Highlights from November

Nov 16th Near Deadman trail - ready for ski season!

Snow on Deadman Trail

Nov 19th Arroyo Open Space

Arroyo riding near 4 hills

November 25th South foothills

South foothills near Indian School

Highlights from October and November

Oct 26th. Near Coyote Trail in and out of the Natl. Forest:

Link to Coyote Trail

Oct. 29th. Tablazon Canyon

Tablazon from Lone Pine Trail.

Oct. 30 Northern foothills

Narrow singletrack

October 31 Northernmost foothills

Sunset view into Sandia Reservation

Nov 8th. Pipeline Trail off Madera

Sandstone feature

Nov 10th Golden Sandstone

Satkirin in sandstone

 

 

Last Day of Wilderness 50th, New Golden Open Space Trail

Dave Foreman gave the keynote sermon (I mean, speech) at the Wilderness 50th celebration this morning. I hope it is posted soon in its entirety on YouTube. It was an electrifying call to arms in the defense of wilderness. Chickadee!! (You had to be there; luckily nearly 1000 attendees were there).

Foreman, the un-rehabilitated eco-warrior

We followed the morning conference wrap-up with a trip to Golden. The new trail extension was completed last week! It adds several miles of spectacular redrock singletrack to the Open Space.

New trail from the arroyo leads to this singletrack

Redrock country near Albuquerque

Longview East

At the end of Longview road, a trail winds towards the east immediately at the trail head. It is a relatively fast ride, without many technical barriers, and eventually deposits riders into a canyon that ascends to the south. A good place to explore.

South Mountain after sunset

50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act Conference in Albuquerque

This conference has been joyful and inspiring. Photos will be posted over the weekend, starting with a picture of myself and one of the main organizers, Tisha Broska, Associate Director of New Mexico Wilderness Alliance.

Tisha and James Broska and Joe Alcock

Angel Pena (with torso) setting up New Mexico Wilderness Alliance's table

NMWA Executive Director Mark Allison introducing the film Wrenched about Ed Abbey and the environmental movement.

Mark Allison at Wrenched screening at the Kimo

Dave Foreman, the bottle of Mezcal, and Abbey's chair

Eco warrior Dave Foreman was a featured speaker, here holding aloft a bottle of Sonoran Mezcal given to him by Charles Bowden (RIP) at Edward Abbey's memorial service. The empty wooden chair was the one Abbey used when he wrote the Monkey Wrench Gang. Also pictured are M.L Lincoln (far right), Terry Tempest Williams (far left), Jack Loeffler, and Kim Crumbo.

Delberts Trail

Back in New Mex: Delberts is a long trail linking Chamiso & Coyote Trails to Powerline Trail. Most remarkable, compared to Oregon and Washington, is that we saw again a grand total of zero other trail users this afternoon!

Gotta love New Mexico riding

Mount St Helens - Lewis River Trail

Lewis River trail in Washington State is absolutely spectacular. It winds through dripping old growth forest in a wildly scenic part of the USA.

Edge of Mount St Helens National Volcanic Monument

Old growth - amazing

Hood River Post Canyon Trail, Surveyor Ridge, Dog Canyon

We, UCLA medical schoolmates and friends, had our 18th annual mountain bike rendezvous in Hood River Oregon this year. This trip is a CME course, with emergency medicine LLSA review and wilderness medicine update.

The local trail system in Hood River is Post Canyon:
Beautiful, if marred by the occasional clear cut:

Mount Adams in the background

Surveyor Ridge has spectacular views of Mount Hood. Mount Hood Wilderness is in the background.

Dog Canyon had amazing fall color and was an incredible riverine descent.

Dog Canyon in October

Surveyor Ridge Trail head

Torres Trail

Torres Trail in Tijeras is a 57 acre site that has some red rock features. This area is slated for future development. It is a shame, because this could instead be a take off point for wild land exploration. Luckily other trails are nearby.

Mostly doubletrack in this small area

Sandia Peak Tram

Sandia Peak Tram
I rode from the Tramway Road to the Sandia Peak Tram and onto trail 365 towards Elena Gallegos Open Space.
The ride to trail 230 and back was nearly 6 miles, including a few sections of new (for me) singletrack that links the Tram Trailhead to Tramway Blvd. To stay legal, avoid the adjacent Sandia Pueblo land.

Tram Docking - like a scene out of Star Wars

Leads to trail 365 which extends nearly the length of the foothills

Vinegaroon on the prowl

Tram coming in for landing

Nature Pointe to Campo Rd

Nature Pointe to Campo Rd.
I do not recommend riding from the Nature Pointe Trailhead. The trail from the neighborhood is faint, overgrown and indistinct until it meets with an unnamed trail that roughly parallels the Lower Pine Trail which can be seen on the other side of the canyon. I recommend starting at Campo and continuing south towards the Lower Pine/Pinyon Trail.

