Pretty in Policarpio

   A while ago a guy who was checking out my blog commented on a killer ride up near Taos near Sipapu. A couple emails back and forth and he Emailed me the trail info.( Thanks Tim) I finally found a free Saturday and Todd and I decided to go give the ride a try. We packed up his truck and off we went up the high road. We went right by Santa Cruz Lake. I wouldn't mind camping there soon. Soon we arrived at La Junta Canyon. We parked and dressed in our MTB attire and proceeded to climb up La Junta Canyon. There lots of people camping out and ATVing it was weird but it seemed like all the campers were in very large groups (like 20 to a campsite) Weird. Any ways, the ride was a ripper but as usual let me show you some pics from the ride. Equal amounts Todd and Tim pics.

Just getting started up the canyon

This is where the trail gets more traily

A couple of Todd on the climb. The trail got really rocky later on. Some fun stuff you had to keep the cadence on.


Todd coming into one of many beautiful meadows we would roll through this day.


Me in same meadow





This was a killer area with cattle included. We made a wrong turn here but corrected ourselves quickly once I took a leak.



After looking at the map again we saw that we needed to go along the trees on the left side of this picture there is a really faint 2 track
.

Todd on that faint 2 track

JRA with a cool cabin in the distance. This whacky guy was living in there.

Here he is eyeing us up. making sure we don't leave any GU wrappers.

I got him to take a pic of me with my RIG. I think he had a digital SLR.

So we bid him adieu and were on our way.



Not before waving to some hikers and kicking there dogs (JK).



Then we got to Romero Lake above the cabin.

After the lake things got sketchy and we came into this SSweet meadow and didn't know what to do.

some more free rangers

Todd made the decision to go along the Aspens on the other side of the meadow so we bushwhacked it across the meadow.





It was such a fine place I had to stop and give thanks.

I think I see a trail.

Ohh yeaa that is the trail

So we finally made it to the Policarpio trail.
This pretty much took us back down to La Junta Canyon then down to the truck.
This trail was a blast all the way down.








Cows are wondering what the hell I am.

They were not happy with me.


This was a really cool section with a lot of rocks and water.



As always....


Cooling our toes in Junta creek


   Well that about does it. It was a really good ride. Prolly one of my Favorites since I got here. I have still barely scratched the surface of Northern New Mexico. I really need to get to Durango and Crested Butte.
   So much to do so little time.
What is in your audio player? I had to bust out So Many Roads after reading Matts blog . Funny his latest blog has Cow content as well.
       Peace... I am popping a brew

Ascent on Aspen Vista

   Last week I set out to ride up Aspen Vista road and take Ravens Ridge down to the Winsor and take the Winsor back down to the Ski area. The ascent was just fine but when I got up to the towers the only trail I really saw was a cat track trail that went off from the triple chair. So after having a snack at the towers some close lightning made me decide to descend. I ended up taking the ski trail down and then riding a Nordic ski trail that was really fun. After consulting a thread on the local boards I tried to do it again last week but got turned away because of lightning again. It seems that there are storms like that during the summer up top. Hoping to hit that ride this week sometime. I took a few pics from the ride.
Driving up Hyde Park

Looking at the climb ahead

Starting up the climb. Big Tesuque trail enticed me but I stayed the course


the reason for the name


Getting up there the scenery changes


Nice views up there

When you get up to the radio towers you can see Santa Fe Lake off the backside. Makes me want to hike down and check it out.





So the only trail I saw was a double track trail running down towards the new lift.

After the lift I took this trail down to the parking lot.

I came across this cabin and tunnel thingy. I have no clue what it is for. It was raining at that point so I took refuge in it. Also this cool Rock cave thing.




Then since I didn't find the Ravens Ridge trail to Winsor I decided to at least ride this cool small loop called the Nordic Ski Trail. It was really fun.


And Remember to always Shut the Gate!


A Fun ride needless to say. I guess they all are. After I got home I popped open a Noice Wet Mountain IPA from Il Vicino. I was feeling fine after a couple of those.



    Speaking of Beer, Atomic TV has this video of all these really old Natty Boh ads. Natty Boh was Baltimore's version of PBR or Schaefer. Check it out. Some funny stuff.
    What is in your audio player? In dedication to the Tour I have Black Keys-Thickfreakness rockin in da ipod. Did anybody notice the Black Keys on the Tour commercials every night? K adios Amigos