 dollars, all riders who register for the Gran Fondo: Taos-Mora-Angel Fire will receive a coupon code for a 40% discount on the training plan of their choice.
Just check your registration confirmation email for the code!

The plans all start April Fool's Day (no fooling!).  You can sign-up for the Gran, Medio or Micro Fondo at https://www.usacycling.org/register/2013-590

All proceeds from this event will go to the Taos Sports Alliance who's mission is to bring more sporting events to the youth of Taos County. 

Watch for updates; I hope to have some hotel discounts to pass on to you soon.  The ride is on Saturday of the July 4 weekend.  With the 4th falling on a Thursday, it is perfect weekend for a family trip to Taos, with a little bike ride thrown in for good measure.

Send questions or concerns my way! 

Thanks
Jennifer Buntz, Duke City Wheelmen

__._,_.___

Attachment(s) from Jennifer Buntz

1 of 1 File(s)

granfondo-Taos-Mora-AngleFire.pdf

Nambe Badlands Trail Closures on BLM Land

I'm posting the note below that went out to the Tuff Riders in order to help spread the word on this sensitive issue. Thanks for reading.

Tuff Riders:

As many of you are aware of, new trails were created last year in the Nambe Badlands (Sombrillo section) without BLM approval. The trails were closed with the appropriate signs last summer. Unfortunately, MTBers have been re-opening the trails and even removing barriers. This is not helping our reputation with other outdoor recreation and conservation groups and the BLM. Please encourage you fellow riders to respect all trail closures. 

Thanks,  Fernando Garzon 

Los Alamos Tuff Riders

Rebranding Los Alamos: Krogerville?

Or, Who Speaks for Me?

 County no longer wants 'Atomic City' name. KRQE video.

Apparently, someone (see video for brief details) has the great idea to spend 50 grand of our money to "rebrand" Los Alamos. I guess The Atomic City, now emblazoned on our bus fleet, has gotten some of our civic leaders a bad case of what my grandmother called agita. How could anyone want to associate Los Alamos with anything Atomic, anyway? Its not like the laboratory's mission(s) brought any of us up here, was it?

But what should we "brand" Los Alamos, accepting for the moment that even our little town has to be reduced to an advertising slogan? Certainly if one looks at recent history, our civic leaders have done little to expand our economic profile beyond the national security teat it has lived on for seventy years. The town's one horse economy continues to be none other than Los Alamos National Lab, whose primary mission continues to center on...um...atomic stuff. Certainly Los Alamos wouldn't even be here beyond a few ranchers and a hideaway school for the well off if not for the Manhattan Project. Given that we can't seem to do anything more imaginative than build a 1970's style shopping mall at the edge of town, what exactly should we call ourselves if not The Atomic City? Perhaps Krogerville?

Krogerville, or whatever we plan on calling our economic savior/mall, will not diversify our economic base. It will not bring new money to the Hill. All that "The Mall" will do is try to capture more of Uncle Sam's (i.e., LANL's) treasure. With LANL contracting and the Feds putting the hammer down on travel, we can likely see our hotels and retail suffer. As Uncle Sam tightens his belt and questions the wisdom of pumping billions into the nuclear enterprise, I'm not sure that a mall entirely dependent on all things nuclear is a good idea. Not to mention, I don't think that roadway planning, i.e., NM502, that assumes a continuing growth rate for BombTown makes sense. Not, of course, unless our economic and political leadership engages in some economic base planning that goes beyond the zero-sum Krogerville Mall.

Virtually our entire post-1943 history on The Hill centers around science and engineering. Certainly it doesn't have to continue to be "science and engineering revolving around The Bomb". I would like to see a real university up here, say a Socorro North, that concentrated on a strong graduate level science and engineering program, perhaps nuclear engineering, chemistry, geotech, and physics, an emphasis on both renewable and traditional energy development, and a set of programs that would have some synergy with the existing work force at LANL. That could have been built on Trinity Site and a restored DP site. How about a greater emphasis through High Altitude Sports developing onroad and offroad cycling and endurance sports for both competitors and enthusiasts? Anything but putting all our emotional currency into a mall entirely dependent on LANL paychecks and selling CSFC**, fer gosh sakes. Especially a mall without a bike shop.

But, what do I know.  Robert Gibson has some thoughtful comments over here, an excerpt included below:.

