this ride brought to you by....Snickers

 

In a bold preemptive strike against all the Halloween candy flooding into la casa de RoughRider these past two days, I executed a daring plan to spin some considerable miles under the fat tires Sunday.  The Tour de Foothills fit the bill quite nicely.

Here's the thing, spinning 24 miles, your body is gonna need some fuel to keep it humming, right?  To wit, Sunday's ride- fueled exclusively by....

 


Snickers bars.  

I see no irony, only practicality. 

happy halloween!

from la casa de Roughrider~

dr suess i presume?

river of lost souls

Yep, fished the Animas thru Durango proper last Sunday, between 16th and 9th streets.  Beautiful fall day with golden leaves sailing thru the air, water a still a bit turbid between storms.  

As far as catching, I have absolutely nothing to report.

Zip

Zilch

Nada

Felt a bit I was one of the lost souls, wading thru a purgatory of fishless water.

matuka and autumn splendor

Rio de las Animas Perdidas

the day's solitary fish....on the rise no less...do I detect faint hint of mockery at play here?  I'll be back.

going...

First snow of the season, La Plata Range, CO

in between

Seems we're into that in between season around here. 

NM is quickly transitioning from one of its more colorful seasons, our brief high desert splendor replaced by tans of all varieties as everything begins to hunker down for the winter season.

desert tan, adobe tan, straw tan, tawny tan, khaki tan, sandy tan, you get the picture...

In keeping with our meme, seems my Wolverines were in between games on a bye-week, leaving me with no college football attachments today, bummer.  Spent some time tracking the scores of UM's rivals in between soccer games, no good news to report there, sigh.

The bye week and soccer games did align properly, thankfully enuf, to permit a quick tour of ABQ Foothills South in the AM.  My ride alternated in between sun and clouds, as the remnants of this week's storm continued to stack up on the peaks and ridges above.  Down below, temps proved crisp, but the sun remained warm on the face.  And the trail- nice and tacky from last night's rains, schweet.

Great day for a ride.

another wayfarer

It was snowing today up in New Mexico's high country, looks like fall sits squarely in the rear view mirror, with winter now fast approaching.

going...going...

I sidetracked into the high country last week to bear witness to that last, bright flare of autumn before the flame dims, and winter sets in. 

home again

Back home again from another business trip up Cortez, CO way.  What a fun little burgh, location is proving to be one of the fringe benefits of the project, lemmetellya.  

Met a new bud out on Phil's World~

handsome boy!

refueling

it's a maibock tonight- yum~

la plata aspenpalooza

Those guys at Over The Bars Studios are at it again!  We here at Dry Flies & Fat Tires are proud to host their World Premier Video,  La Plata Aspenpalooza.

Keep the rubber side down, mis amigos!

heaven

 

You remember that old PBS series Joy of Painting? Where our afro'd and bearded host banged out dreamy landscapes with brush and pallet knife, all the while encouraging you to do the same in his measured, honeyed tones?

Yeah, well the Owens Basin and West Mancos trails of the western La Plata range are  kinda like that.

'cept replace the kindly old hippie with a lung-scorching two-mile beat-down ascent at the outset.  

The kinda climb that leaves you croaking like a frog, forehead leaning on the bars, your conscious mind pleading to turn back to truck and home.

Once topped out, and the aneurysm subsides- beautiful, serene, not a soul for miles.  

Like a dream really.

  or heaven?

Tip of the hat to NuMexJoe for sharing the trail beta that made my ride possible- thx Joe!

refueling

@ main street brewery- try the porter alongside the brewer's plate :-]

greetings from mancos co!

mount sharkstooth on west mancos trail

payin the bills

work stuff in bloomfield nm

aspen ride

 

Friday's solo ride on Winsor to soak in all things golden proved an unqualified success in more ways than one.  Aspens were peaking at Aspen Vista trailhead prompting a change in plans to launch the ride.  I opted to explore the upper reaches of Big Tesuque trail, riding first .7miles up Aspen Vista Road to intersect the upper mile of BTT.  

Big Tesuque Trail's upper mile offered up gorgeous aspen groves allright, and the trail proved nice and tacky after Thursday night's rains.  However that mile is choked with downfall, doesn't look like anyone's been thru there with a saw for a coupla seasons.  Just as you got up a good head of steam, popping over smaller trunks, you'd get to an area that demanded a dismount.  Repeat that scene about 4 times in that upper mile, and you're left with something far short of it's potential.

Descending from Hyde Park Road's Big Tesuque trailhead down to Winsor was a total blast, tread is more conducive to speed and flow than the upper coupla miles of Winsor proper.  It proved about 1.5-2 miles from BTT down to Winsor, I'm thinking that just might be my preferred route.

Riding BTT and Winsor solo was simply as much fun as you can have on two wheels!  Without a team to sheperd down the mountain, I was able to keep the brakes off for the most part, weaving in and out of groves & meadows, up and down into drainages footloose and fancy free.  Fun!  I GPS'd the route for future installment of Singletracks!, see I pulled into the lower Big Tesuque Creek parking lot in just over an hour from the start.  Booya! 

yeti, fed

american girl

The results of our trip down Winsor Trail last Sunday- 

I'm one lucky Dad.

American Girl from ABQ RoughRiders on Vimeo.

singletracks! winsor trail, santa fe national forest

Took the Team out to sample that schweet, schweet tread of Winsor Trail on Sunday.  We were just about one week early for peaking aspens, but the tread did not seem to mind.  Wooooo!

We had so much fun, I'm heading back up on Friday, sorry boss!

blogworthy

award-winning green chile cheeseburger courtesy of Uptown Brew Pub- the TKO

take a kid mountain biking 2010

IMBA is sponsoring Take A Kid Mountain Biking day today Saturday October 2, 2010- who knew?!

We here at Team Roughrider are pleased to be recognized as on the bow wave of this endeavor.  Huzzzah!

Unfortunately, Saturdays around here are  given over to soccer and college football, Sunday will just have to do.  

See you all carving turns amidst golden aspen groves on the Winsor Trail~

signs of fall

deja vu all over again, but it's a ritual we New Mexicans look forward to every Fall.