Apologies to folks who consider the edge of the universe home, but riding buddy and I rode bicycles out to the edge of the universe yesterday, i.e., Paseo del Norte and Universe/Rainbow/Unser. The route went something like this:

No, we were not drunk (thanks for asking), riding buddy and I just tend to ride crazily inefficient routes for a number of reasons not including inebriation. There’s a GPS game involved that I think I’ve mentioned before, but the big underlying reason is to get to know parts of town we know nothing about at an average of ~9 mph, tops.

Parts of town like the edge of the universe seen above.

The really LSD spider “routing” toward the bottom right above skirted Petroglyph National Monument and, after trying to break into (the back parking lots) of Chamiza Elementary, left civilization at the very exciting (to us) Calle Nortena Open Space, which abuts the Monument and heads up an empty (of houses) arroyo over to Kimmick Drive and up to Paseo del Norte.

For those unfamiliar with the edge of the universe, here’s more info on the Open Space put together by some birders, a 28-minute video someone hiking the trail made and a blue rectangle outlining that part of the ride below:

We forgot to take a photo of the Open Space sign at the end of paved Calle Nortena NW at the far right side of the blue rectangle above, but it didn’t indicate “No bicycles,” and while pushing/pulling the bike through the protective “gate” of boulders and wood poles was a bit of a challenge, you can do it. From there the wide trail was not nearly as sandy as many and delightfully lacking in information about which of the criss-crossing trails one should take.

In our extremely mimimal “planning” for the ride, I’d seen info about the Open Space and also spotted this weird pedestrian bridge that goes over Paseo del Norte in what has been the middle of nowhere ever since the infamous “Paseo Extension Project” back in 2007. Here are two excerpts from the City’s “Historical Aerial Maps,” first in 2006 at the beginning of construction and then post-construction in 2008.

Today, going on 20 years later, that bridge still goes to and from NOWHERE. It’s just as bizarrely barren in both directions north and south.

We didn’t make it over to that bridge in our ride yesterday, mainly because we thought riding a bicycle on Paseo del Norte to be a REALLY bad idea, but also because an important component of these rides is you want to leave parts undone as incentive to future rides.

Lo and behold, it turns out that the long, long, long, long-planned/announced/re-announced/declared/re-declared to be starting any day now “Unser/Paseo Widening Project” has actually started almost eight years after City Councilor Dan Lewis first announced it. As a blogger whose blog has the word “roadway” in the title, I’m embarrassed to have not realized the project was actually gonna happen, but we are talking the edge of the universe here and the eight years of announcing was a bit much.

As is the custom now, there’s a website devoted to the project, with renderings and little videos illustrating what both stroads are gonna look like at completion. Here is what’s scheduled to happen on Paseo del Norte.

That’s right: 10-foot MUPs on both sides and bike lanes for cyclists who preferred living dangerously. Given the posted speed will likely be at least 50 mph and actual speed limit “Autobahn,” methinks I’ll stick to the MUP when I’m next out cycling the edge of the universe.

But what about that pedestrian bridge to nowhere? You might have noticed that the easternmost “scope of work” for the Widening looks to be just east of Calle Nortena, i.e., right at the bridge! The Project spokesperson tells me that no improvement of the bridge is included in the upcoming work, hence the bridge will stick out strangely even more than it has for the past two decades.

In short, another successful ride yesterday, one filled with uncertainty, new discoveries, and extremely unstraight lines. Not to mention what I’ve learned AFTER the ride. I guess there’s two kinds of travelers/tourists: 1. Folks who get travel guides BEFORE the trip and study where they are going, and 2. Folks like me who go places with almost zero planning and only find out where the hell they were AFTER they get back.

Both have their advantages. Safe travels, everybody.