"...We must attract and grow new primary industry here – comparable to that slowly disappearing from the Laboratory – that will continue to attract and retain the people and dollars that make Los Alamos unique and special.
New intellectual and economic base industry could be technical. It could be other professional, creative, or entrepreneurial fields. In any case, if we are to continue to be an extraordinary community, our work must be exciting, unique, and world-class. 
Everything else depends on it. "  --Robert Gibson, in an essay from the Los Alamos Daily Post


** Cheap Shit from China

Slán agus beannacht, John J Mahoney

John J. Mahoney, 1952-2012

KUNM is playing Irish music on its folk program today. Which reminded me that tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, Which reminded me of my post-doc mentor at the Univ of Hawaii, who passed away late last fall after a short illness. John, of Irish descent, left this world when he still had a lot to contribute, and he definitely left it in better shape than he found it, courtesy of his efforts.

A short obituary courtesy of the Geochemical Society is here.

Beware the I'ds of March

I'd ride more if there were bike paths
I'd ride to work if I had a shower at the office
I'd ride to work if I had a bike lane
I'd ride to work but my bike has been sitting for three years and needs work
I'd ride to work if I had a change room
I'd ride more but I'm not a strong rider
I'd ride to work if I didn't have to drive the kid to school
I'd bike to school if my father didn't insist on driving me there
I'd ride to the store if I had a bike that could mount a rack
I'd ride to work if my boss and colleagues wouldn't tease me
I'd ride to work if I was in better shape
I'd ride to work but I look silly in spandex
I'd ride to work if I lived closer
I'd ride but I don't know how to ride in traffic
I'd ride to work but I have to look nice when I get there
I'd ride to work but I need a car at work
I'd ride more places but its too dangerous...

I'd think of more but the coffee is ready and I'm gonna have some and ride to work. Feel free to add your own. 

Go ahead. Drive your bike

Drive, as a verb
1 [no object, usually with adverbial of direction] operate and control the direction and speed of a (motor) vehicle

2 [with object and adverbial of direction] propel or carry along by force in a specified direction:the wind will drive you onshore

3 [with object and adverbial of direction] urge or force (animals or people) to move in a specified direction:they drove a flock of sheep through the centre of the city

4 [with object] (of a fact or feeling) compel (someone) to act in a particular way, especially one that is considered undesirable or inappropriate:

Ride, as a verb

[with object] 1 sit on and control the movement of (an animal, typically a horse): 
 2 be carried or supported by (something moving with great momentum):
 
Ugh. Bicycle Driving, to me, is the rhetorical equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard.  Perhaps technically correct under (2) above, i.e., to propel your bicycle in a specific direction, but still...weird and not typical useage.  Although since a bicycle is propelled by the vehicle operator, perhaps it indeed is more technically correct than the more passive "ride".

Maybe its because I’ve been *riding* bicycles and motorcycles continuously for 54 years. My stepdad taught me to ride my bike (using vehicular principles, as much as such stuff can be explained to a precocious first grader) when I was 5 or 6.  I was often on the back of his motorcycle and got my first two wheeled gas burner, a small motocross bike, when I was fifteen.  “Driving” a bicycle or motorcycle just sounds painfully contrived as language.

Sure, I understand that the use of “driving a bicycle” is to try to make people, including non-cyclists and many cyclists, understand that the proper and safe way to ride (ahem) a bicycle (or motorcycle) in any traffic situation (including separate cycling facilities) is according to well established vehicular traffic principles: riding predictably, with the flow, keeping right in the US, obeying traffic laws, etc., etc.,…Hence programs like Cycling Savvy and the League's Traffic Skills courses.

I think competent motorcyclists understand those principles, and so do bicyclists who have already adopted the ….ohmygodI’mgonnasayit…Vehicular Cycling… mentality. Yes, VC is a politically incorrect expression nowadays due to all the bad blood, fighting, and misunderstandings between the various cycling camps and indeed, it seems a foreign concept to some motorists that some of us will be riding our bikes on the roads, obeying the same laws as they do and even worse, taking up space.

To me, Bicycle Driving and Vehicular Cycling mean the same thing, but then again I bought Forester’s Effective Cycling book over twenty years ago.

“Driving a bicycle”, or for that matter, “driving a motorcycle” to me, has all the elegance of a cell phone conversation in the middle of the opera. You drive a car. You ride on a bicycle or motorcycle, and yes, proper vehicular operational rules do apply.

End of rant.

National Motorist Ride Your Bike to Work Day

In 2013, Motorist Ride Your Bike to Work Week will be May 13-17 and Motorist Ride Your Bike to Work Day will be Friday, May 17. Sometimes in Los Alamos, we do Motorist Ride Your Bike to Work Day on Thursday, since close to half the work force works alternate Fridays.

Last year was a bit of what we in The Business might call a fizzle, due to problems of a bureaucratic nature (I'm sure you are shocked to hear that) and a poor location of the goodies stash. Lesson learned.

Its not to early to think about this. So if anyone wants to form a steering committee and try again, I'm game to suggest a better set of goals and objectives. But please, no repeat of last year.

