Rio Puerco and Arroyo Chico, NM

[southwestbackcountry]

Here's a link to some pics and words about our recent trip into northern New Mexico backcountry.


http://southwestbackcountry.blogspot.com/2014/11/cranksgiving-2014-rio-puerco-and-arroyo.html

[SlowRide]

Great photography of some beautiful country and a nice write-up! Looks like you guys had a blast! Great shots of those ruins as well, unknown ruins always catch my interest, trying to put together the story given the clues available is always intriguing. Thanks much for taking the time to write it up.

[southwestbackcountry]

Great photography of some beautiful country and a nice write-up! Looks like you guys had a blast! Great shots of those ruins as well, unknown ruins always catch my interest, trying to put together the story given the clues available is always intriguing. Thanks much for taking the time to write it up.

Word. Thanks for the kind words.  The ruins were super interesting, riding was good, and the views were sweet.

[dadana]

Nice. Can you post the map or rough idea of the route?

[southwestbackcountry]

I've added a pic/map of the original 'planned route', and our cut off in green onto the blog.

You can find our furthest ruin visit on the following link, and just click around on the map to find possible routes in there, there's a lot to explore, and by no means was our route the best.  But, it was fun…

Caltopo is a public topo site, if you're not familiar with it.  Here's the Caltopo location of the ruins.

http://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=35.65171,-107.40518&z=16&b=t

[dadana]

Thanks, that looks like a nice overnighter. I have done the TD (dirt) route through the area and few long day trips around Cabezon and White Mesa. Next spring I am planning a ride from our house in the NV of ABQ,  through Rio Rancho and up to Chaco NP. Probably camp first night at the BLM canyon below Cabezon, 2nd night at Chaco then turn around and repeat.

[southwestbackcountry]

Sounds like a good route.  How many miles is that per day, over 50?

[dadana]

Yes it is probably 50 + miles a day. Waters going to be sketchy but it is really pretty in early spring.

[wahday]

Looks like a nice winter ride and great weather. BTW I never made it to ride the Jemez route but I did take my son up to San Pedro Parks for a 3 day backpack in Oct. So lovely up there and so much water! I also usually carry about 7 liters for an overnighter when there are no sources. I felt so light and free! Excited to explore more up that way.

Dadana, I'm curious about how you intend to get to Cabezon from ABQ. I have been looking to connect to the CDT near Cabezon and then head to Mt. Taylor and the Zunis where we have some land. I see that there is a road called Encino that cuts through the undeveloped portion of RR but can't tell if you can legally access it on the ground. I live in the NV as well.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[southwestbackcountry]

Looks like a nice winter ride and great weather. BTW I never made it to ride the Jemez route but I did take my son up to San Pedro Parks for a 3 day backpack in Oct. So lovely up there and so much water! I also usually carry about 7 liters for an overnighter when there are no sources. I felt so light and free! Excited to explore more up that way.

Dadana, I'm curious about how you intend to get to Cabezon from ABQ. I have been looking to connect to the CDT near Cabezon and then head to Mt. Taylor and the Zunis where we have some land. I see that there is a road called Encino that cuts through the undeveloped portion of RR but can't tell if you can legally access it on the ground. I live in the NV as well.

I'm interested in that ABQ to Cabezon section as well. A massive piece of that area in Laguna Res. But perhaps just the "pipeline road" leading up along the eastern edge of Ojito would be a good option.  Wahday, The route from ABQ to Zunis would interest me too.  Glad you had a good time in San Pedro Parks.  I've not been, but have an ultra runner friend that goes up there regularly to train… sound fun.

[dadana]

I'm interested in that ABQ to Cabezon section as well. A massive piece of that area in Laguna Res. But perhaps just the "pipeline road" leading up along the eastern edge of Ojito would be a good option.  Wahday, The route from ABQ to Zunis would interest me too.  Glad you had a good time in San Pedro Parks.  I've not been, but have an ultra runner friend that goes up there regularly to train… sound fun.



Wahday and SWBC - The route goes out Southern Blvd in Rio Rancho, turns north and hooks up with the Pipeline (Powerline?) Road. It does goes through some marked gates (I think its King Ranch) and crosses some Zia Pueblo land so use your best judgement. You can also pick up the same road if you drive out past the White Mesa MB trailhead and keep going west to the Compressor Station then go north up Pipeline. There is a cutoff (cattle guard on the left) towards Cabezon about 10 miles up that road and it makes a great loop. If you stay on Pipeline you end up on the dirt road from 550 towards Cabezon. That is about where the GDMBR route from Cuba intersects also. Keep going north from there and you eventual get to Chaco. Email me your contact info to dgay@facilitybuild.com and I can give you some road numbers and better directions when I am looking at my maps.

[southwestbackcountry]

Yeah, POWERline road, sorry.  

[ScottM]

Great writeup -- thanks for the post SWbackcountry.

I love that area and was perhaps more excited to explore CDT singletrack through there than for any other section of the CDT.  Unfortunately we found it inexplicably closed to bikes:

http://zenondirt.wordpress.com/2014/05/28/day-16-skunked-on-singletrack-saved-by-a-trail-angel/

I made several calls to ABQ BLM but have not heard a good answer yet.  You don't know anything about it, or perhaps know someone at ABQ BLM?

The trail on Mesa Chivato was most excellent, with a sign welcoming MTBers!  The descent to the valley was also quite interesting... after that it seems to all be closed.

