Fine day for a great ride, and we are off! We want to return to North Horse Gulch, a set of trails we rode last year, so we head out, kinda late, though. This is the trail where we saw Mo Monaghan last year, and it was a fun one. Well, when last we were here, the city was working on the parking area, so parking was difficult, though not impossible. THIS year, they’re STILL working on it, and there is NO parking! Well, almost a year, so … quite the improvement … NOT!

Ok, that’s out, but there are a LOT of trails here, so we go to SOUTH Horse Gulch instead. We DO find parking there, so off to ride we go! Here’s the trailhead:

A bit into the trail, I see this:

Cute! I have no unearthly idea what it is, but it’s cute! From the trail we see this:

And later on this:

Not terrific vistas, but pretty cool.

For later, there’s a plan, so we head home to shower and change. There’s a brewery (well, a lot of them, but we want a particular one) that has specials and BBQ on Thursdays, so off we go, across town. Very close to where we rode, as a matter of fact. Well, the place is so packed, there’s no place to park literally for over a block, and it’s all illegal parking anyway (on the street, on No Parking areas) and I won’t do that, so we head home for dinner. Oh, well.

On our return, I get photos of our campsite. I like it – lots of trees, megashade. Here’s the rear of it:

Here’s the left side:

And the right:

Best campsite EVER!

Tomorrow? Maybe some concrete trails, to let the legs rest a bit.

Ah, Colorado! I like this State. Beautiful scenery, great trails, quaint towns.

Got in mid-afternoon yesterday, no chance for photos, so here’s one today – the campground where we’re staying:

Funky long-ass driveway, but it’s nestled up close to the mountain (good and bad) – great as it protects from the wind, not so good as it also protects from radio waves – no cell service most of the time. Oh, well, at least they have GREAT Wi-Fi, so there is that!

Today we went to ride at the Overend Mountain Park, named after Ned Overend, the legendary mountain biker. Kind of a fun trail, but The Bear had some issues with it, so it was a comparatively short ride, but I did get some photos. Here’s the trailhead:

Here’s a shot from the trail, overlooking Durango:

The trail was tougher than we expected, with some rather scary spots, so we cut it short, as I mentioned. It was still fun, though.

Pretty much it for the day.

Wind. AGAIN! That’s it. We don’t care. We need – NEED – to ride.

We’re going to drive to the visitor’s center, because the wind would be brutal on the road there, as it was when we rode the other day. The VC is kind of protected, as are the roads leading from there to the trailhead. We’re riding!

Well, protection or not, it was still pretty brutal. Winds are BAD. Still 25 to 35, with gusts of 40 to 45, but we don’t care – we HAVE to ride, otherwise, what’s the point of the trip?

We head up to a trail that will lead us to Elliot Barker Trail. We’re going to go out Ho Chi Minh, until it meets up with Elliott Barker, then we’ll take EB around the mountain, and come back via Whoop De Doos, which parallels HCM. It was a hard ride up the road to the trailhead – even with trees on both sides, the wind whipped into us headlong. Ugh. We slugged the mile and a half to the top, where the trailhead was:

This goes downhill, even though it’s hard to tell. Right beside the trail were leftovers from logging:

Don’t know why they put the branches in piles – doesn’t make sense. Extra labor, for what? I’m sure there’s a reason – anybody figure it out, please let me know!

About a quarter mile down, we caught HCM, to the left, and immediately started to climb. It was rough, with the altitude and us out of shape, but we slugged on. I stopped to wait for The Bear (and to catch my breath, don’t think otherwise!) every hundred yards or so. There were a lot of dirt piles we had to ride over – water breaks, I’m guessing, and that made the going harder. Don;t know where they got the name for this part of the trail, ’cause there was no jungle. Anyway, on about the third or fourth stop up the hill, I heard some noise ahead, thought maybe a rider coming at us. Then I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye up ahead, and more, louder noises, of brush being trampled and broken, and then I saw a glimpse of a large animal, tan in color, moving left to right, about 150 feet ahead. I’m going with Elk, or very big deer. I hold fast it was NOT a very blond bear. Anyway, no more animals to startle us for the rest of the ride, but I did start calling out a lot, making noise. This track was on our trail near where the noise happened (yes, old track from when muddy, but still, probably same animal), with The Bear’s shadow for a size reference:

We did get a glimpse of our campground from the trail:

About half way through our ride, we came upon a little pond:

And just beyond it, looking back:

If we had turned right here, we would have gone up this:

But that was a shortcut, and VERY steep, neither of which we wanted to do, so we kept going.

The return was easier than the outbound leg, because outbound we climbed for most of the five miles, with a half-mile downhill to the half-way point. But on the return, on Whoop De Doos – I want my money back! We should have taken Ho Chi Minh – at least there the water breaks made for whoop de doos, on WDD, maybe if you were on a snowmobile doing 40 mph would they feel that way, as it was, it was a lot of gentle (and some not-so-gentle) climbs and descents. The descents not really long or steep enough to enjoy, and the climbs hard enough to be annoying, but thankfully not overly hard, except maybe one or two.

