June 10--Driving June 11--Farmington NM

June 10 2009

Woke up to the sound of rain. It was amplified by the roof of the motorhome and allowed us to sleep in for an extra hour (or two), but we were disappointed that this would mean no South Boundary trail. All that time spent squinting at the map . . . wasted. After reviewing the weather in Taos for the next couple days, we decided that we had to move on. Without further delay, we hit the road in search of the sun. I got to drive the motorhome for about 4 hours. The road was amazing through Carson National Forest. We went above the snow line and walked around for a while in the wet mud before continuing the drive to Farmington, NM. Yeah, I know, Farmington. There are some pretty sweet trails out here and the sunshine was welcome. After consulting a local bike shop (Haven Cycles), we headed up to the Foothills area. The trails were smooth, non-technical and contained many (MANY) whoopties. Historically, the single track was reserved for mountain bikes and motorcycles. ATV’s not allowed. Recently, (within the last six weeks) there was a scuffle involving 4-wheelers and motorcyclists. The 4-wheelers want access to the trails, but are ruining the single track in the process. Now, there are sections for 4-wheelers and motorcycles and a smaller region for mountain bikes only. A lot of the signs were ripped down, which made navigating a scavenger hunt. The region for mountain bikes only is clear—that is the trails were really fun, fast, and narrow. Even though we started riding at 7:30pm, we finished our 19.3 mile loop around 9:30pm. I know that is after dark, but we remembered to bring our headlamps because we knew this might be a possible scenario. Eric ran over a snake (in the dark), which looked like a stick, but it wasn’t. I gave a death scream and managed to avoid running over the snake.

June 11, 2009

We had sausage and eggs for breakfast. Mmmmm mmm. We headed back up to the Foothills area to ride some of the trails we missed from the night before. What I may have eluted to before is that the other trails are wider and looser and just not as much fun. That was today. We started on a loop called Anasazi which Eric and I debated time-trialing for the rest of the day, but against our better judgment decided to try some other trails. By halfway, we were both exhausted. I think part of it was the late night ride from the day before. My shorts were driving me crazy too. We got sick of doing whoopties and power-pumping every possible dip. Finally, we climbed our last ascent and ended at the motorhome. We BBQed some beef in the parking lot of the amphitheater and relaxed for a little while until we realized that it was already after 4pm. I had managed to break 2 spokes on my rear wheel and we needed to make it to the bike shop before they closed. We threw everything in the trailer and rolled into Cottonwood Cycles. They were able to repair my bike before they closed. We chatted with the staff about rides in the area. Everyone said we had to do the UFO Alien ride out of Aztec NM. In fact, they were doing a group ride when the shop closed on that very trail tonight! I was too tired to go and opted to patch my jeans instead, but Eric jumped on board. It is an 8.3 mile loop, which passes a UFO crash site. If you don’t get enough action from the first loop, there is a newly constructed section that adds about 6 miles. With the addition of the Alien loop, Eric managed to ride over 53 miles in less than 24 hours!! Damn. I get to ride the trail in the morning with fresh legs before heading up to Durango.

Sorry for so few pictures! Will try and upload some more later.