View to the west

Cibola Nat Forest from Nature Pointe

Campo is near the Lower Pine Trailhead

Cryptic Campo "Trailhead" is completely unmarked

Ride from Nature Pointe

Overview of area - this trail's not on the map

If I'd gone south, I bet the trail intersects with Lower Pine here (blue and brown trails above)

Tecolote, Oso Corredor, and Elena Gallegos

Tecolote Trail

Tecolote is (mostly) awesome. The views are exceptional, especially this time of year. Click on the link above for the mountainbike-legal trails in the Sandias, including Tecolote. The Aspens are changing this time of year, as seen from Tecolote. Only deficit is that it is a short ride. It is still worth it.

Tecolote Trailhead starts at Dry Camp. Free Parking

Autumn in the Sandias (did you know they don't say "fall" in Auckland and Sydney?)

Perfect fall day

An old mine along the trail

Twin peaks of Manzano Mountains to the South

Sangre de Cristos on horizon

View towards the Ski area

Oso Corredor

Accessed from Tree Spring Trail

Running Bear Trail

Oso Corredor has some very nice sections of singletrack, linking the Bill Spring/Faulty Trail and Tree Spring. It suffers from a slight problem of limestone outcrop-itis. Riding down is easier than going up...

Elena Gallegos Open Space

Night Ride

This area is accessible from Tramway at Sims Park Road. I parked on Tramway (free) and rode smooth singletrack (new to me) along Sims Park Rd a mile from Tramway up to forest trail 365. This trail might not be so exciting during the day, but for a night ride under moonlight, the frisson of danger heightens the senses. It would possible to access this area from Spain road, taking dirt singletrack parallel to the asphalt bike path, to Sims Park Rd. For that matter you could ride from Bear Canyon Arroyo or Embudito Trailhead to the Sims Park Road singletrack, making a large loop possible.

Sign at Forest trail 365

Elena Gallegos

Next morning: 1st day of Balloon Festival -Satkirin photographing the festivities

100 Rides Project - Rides so far

1. East Mountain High Nature Trail

2. Chamisoso Canyon

3. Golden Open Space

4. Mars Court

5. Chamisa Trail

6. South Foothills Trail

7. North Faulty Trail

8. Mud Spring Trail

9. Armijo Trail

10. Gutierrez Open Space

11. Rio Rancho Cartagena Road

12. Capulin Snowplay Area to 10K

13. San Pedro Creek from Golden Open Space

14. Four Hills to Manzano Open Space

15. San Antonito Open Space

15. Coyote Trail

16. Embudito Trail

17. Carnuel to Manzano Open Space

18. Longview Trail Head

19. Trail 66 to Yucca Mountain

20. Harry's Trail

21. Lower Pine Trail Head

22. Forest Park Trail

23. Three Gun Spring

24. Ojito de San Antonio Open Space

25. La Cueva - Juan Tabo Picnic Area

26. Rio Grande State Park

27. Golden Eagle Trail to Sandia Crest

28. Chamisoso to Tunnel Connector

29. Birdhouse Ridge

30. Gambel Spur Trail

31. North Pine Flat

32. Jackalope Trail

33. White Mesa

34. Gambel Oak to Deadman Trail

35. Crest of Montezuma

36. Bear Canyon Arroyo

37. San Antonito Spur

38. Tijeras Open Space

39. Quarry Area Trail

40. Piedra Lisa Arroyo 

41. Powerline Trail

42. Three Bottles Trail

43. Tres Pistolas Open Space

44. Tunnel Canyon

45. Lomas Arroyo

46. Deadman Flat

47. Copper Trailhead

48. Gutierrez Ridge

49. Cienega Horse Bypass

50. Otero Canyon

51. Ponderosa Trail - Juan Tomas Open Space

52. Sabino Canyon Open Space

53. Cedro Singletrack

54. Elena Gallegos Open Space

55. Oso Corredor

56. Tecolote Trail 

57. Nature Pointe to Campo 

58. Sandia Peak Tram 

59. Torres Trail

60. Post Canyon (Oregon)

61. Surveyor Ridge (OR)

62. Dog Canyon (OR)

63. Lewis River (Washington)

64. Delberts Trail

65. Longview East

66. Golden Trail Extension

(Astute readers will note the numbers do not match the original blog posts exactly. That is because I left out similar rides from the same trail head, e.g. at Gutierrez and Golden Open Spaces. I did not include sites where riding is not allowed, e.g. Sandia Ranger Station and Carlito Spring)

Cedro Singletrack and Sabino Open Space

Cedro Singletrack
Of the East Mountain riding areas off "North 14" (aka state road 337), I come here the least, in part because the trail used to be very rough. Its been improved recently. I recommend this trail.

Cedro singletrack takes off from the campground

Singletrack here is nicer than I remembered

Cedro goes to Meadow Ridge Trail and Meadow Singletrack which I rode on a previous day

Sabino Canyon Open Space
The Sabino area is near Cedro:

Super Scenic

You can ride on both sides of the road - two loops

Information on Sabino

 In the past, a trail led from the Open Space up the canyon, probably into private land. Now the public open space is fenced. Since the area is not big, the ride's pretty short. But it is a beautiful place to visit and the trails are excellent despite their brevity.