Must see Cloudcroft route Suggestions

I was wondering if anyone could help with some suggested routes in or around Cloudcroft. We have plans for a few days in late June. I have read the trip report from Richard & Tracepilot. Does anyone have any must see areas either forestry roads, dirt roads or paved? The wife & I have been to the area many times but never on Dual Sports. Its time for the KTM's to become accoustomed to the altitude. I raced the Enduro there in 1993, but I had no idea where I was most of the time, other than the Rim Trail which we hiked several years later. Also the areas around Ruidoso, Capitan & Ft. Stanton.

Well we took 130 south off 82 in town to 6563 and road it out to the Sunspot/observatory. Paved but a fun twisty road. After that I'm told it turns to unpaved on the way to Timberon. (Read somewhere that was a great ride) Paved again, we road 130 back to 82 on the east side of cloudcroft. Very fun road skirting the edge of the valley floor. 244 From Ruidoso was good. More twisty closer to Cloudcroft. Looking at the map anything in the Forest on the south side of Cloudcroft ought to be fun with half of them show to be dirt roads. Good Luck and have fun.

MacDaddy said:

Well we took 130 south off 82 in town to 6563 and road it out to the Sunspot/observatory. Paved but a fun twisty road. After that I'm told it turns to unpaved on the way to Timberon. (Read somewhere that was a great ride) Paved again, we road 130 back to 82 on the east side of cloudcroft. Very fun road skirting the edge of the valley floor. 244 From Ruidoso was good. More twisty closer to Cloudcroft. Looking at the map anything in the Forest on the south side of Cloudcroft ought to be fun with half of them show to be dirt roads. Good Luck and have fun.

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Can a dual-sport rider go on the roads located at the large indian reservation north of Cloudcroft? Mapsource shows many promising patchwork of roads in that area.

RB

Don't see why not. We went on any paved road in the reservation we wanted to.

MacDaddy said:

Don't see why not. We went on any paved road in the reservation we wanted to.

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Good news...it looks like a fun network of roads and trails. From the map it looks like most of the roads are unpaved from my MapSource attachment snapshot.

RB

MacDaddy said:

Well we took 130 south off 82 in town to 6563 and road it out to the Sunspot/observatory. Paved but a fun twisty road. After that I'm told it turns to unpaved on the way to Timberon. (Read somewhere that was a great ride) Paved again, we road 130 back to 82 on the east side of cloudcroft. Very fun road skirting the edge of the valley floor. 244 From Ruidoso was good. More twisty closer to Cloudcroft. Looking at the map anything in the Forest on the south side of Cloudcroft ought to be fun with half of them show to be dirt roads. Good Luck and have fun.

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The road to Timberon off the Sunspot Hwy has been paved for 5 years or more. Still a fun road.

West Side Road (90) goes from High Rolls to nearly Timberon and has awesome views of White Sands and the Alamogordo desert basin. It is an easy dirt road, but it is a shear drop off in some areas on one side.

There are many, many miles of old logging (now forest roads) to explore in the Cloudcroft area. It is a great place to go exploring--all you need is a Forest Service map you can get in Cloudcroft at the Ranger Station. Most of the roads are easy to ride, some can be a bit rough and rocky, depending on your comfort with that type of thing.

You can access a bunch of these roads off the Sunspot Hwy south of Cloudcroft. Benson Ridge Road and Russia Canyon are two other unpaved roads that you can access off Sunspot Hwy. That's a bunch of miles on unpaved roads ands you aren't even scratching the surface.

I have been riding and racing dirt bikes in Cloudcroft for 20 years, long before the quads took over and ruined 95% of the single track. There is almost no legal single track trail left, except some parts on the Rim Trail. It's a crying shame, but I digress. Lately, I explore on my 950 and have been having a lot more fun. Cloudcroft has become overrun by quads, but the forest roads are still fun on a big dual sport bike.

MacDaddy said:

Don't see why not. We went on any paved road in the reservation we wanted to.

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I just heard from Scott (Tourmeister) who JUST returned from Cloudcroft that riding in the Indian Reservation is not allowed. He also mentioned there is a "tense" relationship between the locals and the Indians, so I am going to create a second GPS ride map (see attachment) that excludes the Indian Reservation region...just in case.

RB

I think the rule on the res is the reverse of what we usually do.....so on the res ask for permission first, not for forgiveness after.

Thanks for the routes. I managed to find one of the forest roads that dead-ended last time I was up there. Funny. My map clearly said it went through. When my GPS started the just ....... thing, I should have turned around but noooooooo. That would have been smart...and we can't have that, can we?

With regards to the reservation areas, there really isn't much to see there anyway with the National Forest having so much to offer.

Three or four days of solid riding there and you can pretty much ride everything in the Cloudcroft area. Personally, I enjoy the dual track roads as much if not more than most of the single track due to the quad traffic (as someone else mentioned).

The roads up from Mayhill, FS607, Dry Burnt & Walker Canyon, and 16 Springs Canyon road down to 82 is a less-tavelled an scenic run.

West Side Road, beginning off of 82 west of Cloudcroft is a nice run too.

A shorter list would be the roads around Cloudcroft that you might not want to run, and I can't think of any. The entire area is a nice dual sport ride.

