Monday, September 15, 2014

Bear Canyon Arroyo plus

Day 38 Back to San Antonito Open Space

My weakness is spotting a trail that I have not ridden and not knowing where it leads to.  Last time out to this locale, we did not explore a spur trail that led up the ridge. Naturally I had to find out where it went.
View to the south with sandstone
 This trail ends in a neighborhood; all good things must end. Adding the spur to the main loop yields 2.7 miles, which is just enough for a fun evening ride. The terrain here is all sandstone, which makes for some fun technical parts, and generally good riding.

Day 37 Bear Canyon Arroyo Open Space
This was a night ride. I explored the arroyo East and West of Tramway boulevard.
Another big chunk of open space
 I surprised many rabbits, jumping mice, and a nighthawk on the trail at night.
Singletrack west of tramway



This ride extended into the High Desert development and also leads into the National Forest Embudito trailhead

High Desert trails

Day 36 + (extra ride) Crest of Montezuma
This ride is north of Placitas. Because of the lack of developed trails, it is not really a proper ride. There is some short doubletrack near the Kinder Morgan station near Diamond Tail road; it peters out and requires some bushwhacking. I also found some wild horse trails leading into the arroyo. After a distance into the arroyo, my bike toppled over into a juniper. So I would say that this area is better explored on foot. It is BLM land, and there are plans to transfer it to the forest service so that it is better protected. It is not illegal for bikes to be in this little explored area. I saw some additional trails that looked promising but would require passing through private land, so I left them for now.
Not so wildlife in Placitas
Near the Kinder Morgan "Trail head"


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