On the return, I decided to take Deer Trail back, instead of the road, because I knew it was all down hill (as was the road, to be sure, but trails are ALWAYS more fun than roads), and we made it back t the truck. Eleven miles, with 3,000 feet of climbing. We’re pooped!

Tomorrow – Durango, Colorado!

Wind. Again. Damn!

Went to look for some campgrounds and some trailheads, since we weren’t going to ride in the wind, and so as not to just waste the day.

Stopped by the visitor’s center – he had a really cool sign on his desk:

Yeah, we’re getting into bear country. But, the scenery’s cool:

Hopefully tomorrow is better.

Looking forward to riding today! Yeah. Well, that was the plan. Steady winds of 25 to 35 mph, with gusts up to 50. Not riding in that! For some examples of the wind, check out this caution tape:

And these flags at Eagle Nest – they’re not starched that way!

Went to Eagle Nest to check out some eagles that were on display, a golden and bald. A rescue center was showing them. Pretty cool! Here’s the Golden:

Here’s the Bald:

And another shot of the Bald:

After that (and fighting the wind, almost losing my hat three times), check out Eagle Nest Lake State Park. You now, in my experience so far, New Mexico has some really great trails, and some really beautiful vistas up here in the mountains, but their people are not very hospitable, at least not any that work for or with any government entity that we have encountered. It’s almost like they don’t really want tourists. Well, after another few days we’ll be happy to oblige. Easy enough to go to places where we’re more than welcome without crossing New Mexico. Everyone we have met in private enterprise is delighted to see us, mind you, it’s just all those folks who are in charge of a lot of the public land we’d like to visit who have been less than welcoming. Oh, well, their loss.

Ah, Angel Fire! We were here almost 20 years ago, but I don’t remember much of it, not sure why. The air is VERY thin, and I had a lot of trouble with that yesterday, even fearing I’d have to leave for lower altitude. Fortunately, when I woke up this morning, I was breathing ok. Actually, much better than I ever did at Crested Butte last year. I never felt like I had my breath at CB last year, and it’s within 400 feet of here, and here I really feel fine today, so life is good!

Decided to ride some trails in town, just the local greenbelt, to kind of get a handle on how we’re going to handle this thin air. We left from the campground on the bikes, as town is only about a mile and a half away, and that’s where the greenbelt trails begin. Of course, I forgot to take any pictures (it’s SO hard to get good help!), so instead, here’s a small map from the trails brochure, so you can see what I’m talking about:

So, we rode to town, then I figured “let’s not start on the moderate Deer trail, but let’s got to Elk, then we can come back to the trailhead on Deer, that way we get the easy trail in first. Sounded like a good idea, and indeed, it was the best way to do it. The downside is that Elk is pretty wide open, no trees close to the trail for about 50 feet on either side, and we were fighting a headwind, along with a slight upgrade. But, from looking at the map, I figured we’d get payback, and we did! Elk was fairly easy (I mean, other than not being able to breathe!), and then Deer had a semi-short climb (maybe a quarter of a mile) that was kinda steep, but after that – all downhill! In the trees, some rocky spots, but we blasted all the way down. Lots of fun!

We decided best not to over-do it, so we just headed back to camp, ending up just a bit shy of seven miles – yeah, nothing distance-wise, but really the worse thing you can do is over-do, so we’re being careful. I really hurt at CB last year, and don’t want to do that here. We’ll ride more tomorrow, and further. Hopefully a LOT further.

Anyway, had lunch, a shower, then drove back into town, to check out The Pub. Clever name, that one! Anyway, a couple of brews, and to a bike shop for a map, and then Lowe’s for some ’tillas. No, no, not the home improvement store, the food store. In this neck of the woods, Lowe’s is a grocery chain.

So, back home, some dinner, some TV, and off to bed. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Oh, yeah, another thing today brought – STORMS! A nice mellow rain, and later a wicked-strong-wind-rock-the-hell-out-of-the-trailer storm. Lightning, thunder, the whole enchilada. NOT fun. But we made it ok. Hope tomorrow doesn’t bring another one of those.

Got up late and decided to go see the petroglyphs late morning. Since we got up late (’cause it got HOT pretty fast) we also picked up a lot of things we needed – a lock and cable for the Tailgater, a clothesline, food.

The petroglyphs were quite interesting – I got a lot of photos, but will only share a few, so as not to bore y’all. I’ll also share some thoughts that struck me as I saw those wondrous petroglyphs. This is, after all, New Mexico, home of Roswell (and ALL that that implies!). Hmmm …

Ok, let’s get started – first of all, here’s the trailhead:

And here’s a really cool petroglyph:

Pretty cool … but then it gets weird … like … the ancients meet science fiction! See this?

Doesn’t it look like this?

THEY DID EXIST! There WERE AT-ATs!!

And check this out, if you don’t already think New Mexico is weird. Remember the Nazca lines in Peru? Here’s a shot:

They have those here as well! Look!

They must be landing lines for space aliens!

