Chronologically this is out of order but that's ok, it's my blog and I just now decided to write it.
The middle of June was quite warm and very windy in Albuquerque so we decided to head to a little higher terrain and see what happened. Gallup here we come.
I had read and heard a lot about outdoor recreation opportunities near Gallup but we had yet to venture there. Singletracks.com listed a few rides in the area but the one that caught my attention most was the race course of the High Desert Screamer, also know as the Squash Blossom Classic, that I had previously read about on NMORS website.
The trail did not disappoint. We headed straight to the trailhead and I mounted up on Scotty while Jodi decided to take a walk. While I pedaled the 8 mile course Jodi got in over 4 miles of hiking along the same trail. Quite impressive.
The trail started climbing a small hill that got the blood pumping a little then turned in to very easy single-track for a while. The majority of the trail is easy with only a couple challenging hills. There is one hard right hand turn with a little bit of un-nerving exposure if you have a fear of heights. Luckily I do not so to me it made for a great view. There are a few areas with great views, a short easy section of slickrock and some very fast fun spots all mixed together.
If I lived closer I would definitely ride this trail often.
While looking for somewhere to camp on Saturday night we accidentally found Nutria Lake on reservation land. There are only a few designated camp sites around the lake and it turned out to be a quite peaceful (except for the drunks next to us) camp area with no artificial light which made for a great night's sleep.
The next day we explored around Gallup more then headed east and south into the Zuni Mountains to McGaffey to check out other trails I had read about. As we drove up the hill we were met by more vehicles hauling bikes than I had ever seen on any given day. We later found out that the 24 Hours in the Enchanted Forest race had just ended so some of the trailheads were still closed. We also discovered according to one sign that that some trailheads were closed due to state government budget cuts. But we did find the Hilso Trailhead open so we stopped and I mounted up again for a quick spin just to check it out while Jodi was on the phone with our granddaughter. I rode a six mile section of the previous 24 hour's race course just to get a taste of the trails.
This is an area I will definitely have to return to because there are miles and miles of trails to play on.
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