GET - Magdalena to Duke City

[ScottM]

It showed.  He stayed ahead as we clawed our way to crest of the Magdalena Mountains.




Climb-a-bike, of course.





That, and incredible ridgeline riding.





impossible rocks (I walked downhill), gold aspens.  We live for this kind of thing.





But were stopped dead at this mine (look for the old ladder).  Walking back up the mountain a small cairn indicated trail dropping steeply.

I took a half dozen turns before losing it completely.  We decided to regain the crest trail and search for the "other" trail #10.





BOOM!  Diamond mining, military testing, university training -- no one could say for sure.  But we heard/felt two blasts and saw the plumes of dust across the valley.  Socorro has some strange things going on out in the desert...





Afterwards, the trail exceeded all expectations.









We weren't on it long before turning to little used 2-tracks.





Great way to start the day's ride.

Not-so-great were the 14 goat heads I picked up in my rear tire.  I had to air up a few times, but eventually the tire held.

Karl turned around at the top of Johnson Hill road.  The guy is a fountain of knowledge about the area, history and mountain biking in general.

We followed deserted 2-tracks across the Valle del Ojo del la Parida, past abandoned ranches, sometimes sporting working wind mills.









A couple of pour-offs forced climb-a-bike maneuvers to circumvent.





Then it narrowed to dirt walls before intersecting singletrack.





Semi-improved roads, cows and horses signaled we were nearing the next highway.  Our sense of wilderness was fading away.  We had crossed a rather remote section of desert.





Sunday morning in Manzano.  The store was closed, but the church was humming.  Lee went to seek some water while I simply sat and observed.  There was something comforting about this idyllic little town.  People stood in the middle of the highway, talking quietly and enjoying a beautiful morning, waiting for church to begin.

We rolled on down the highway, continuing our Manzano Wilderness detour.  With a tailwind and light traffic, it was a breeze.  We blew through Torreon and were surprised to find an open cafe in Tajique.  It would have been physically impossible for Lee to pass this opportunity up.  We downed a large plate of Carne Asada each, then ordered pancakes and eggs for second breakfast.

Unbelievably, we still weren't full.

Quiet forest roads were on the docket next.  That plan was foiled by a newspaper article proclaiming the Tajique/Torreon loop road as a beautiful "fall color drive."  The paper was right, but the number of vehicles we encountered was nauseating.  0.2343 feet onto the first trail there was no one.  The only people outside their car at the trailhead had been forced to stop by an overheating engine.





Bears use the GET too.





We pedaled off to the Mars Court trailhead, taking the trail a short ways before finding a spot to camp.









Loaded micro-hucking.

The trail was either 'fast and swoopy', or 'technical and ledgy.'  What a coincidence, my two favorite kinds of trail!





MTB bliss continued on the Tunnel Trail.  A challenging climb followed by endless contour.  I was pinching myself, and since we earned this downhill yesterday, it felt like pure gluttony.



I-40 in the background


Quite a connection to make, thanks to Matt and the wonders of the Global Positioning System.

For the next 14 miles we followed the Albuquerque foothills trail system.  We had come a long ways to get here, geographically, physically, mentally.  Geographically, we had to travel the ~180 miles to arrive at these trails.  Moreso, we had explored, sweat our guts out and bled along all our previous GET explorations.  Now on our fourth day on the bike, physically our bodies had settled into the rigors of mountain bikepacking.  Saddle sores were gone, protesting legs a thing of the past, we had the rhythm, had the flow.  Mentally it just seemed natural.  Riding trail is what we do.  Concerns of the everyday can linger a few days, but not now.  Now it was all about the experience.





Dream riding, basically.

We approached the cliffs of the Sandia crest and could make out the tram towers.  I was astonished to see that we had been gaining elevation consistently -- it felt downhill.  The base of the tram is the official eastern terminus of the GET, and we were able to take trail all the way there.

Allen Stibora of Mountainair had offered to pick us up and drive us back to Magdalena.  Allen was a treat to talk to on the way back -- he's done it all, from cycling across the country to thru-hiking on the AT, CDT, etc.  Thanks Allen!

We now know a lot about the GET.  Thoughts of a thru-trip dance in my head...

[FeloniousDunk]

Very nice.

[ScottM]

Wow Scott, great report, I lift a toast of pure mountain water to our next ride,

Lee

[ScottM]

Oops, looks like you were logged in as me from when I used your laptop on the trip.  Heh.

[rocky rode]

Scott wrote:
"I was ready to go to tubes, but Lee pulled out a sticky plug and special installation tool.  Bingo!  The tire held for the rest of the trip."

Scott or Lee, could you elaborate on this?  Is it the sticky rope and insertion tool made for tubeless car tires from any auto parts store?  It sounds like a good thing to carry, do you usually carry extra Stan's to add also?

Great photos and write-up.  This is the area I grew up in and started MTBing way back in the 80's.  I've been on many of those trails from Water Canyon to ABQ.  You guys seem to prefer hike-a-biking as much as riding... 

Gary

[ScottM]

Gary,

Lee wasn't even sure what it was, but we did a little digging and found it:



http://www.genuineinnovations.com/bikeprods.aspx?subcat=6&prodid=1012

Note that I was pushing it on this trip with my balding rear tire.  I had intended to replace it, but thought I might just sneak through this trip.  What can I say, I'm too cheap to junk a tire with some life left in it.  I think with a fresh/thicker tire I wouldn't have had the issue.

Still, the little sticky rope did the trick on the one hole out of 20+ that wouldn't seal.

I did carry 2oz of stans, knowing that the stans that was in there was "recycled" from an older tire.  I think it's a good idea to carry some unless you've got freshly added stuff in there.  With my little bottle it's easy to just unscrew the presta core and dump a little more sealant in there.

Cool that you've ridden through that area before, we sure enjoyed it.

[ScottM]

Gear lists for both of us can be found in the Personal Setups area of bp.net:

http://www.bikepacking.net/category/individual_setups/

[YuriB]

Fantastic. It is great to watch the expansion of routes for bikepacking here in AZ. I'm going to need something else to do after we finish segmenting the AZT next year.