Pardon the sarcasm in the above, but for those who regularly use the bicycle as transportation rather than as a car rooftop ornament, every day is bike to work (or play, or school) day.  This annual event is a bit of a cheerleading effort to not only recognize those who normally get off their hind ends and use the bicycle as transportation, but an effort to try to get others to join us.  More butts on bikes has a bad ring to it if pushed indiscriminately, but a bigger constituency gets more notice by the powers that be, as well as an expectation among motorists that cyclists are out there sharing the roads.

I really do wish BTW Week and National Bike Month resulted in more folks riding in June through April as well, but some things are hard to change. Paradigms shift slowly, as does the CO2 content of the earth's atmosphere.

2006 Bike to Work participants headed to LANL

Volvo invents fix for Single Witness Suicide Swerve

From the BBC, courtesy of my friend Clay Davis.

"Volvo has announced it is releasing a cyclist detection facility which should prevent fatal accidents. The auto firm says vehicles fitted with the system will be able to detect threats including a cyclist suddenly swerving out into a car's path**..."

As I recall, the "single witness suicide swerve**" is one of the most common crash types listed by motorists looking for excuses as to why they hit a cyclist riding in a straight line minding his or her own business. Well, never mind. Rather than start my own rant, here is what my favorite bicycling editorialist, Patrick O'Grady, had to say in a Maddog Unleashed column published in the Bicycle Retailer and Industry News:

"...Someone using one of the smartest ideas to emerge from the 2010 International  Consumer Electronics Show could soon be run over by someone using one of the  dumbest. It seems Darwin was wrong after all. ..New dashboards from automakers like Audi and Ford, in partnership with technology companies like Nvidia and Harman, will include features common to the desktop PC, such as wireless Internet, large touch screens and high-definition video. Some observers, among them Michael Rayfield of Nvidia, which will be working with Audi, were waxing their digital boards and bellowing “Cowabunga!” “Cars are going to become probably the most immersive consumer electronics device we have,” Rayfield told The Times . “In 2010, you will sit in these things, and it will be a totally different experience.” Others were less effusive. Nicholas A. Ashford, a professor of technology and policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, called this bid to take distracted driving to a whole new level “irresponsible at best and pernicious at worst.... You know how you can be in two places at once and not anywhere at all? By cycling down the shoulder of the ol’ Antelope Freeway a few hundred meters ahead of some ADHD teenager who just spilled his beer while trying to simultaneously surf for porn, check his e-mail and text his girlfriend from behind the wheel of his daddy’s brand-new Audi."

Training + situational awareness 1, sloppy motorist 0

This morning at about 0750, someone did their best to try to flatten me during my bicycle ride to work. Two things intervened: training and situational awareness. I saw the motorist slowing in the left lane and then saw the motorist had put on a right turn signal, so I was mentally keying on that behavior. When the teen suddenly and abruptly turned right into Metzgers/Morning Glory on Diamond Drive from the inside (leftmost) traffic lane, I was able to execute an “instant turn”, as taught in bike safety class, and turn the bicycle inside the path of the sharply turning motor vehicle, thus avoiding a right hook collision.

As anyone who has heard me rant and rave knows, I am not a fan of excessive and irrelevant training; it becomes part of the background noise. Practicing your bike handling skills and your situational awareness is neither rote, excessive, or irrelevant. I am a fan of asking everyone to engage in situational awareness, whether in the laboratory or anywhere else, and also to be mentally and physically prepared to do the things you may need to do in “abnormal situations”.  Be aware of things that are not quite right, as they are telling you something and it may be important.   Be prepared mentally and physically do the things you will need to do to recover.  Be thinking several seconds ahead of the immediate situation so you have time to react.

Its obviously difficult to do practice runs on all potential accident scenerios, but there are places, such as the High School parking lot on quiet weekends, where one can practice bike/motorcycle/car maneuvers. Try them in a safe place--preferrably after someone like me (an LCI) has shown you how to do them. Murrae Haynes, a Motorcycle Safety Foundation/Rider’s Edge Instructor has discussed setting up a class up here for motorcycle riders; we are thinking of that location.

I had a motorist/bicyclist, Mike Warren, stop and say “nice job” as I was engaging the teen in an involuntary teaching moment.  Last spring another cyclist was cut off in a “right hook” situation at that exact location. He ended up with serious injuries including broken bones and a shoulder separation.  That would not be a nice way to celebrate the Spring Equinox.

As Sgt Esterhaus would say, "let's be careful out there". 

Transportation Costs, Carcentricity, and Trinity Drive

The latest iteration on how to rebuild Trinity Drive at the east end of town has almost run its course. The state DOT and some very vocal citizens insist that vehicle level of service be once again allowed to roll the transportation steamroller over anything else.