If your bike has long legs, your fanny is up to it, and you have the time, consider the long ride back down through Lincoln National Forest beginning off of Hwy24, through Queen and down to White's City. That's an adventure ride.

Lot's of good suggestions. Thanks. I will make notes of the routes mentioned, and get out my 10 year old forest map. That way when we go into the Ranger office I will have ideas & some questions. I only want a small outline of a plan. I would like to think most of the time we could be lost, what is an Adventure if you know where you are at all times. I will need to make time for a 12 oz. Prime Rib at the Lodge. Sam

There are a lot of trails off of Benson Ridge Rd., which runs West to East off of the Sunspot Scenic Byway. We were on KLR 650's and a KTM 450 EXC and had no problems with the small trails restricted to vehicles of 50" or less in width. As you get higher, they get rockier. They had a HEAVY winter this past year, over 15 feet of snow and also some sustained 90mph winds. So there is a LOT of tree damage. All the actual roads that we rode on were clear. We did find many places that had just been cleared and had fresh cut trees laying on the sides of the roads. We also came upon a bull dozer actively clearing the road we were on and eventually it was closed. We could hear chain saws not far away from us. So we just hopped on a nearby trail. Even the trails were well cleared, with only a few spots where we had to get around some downed trees. I suspect that at the pace they are working to clean things up, everything should be open by late June.

My GPS maps, both the Topo and City Select North America, do not agree with the roads on the ground in terms of what goes through and what even exists. The same is true of the maps you get from the Forest Service. However, between the three different maps and saving my track to compare the path outline to those on the maps, we were usually able to figure out where we were. A good example is Benson Ridge and Dark Canyon roads. City Select North America shows those two connecting and that you could get from the Sunspot Highway over to Hwy 130. The FS maps did not show this. However, we never got far enough out Benson Ridge Rd., to check on it. Another one is Logan Canyon Rd., which my maps show going through but which really dead ends into private property. However, there was a little road off to the side that climbed the mountain, not shown on any of the maps, and which turned into an awesome ride! It eventually came out on what I think was Pepper Canyon Rd.(?) I'll have to check the GPS track to be sure. The roads North of town tended to be more crowded and have more traffic. The roads South of town were virtually empty, especially the trails. High Rolls Rd., also called FS 90, was fun. However, it had deep ruts running almost its entire length, so we really had to pay attention to our riding lines the entire time. It is a cool ride though. We never managed to get East of town because a storm stopped us the last day.

The Ranger's office is on the West side of town, a few miles South on Hwy 130. They have free maps that are pretty good.

Tourmeister said:

My GPS maps, both the Topo and City Select North America, do not agree with the roads on the ground in terms of what goes through and what even exists. The same is true of the maps you get from the Forest Service. I'll have to check the GPS track to be sure.

The Ranger's office is on the West side of town, a few miles South on Hwy 130. They have free maps that are pretty good.

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Excellent info...any way you could post the GPS breadcrumb tracks? To me, the GPS tracks are more important that mere routes.

I might bring a handsaw in case I need to make a small cut in a tree in order to squeeze by.

Cheers,

RB

Unfortunately, my GPS seems to have reception issues There were many times where I lost entire sections of the tracks I was trying to save! This was true anytime we got into those sections deep in the woods where it got fun. I noticed that Dad's 276CS (the one in the truck) finds the satellites extremely fast and usually has a strong signal from at least 8-9 at any given time. On the other hand, my 276CS (the one I had on the bike), will often take several minutes from power on to locate just 3-4 satellites at moderate signal strength. I may need to send it in to Garmin for a going over... I don't want to upgrade to something newer (yet) because I really like these models.

Tourmeister said:

Unfortunately, my GPS seems to have reception issues There were many times where I lost entire sections of the tracks I was trying to save! This was true anytime we got into those sections deep in the woods where it got fun.

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I use to use the Garmin V which was a dinosaur and would drop coverage even during really cloudy days. The V was the standard for d/s GPS's for a long time. Now, I use a Garmin 60cx and really love how quickly the initial satellite lock-in is and the reception is very strong regardless of heavy tree overhang. The 60cx even works inside some buildings. I sent my former unit in several times for repair even after it was a few year old and they replaced it, no questions asked. I was very impressed with Garmin.

Richard has park maps from the Cloudcroft are that he will share with me one evening. I think that is the best course of action.

RB

I use the 60CS as my backup unit in case I flip a bike and have it land right on top of the GPS... again

Well, I have to admit that the last two posts are also something I need schooling on. I am using a Garmin Legend. I know I need to update, it is the old style without the upgraded antenna. Several people have told me even the new Legends are much better. Until I bought the KTM,I only used it in the truck and hiking It does lose satellite signal in tall trees, but when hiking I have always been able to find my way back. During Richard's Jan. 2 ride, (my first with the TWT group) the batteries went dead at the 5 hour mark. Another weakness of the Legend. I have been reading the GPS posts in the Gear section, I am looking with interest in the Garmin 500 or 550. They both get pretty good writeups. But that is for the spring of next year. This trip I will just get the tanks as full as possible and keep telling Mrs. Ham, Yes I know Exactly where we are. And after 30 years she will nod but she knows better.
We are so looking forward to this trip. Thanks again for all the suggestions.