Taos

It's been a long time since either Matt or I have been back to Taos, so we decided to make a day out of it. Pretty hot in the Burque, and nowhere really to go mountain biking with all the closed Forest areas in the area, so we loaded up the vehicle and drove to Taos. Once in town, we headed east on Hwy 64 and parked in the South Boundary Trailhead parking lot. We biked along 64 on the pavement about 7 miles, passing Shady Brook, which is being totally renovated, and veered off to the right. Directly across the road was a small spot to park. We were now at the Mondragon Trailhead, trail 164, and ready to begin our journey. This was a nice steady, 15-mile climb. There were a lot of dirt roads that intersected along the way, so I'm not sure if I could take the correct turns or not if I went at this solo...but, with Matt navigating, we came right up to Trail 164, the South Boundary Trail. We headed up this...one more quick climb. I can't remember if 15 miles was at the beginning or end of the South Boundary climb, but I think it was at the beginning. We were near Garcia Park, Trail 437, and Jaracita, Trail 121, around this area.

Well, 16 miles is my maximum distance until this day, so I was a tad nervous, but not much since I knew that the rest of the ride would be downhill...parts of which I could have benefited from riding the Intense rather than the Moots, but the Moots was perfect for the climbing! So after a very short climb up South Boundary, I switched my 80mm Marzocchi Marathon Race to full squish and headed downhill. There were only a few sections where I could have benefited from a full suspension bike, but for the most part, the YBB did its trick!

Biking downhill, I walked over an area I had biked 2 years ago. I can't believe I made it look that easy in the pic! Course the Juliana helped me through that one. Oh, and yes, that's mud on my face. We got dumped on during that infamous 2003 "Gaspin' in the Aspens" ride (founded by none other than one of the original FooMTBers, B Cherry)....yes, we really do get rain in NM!! Anyway, Matt and I decided to take the South Boundary trail all the way down rather than turn off on Ojitos. It was the better way to go because in the end, we plop right out in the parking lot where we started. Had we taken Ojitos and the whoopty-dos, we would have had to take some road back to the vehicle.

So, Matt sheep-dogged me all day, woof-woof!! But I suppose he got a decent ride out of the whole thing. I certainly did! The last pic shows the road, way down below...long climb!

Had some trouble walking after finishing off a Brown-eyed Ale at Eske's, and it wasn't because I was drunk. Definitely sore and stiff in the joint, but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. So I've set a new record--27 miles! Guess doing a 30-mile loop at the Crested Butte grassroots race July 15 (if that's where we end up going) isn't out of the question now!

Ride Stats

• Distance: 27.1 miles
• Climbing: ~4000 ft
  
• Ride time: 3:49 hrs
  
• Total time: 4:30 hrs
• Max speed: 27.6
  
• Average speed: 7.1
• Average heart rate: 148
• Calories: 1700
  

Matt's got some more cool pics from the ride and a write-up of his own on his blog. Check it out:
More pics
Tacos Fanta Se