Most years racers flock to this area for the Wild West Fest. It was canceled in 2020 but is set to take place in 2021. We took a morning to ride the trails out at Grindstone Lake where part of the race takes place usually. Our ride was 19.4 miles with 2096′ of climbing. Starting …
Derek and I aren’t sure how we originally found out about Ruidoso, New Mexico but here we are. The village is in the Sierra Blanca mountain range and sits at 6920’. The town is named after Rio Ruidoso, a small stream nearby that means noisy river. Our boondocking spot is solitary and quiet, although today …
There are countless backcountry loops possible around the Jemez Mtns. One of our first rides in the Los Alamos area was at Valles Caldera National Preserve and you can read about that here. We returned for a ride in a different area of the preserve at it too was awesome. Our loop was 28.5 miles …
Our Calaveras Canyon gravel loop took us back into forests probably rarely seen by people. This ride had a little of everything from singletrack, to open choose your own adventure meadows, old abandoned rutted loose pipeline paths, muddy forested dirt roads, deep sand sections, and even good gravel. This was a definite adventure at 32 …
Our gravel ride out and back on forest road 376 to Gilman Tunnels was unexpectedly awesome! We rode an out and back that was 38 miles with 3233′ of climbing. The gravel is good the entire way and there is a small bit of pavement at the bottom through the tunnels. The route was part …
From our boondocking site we can see the top of Pajarito Ski Area. Derek created a mountain bike loop that took us up to the top, around the mountain and back down. It was 14.3 miles but had a heart stopping 3206′ of climbing. That’s a lot for such little mileage. The ride started up …
Tsankawi Sites For our day off we went into Los Alamos to walk around some historic sites and then did a short hike of the Tsankawi Prehistoric Sites. The name Tsankawi is from the Tewa language of the nearby Idelfonso puebloans and means sharp gap or village between two canyons. The cliff dwellings were built …
East Fork Trail between Los Alamos and Jemez Springs is pretty popular in certain sections so we picked midweek to have more solitude. Even then, we passed a handful of hikers. I can’t imagine how busy it gets on a weekend! We rode this trail pretty much as an out and back making it 17.7 …
This is a recommended route on MTB Project and I get why. I think it may be one of the top rides we’ve done in the past few months. It is hard. Our day was 21 miles with 3517′ of climbing. It is hard. I think I mentioned that. We started with a climb up …
Our planned ride for the day was a bust. We couldn’t find a connecting trail through an overgrown mountainside with downed trees EVERYWHERE. Back at the car and 7.5 miles with 1000′ of climbing in, we decided to try some trails in one of the canyons above Los Alamos. So, we tacked on another 13 …