[peruano]

We have had spotty rains of late typical of the monsoon season. Rains hard in one spot and 3 miles down the road not a drop.Thus I was surprised to encounter major flooding in some of my typical ride roads after riding on dry roads for about 10 miles from home. I found one arroyo runing up to 1 ft deep and a swath of water 30 ft wide. In places the water had run straight down the road bed turning what had been a rough gravel road into a road bed of grapefruit to cantalope sized rocks (everything golf ball sized or smaller was washed away). Suddenly New Mexico felt like Colorado or one of those other wetter states where the sounds of running water is the rule rather than the exception. Alas I had been photographing a few transient ponds (because they held tadpoles of the ephemeral "spade foot toads" and hence by the time I arrived at the flood site my camera battery was dead. The major amount of water apparently came out of a canyon that extends up (from 6000' where I crossed it) to 10,000' near the crest of the Manzano Mts. Its probably a 3 mile length but it must have rained inches of rain in a few hours to result in the major outflow of water that I encountered on an otherwise sunny summer day. Careful crossing those transient streams, they can be deeper and softer bottoms than you expect under those transient conditions of summer storms. The ride was great but I did some rock riding, belly plate bashing that I do not typically do in that area. I kept the bike upright even tho riding on some diabilitating rock surfaces for several miles as I crossed from one vally into another and paralleled the flood waters on two occasions. Water is one powerful agent of the earths processes, and just makes you think "why do we crap in it if we have to drink later". Cheers, Tom