Business Insider, in this post, points out that such car-centric thinking actually drives up total costs: "...Because it evaluates transport system performance based primarily on travel speeds, conventional planning favor faster but more costly transport modes, such as automobile travel over slower but more affordable modes such as walking, cycling and public transit. This tends to create automobile dependent transport systems which increases total costs..."

Maybe one of these days we will get it. I doubt it will be any time soon. Expect a bigger, faster roadway to nowhere very soon. As an afterthought, someone might wonder how we are supposed to get over to the Krogerville Shopping Mall or down to the Los Alamos Co-Op and the rest of the Airport Basin without a car.

 Thanks to Andy Cline over at Carbon Trace for getting me on this rant.

From Todd Litman's report cited in the Business Insider article

Safety in numbers?

Share the road?

Saturday afternoon, after finishing a whole bunch of stuff around the house, I got into my head the idea of tracing out a 50 mile ride around Los Alamos in order to write up a proposal for a BombTown Half Century Ride.  Since it was about 3:30, it was a little impractical to bike it, so I started up the motorcycle, which has been neglected the last few weeks.

Heading back home from mapping out the previous post and riding west on NM-4 at about 1645, the sun was low in the sky and right in my face. About a mile west of TA-49, I squinted and caught some motion up ahead and sure enough, Bambi was standing on the edge of the road watching me. I braked to slow down significantly, but Bambi decided to just stand there and I continued past him. I decided to downshift and drop 5-10 mph off my pace, figuring its better to get home slowly than be picking up the pieces. A little later I was passed by another motorcyclist who was obviously going a heck of a lot faster than I was, with the same sun in the eyes and the deer alongside the road. Go figure.

But it got me thinking about that Safety in Numbers bit.

Motorists hit deer all the time, since unlike bicyclists, they do exercise that "single witness suicide dash" across the roads. But when there are a lot of them around, especially at dawn, dusk, and at night, a "reasonable motorist" watches carefully for deer because you know they are out there and no motorist wants to hit one. But you don't watch for deer in Manhattan, you watch for them in Los Alamos or along NY-17 in the Catskills or Southern Tier of New York, places where it is reasonable to expect to find them.

Deer warrant?

County engineer Kyle Zimmerman doesn't paint crosswalks unless there is a warrant, i.e., a required frequency of use by pedestrians. Kyle wants motorists to be "thinking pedestrians" when approaching a crosswalk rather than getting into the habit of blowing through crosswalks without thinking a ped might be there. I want motorists to be "thinking" bicyclist in Los Alamos.

Safety in Numbers is most optimistically a statistical effect. It won't save you as an individual from your own folly, just as it won't save an individual deer from bolting in front of a truck. What it may do is get you on a motorists' radar. Its not a magic bullet. You still have to know what YOU are doing, and a motorist has to know what HE is doing and be paying attention, but you might be slightly more confident that someone else is thinking about you and that is an improvement. Statistically speaking.

Los Alamos Half Century

I figured out a route that is roughly fifty miles and entirely within Los Alamos County. If anyone is interested in riding it on one of these hopefully upcoming warm spring days, I'm game. If nothing else, it would be nice to have some weekend rides where some of us informally get together to get some time on the bike and shoot the shit. My ulterior motive is to convince the Lodger's Board and the local C of C to sponsor a ride like they do in Santa Fe, Red River, and elsewhere. This route would hopefully only require a ride permit from one jurisdiction, LAC. It also avoids the VAPs for those who are VAP-averse.

Anyway, here is the course. Minor modifications welcome.

Start at the Golf Course parking lot. Alternatively, start at Starbucks or Coffee Booth. Its always better to start where there is coffee.
Ride out of town from the start to West Road.
Take West Road to West Jemez and turn right, head to back gate.
Left at Back Gate onto NM4
NM4 to Monte Rey Drive South, turn right
Turn right on Potrillo
Turn right on Rio Bravo
Turn right on Monte Rey North
Turn right on Piedra Drive
Turn right on Piedra Loop
Turn right on Sherwood
Turn right on Grand Canyon
Turn Right on Rover/Meadow
Turn right on Overlook, ride out to the overlook to regroup, eat, shoot the shit (this would be a possible location for an aid station)
Ride back out Overlook road, Right on Meadow
Right on Rover
Left at light back onto NM4
NM4 to Back Gate, right on W Jemez
Left on Camp May/West Road. Continue straight ahead on West Road if you want to return to start for 50 miles, turn left on Camp May and ride up to the Pajarito Ski Lodge for an 8 mile out and back if you want a harder metric century. Warning: the downhill can be REALLY FAST.
West Road to Diamond
Left on Diamond, return to whereever we start

I clocked this just now with the K1100RS and its just about fifty clicks with the start/finish at the Golf course. Any takers?