I liked this part:

""There is a not-so-subtle worship of international adventure in the outdoor enthusiast community. Nepal, the Alps, and Alaska all come to mind. It's a competition of sorts, that most are not willing to mention, let alone admit to. It does get mixed up with our want to explore, so, sometimes, we can get away with advertising it as just plain curiosity. But, lets all just come clean.
The assumption is that the further away, the better (the more enviable).

This trip challenges that idea, and we challenge you as well!"

[southwestbackcountry]

Scott,
I've not had/made time to read all about your journey, but have heard about the grand adventure. Good to se some of the Chivato's route up top. I've wondered about the loops/routes down off the Ignacio Chavez WSA because there is especially one spot that showed MTBing allowed at the lower trailhead to the trail, that we passed near Cerro Parido. Its near Banquito Mesa, and could be a good 'off road' route down from the top.  Is it the 'closed' section you're talking about?

I appreciate your travels, blog, and kind words about our lil' ditty. Thanks.

Here's a link for the Banquito exit: http://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=35.57012,-107.35789&z=15&b=t

[wahday]

Thanks for chiming in with that info Scott. Its actually the file of your CDT adventure that made me realize how close it passed to Cabezon Peak. Now I am trying to link to it from Albuquerque and ride it out to the Zuni Mountains. I have been reading your trip on the CDT as well as the GET adventure. Such great stuff. You can actually combine portions of these two routes to make a giant 700 mile loop starting and ending in Albuquerque if you can link to Cabezon. Someday.

And I actually do know someone who works at BLM and he happens to be a lawyer there, so I may hit him up with some questions about this.

I rode some CDT singletrack in the Chain of Craters area as we talked about a while back. At the time I was unaware that it was closed to bikes and I saw no signs saying as much. I am not really sure the rationale for this. The trail needs to be traveled more and these areas are not in Wilderness Areas.

For anyone interested in the Chain Craters area there is write-up here: http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=4721.msg39932#msg39932

It was some fun riding, but the trail there disappears after not to long and from there its overland. Which is not without its charm. Unless there is a headwind. Which there was...

And photos from another trip here: http://www.highaltitudehomestead.blogspot.com/2013/07/bikepacking-chain-of-craters-again-hole.html

[dadana]

SWBC, the SYDC race used to ride from high desert cycles out to cabezon so I have ridden the route and remember crossing the no trespassing gate at king ranch and a fence at the reservation land. We just went over and around them. Something happened a few years ago and the race director changed the start to leave from white mesa. You could ping the race director Lenny Goodell and see what prompted the change. We always thought it was a land owner complaint, never the less, I know it can be ridden. I live at Ranchitos road and Guadalupe trail and thought it would be cool to literally leave from my house and ride to Chaco. I am out of town until next week but when I get back I will do some map research. I gave a good blm map so it probably will show the detail of the ranch and the reservation. Keep up the great writing and pics. Good stuff.

[ScottM]

I've not had/made time to read all about your journey, but have heard about the grand adventure. Good to se some of the Chivato's route up top. I've wondered about the loops/routes down off the Ignacio Chavez WSA because there is especially one spot that showed MTBing allowed at the lower trailhead to the trail, that we passed near Cerro Parido. Its near Banquito Mesa, and could be a good 'off road' route down from the top.  Is it the 'closed' section you're talking about?

I appreciate your travels, blog, and kind words about our lil' ditty. Thanks.

Here's a link for the Banquito exit: http://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=35.57012,-107.35789&z=15&b=t

Nope, that looks to be further west than the CDT -- but it sounds interesting!  Attached is a little map that might help.

Red is CDT proper.  Cyan the GDMBR.  Blue is Tour Divide (pavement).

I haven't looked closely at the WSA boundaries recently, but I wasn't surprised when the first section was marked closed, since I believe that is one of the WSAs.  However, we checked each place the GDMBR crossed the CDT, and eventually you get away from all the WSAs... but it is all marked 'route closed' minus one short section in the middle that I'm guessing they just forgot to sign.

The last section is particularly irksome since the only other option is US 550, which is speed limit 70 mph.  It's definitely not WSA.

wahday -- If your friend at the BLM can help, please have him get in touch with me (smorris@topofusion.com).  If he can't help directly, he may at least be able to direct me to the right person.  I've so far left a few messages and had one of the front desk people try to filter a bogus answer they got from someone back at me, all while refusing to get me in touch with that person.

I did speak to a friend over here in AZ's BLM who filled me in on some of the legal holdups that can happen -- basically the BLM default for singletrack trails is hiker/horse, and they have to specifically open trails to bikes.  So perhaps it is just a matter of some of us making enough noise to make that happen.  But we need to figure out the right channels to direct that noise at.  I'm much more familiar with the way the FS works... less so the BLM.  Perhaps this could work for the Chain of Craters stuff, too, which should be open outside of WSA.

BTW, the buzzkill BLM ranger we met (who informed us that even though the NCA trails are not signed, we can't ride them) did say they have been building lots of new trail there, so perhaps some of the sections that petered out on you now go through.  He said he wished we could ride them, because they need more traffic and the thru-hikers always take the Ventana/Narrows alternate instead.

 

[ScottM]

You can actually combine portions of these two routes to make a giant 700 mile loop starting and ending in Albuquerque if you can link to Cabezon. Someday.

I like the sound of that....

[evdog]

Scott, you might contact Patrick Kell at IMBA and see if he can help.  IMBA has good connections at BLM nationally so they might be able to make some progress from the top down. 

[ScottM]

Good idea.  He went looking for whoever has overseen CDT efforts in IMBA before, but I didn't hear back.  Time to revisit that, too.

Thanks.