Slide Trail and Petaca Point
After a big ride the day before, we dialed it back a bit and did a fun exploring ride along the river gorge that clocked in at 20.8 miles with 1800’of climbing. Slide Trail is a section of the old NM State Road 570 that closed after a landslide buried part of it. The trail drops into the canyon beneath dramatic basalt outcroppings. Rocks rocks rocks everwhere. This section wasn’t difficult at all, unless you lose focus while gawking at the steep walled river gorge. Once down at the river level, we continued through a closed campground to the Junction Bridge.
After crossing the Junction Bridge, we climbed up the steep dirt switchbacks to the top of the Orilla Verde Recreation Area and picked up the Petaca Point Trail. This trail begins with a fun rocky singletrack section up above the gorge before leveling out to a double track on the mesa. From here we rolled along through the sage and wild grasses with views of the Rio Grande. Petaca Point was the turnaround spot and we retraced our path before continuing on the West Overlook Trail a bit in the other direction.
It was very strange. Yes, all the campgrounds in the Carson National Forest are closed for the pandemic, but still, we didn’t see anyone! The views on this ride were the highlight. We even got to see some little horn sheep that didn’t seem phased by us. I call them that because they weren’t giant like the ones we saw in Taos a couple weeks ago.
I finished reading The Big Burn by Timothy Egan about the devastating wildfires of 1910 up in Idaho. It seemed very timely, what with all the fires going on everywhere this summer. The forest service was in its infancy and it was hard to read about how politically controversial it was. What a great read!
Trail 18 and Rito de la Olla Big Loop
This ride was a biggie at 36 miles with 3457’ of climbing topping out right around 10,000’. There were a few sections of singletrack that we incorporated in with some extremely remote and rugged dirt roads. Derek is great and putting these rides together and this once was amazing!
We started by climbing up forest road 438 before hopping on Rito de la Olla singletrack. This section of trail climbs through sub-alpine forests and wild meadows along a creek. Conifers, aspens, wildflowers and tall grasses made this feel truly wild, and it is. Of course I got attacked by biting flies again. They just can’t resist me.
After more climbing on forest road 438 we started a megadecent down 478. This section dropped down forever and ever and was rocky, rutted, and rough. I honestly was starting to get worried because we descended so far! Eventually we crossed a stream and turned on another dirt road and continued descending. Once back at the highway, we took Trail 18 back to the start.
Trail 18 is 6.2 mile in its entirety and starts with a steep loose singletrack climb before leveling out to a really fun flowy twisty blast along the side of the foothills. I imagine most people ride this as an out and back and at the end I was left wanting to get to turn around and head back down but alas, we were already 36 miles in. Tomorrow is a day off!
Leave a Reply