Ok, maybe not, but it’s something to think about! Meanwhile, looking at more P-glyphs, I know how these came about – the elders got tired of the youngsters ruining the look of the old pueblos, so they said to ’em “Kids! STOP this foolishness. If you MUST draw your stupid graffiti, go do it on the rocks up on those hills over there, ok? Who’s gonna do it? Show of hands!”

See, even back then there were smart-asses!

While there, we got hit by a LOT of wind, and I’m guessing it could even be regarded as a dust storm. Here are some photos:

But maybe an hour later – rain! Go figure!

Anyway, after that it was Wendy’s for a salad for lunch. While there, I noticed something interesting:

“Touchless fixtures”. Yeah. Well, except for the DOOR HANDLE. Get my hands all clean after doing my business, then I have to touch that handle that all those OTHER folks touched, who DIDN’T wash their hands after touching … YECHH! How about a touchless door?

Ok, that was pretty much our day. The dust storm took it right out of us, so there’s no riding today. Oh, before I forget – here’s a look at our campsite here:

Yes, yes, sucky composition, but the point is this place is BARREN. But, it’s CHEAP, and ALMOST has internet, so we’re all good!

Tomorrow, we move on – Angel Fire, NM, here we come!

Today we ride! Woohoo!

We’re going to try the Foothills trails, and see how it goes. The Bear is walking ok now, and her ribs don’t hurt too much, so the only question is how the thumb is going to do with shifting.

This is Junior at the trailhead parking lot:

And a cool cactus nearby:

And this was the actual trailhead:

This shows that someone has a sense of humor:

The trails were fun! We did the flattest ones (such as they are!), and only got a few miles in, as The Bear started hurting. We did better than we thought – when we went out, it was slow going, but we figured out later that it was because we were going mostly uphill … of course, what that means is that the way back was a lot faster than the way out. Took a wrong turn on the return, but that ended up being a good thing – so good, we’re going back tomorrow, to do some of the higher trails. and amazingly, the altitude didn’t hurt us as much as we had thought it would. Remember, Palo Duro is only at about 2,500 feet, and this place is around 6,500, and we’ve only been here a couple of days, so not much time to get acclimated. We did well, so I’m just gonna go with it!

There were a bunch of cicadas in the area, and the noise is LOUD! Every now and then, I’d get hit by one, and it was really weird, you’d her them go PING-weeeeeeeeeee, as they hit and flew off. My camera did not pick up their noise, just me cussing them. Most interesting.

After the ride, it was time for lunch, so we went to the first place recommended by the guys at the bike shop – El Pinto. Here is the outside:

And this is about half the patio:

The food? EXCELLENT! What a great place to eat! It’s a New Mexican food restaurant, and it was very, very good! So good I forgot to get a photo – bummer!

Well, that was it – time to go home and rest.

Ok, today it’s run around and get things done, preparing to ride tomorrow! We hit a couple of bike shops, and get some pointers on the local trails. First shop we hit was Fat Tire Bicycles. Nice folks, very helpful. As a matter of sheer luck, they were next door to the BLM regional office, so we had stopped there first, and those folks pointed us to the Forest Service office, so we went there after the bike shop. Whew!

There was one more bike shop that looked good, so we headed for High Desert Bicycles. Here it is:

Very helpful guys also, and best of all, they pointed us to a great place to eat, right across the street! The Turtle Mountain Brewing Company:

And what we had to eat was a pizza. But not just ANY pizza. Turns out this ties for best pizza we’ve ever had! Barely beat out Fattys Pizza in Mountain Home, ID, and tied with The Slippery Otter in West Yellowstone, MT:

Awesome pizza! Thanks, guys!

After that, home to rest, but stopped by a place to pick up a Tailgater – Dish Network’s mobile TV. While we were waiting for the guy, we looked around at the RV park next door and saw some really cool old trailers they had on display. Here’s a couple, the second one is my favorite:

Cool!

Well, today we take The Bear to the doctor, to try and figure out what’s wrong. I’m waiting to hear as I type this. Hopefully they can get her fixed up.

Still threatening to rain, and it’s also gonna be raining in Albuquerque when we get there, but it should clear up in a couple of days or so. Anyway, tonight while it’s dry we’ll get hitched up and ready to go so in the morning we can just start up and head out. Looking forward to WiFi!

Ok, The Bear is going to live – yay! (I think!). Nothing broken, just a lot of bruises and bumps, and they’ll eventually heal. Good!

Do some laundry and back to camp, to get packed up for the trip out. But first, lunch at Feldman’s Wrong Way Cafe. Not bad. It’s a chain, but they make a pretty good Chicken Fried Steak. They set it on two slices of toast – nice touch! Here it is, after I started on it:

Also, when we returned to camp, I decided to get a couple of shots of the campsite, first without:

And then with the truck:

This evening, I got a video of the big bang! Pretty grainy (not much light!), but the reply cool part of ti is that you see the PrimaCord being set off, and then when you finally hear the bang, they light up the mountain with red lights, so that it really works. It’s pretty cool! Here it is: