The Crosses Desert Ride

[KsTeveM]

Las Cruces, or The Crosses…what’s that all about? Sounds like a toss-up between it being simply a crossroads or named for grave crosses from Apache raids. History….seems we can decide for ourselves these days. Either way, it’s time, my soul needs some desert riding and some new to me stuff would be cool. Fighting all my impulses to make it more of a nomadic trek….stop it Stevo, this is just day rides this time. It’s funny, day rides is all I did for most of my life. But since the nomadic adventure bug bit me, I have a hard time not making everything have that flare. That said, I’m excited to do some desert rides running lighter. I already had my 500 in skinny mode, left it that way and just put some different shoes on…along with normal tools and mcgyver stuff. Getting twitchy, heading that way tomorrow. Figured I might as well write a little ditty on this ride going down over the next few days?

 

[Kiyoti]

 

[KsTeveM]

We’re trucking to the crosses today. @KTMCarhart came out of retirement for this one. Wonder twins activate, form of, 500s!!

Would that rig turn your head and have you daydreaming miles down the road? Heck, I’m in it and still daydreaming. I enjoy seeing the look on dudes faces as we pass by. It’s the same look when the kids in your neighborhood saw the green machine for the first time. I wanted to punch that kid in the face, jack his ride and leave him with my spin out 360. Could have been me on that spin out 360 box, dude is rocking my doo from back in the day.

p.s. if you had a green machine, kiss my grits….and know this, your spin outs probably sucked

 

[KsTeveM]

We made it, motel in Mesilla. It was simple this way, doing the motel thing….but I’m missing being somewhere remote, base camping at a motel is not our norm. But this scene does have a certain appeal to it, it’s easy!!!

When in Rome…..do what the other Two Wheeled Texan guys are doing. We went to dinner at a bar and grill, picked on each other and had normal dirt bike scooby fun. Maybe Sander can post a pic he took at the bar and grill? I know this, the parking lot was looking orange and 4 stroked!!

 

[michaellmcc]

Good on ya, Stevo, out for another ride!

The southern portions of the NMBDR offer great variety, from Dell City all the way to the Gila Wilderness...but it's probably a little early at the higher elevations NW of Cruces. Just be sure to explore the White Sands Missle Range (emphasis on "Sands")...no need to worry about those "Do Not Enter - Live Fire Range" signs ...

 

[sanderjavant]

 

[KsTeveM]

Got up and went with the flow, breakfast and roll out with no set plan. Wait a minute, what?

Look at it this way, we are sticking our toe in the water, or our faces in the dust, or our butts in the wind. I forget how it goes, but you get it, we’ve never been here.

Been so long since I just followed my nose….or someone else. The last several years we are always trying to maximize our time to suck the marrow out of an area by over planning the heck out of things. I know sometimes I miss the point, relaxing and meandering. So we tucked into the group and went with the flow. It was kind of nice to not have to think so much or worry about what I was getting a group into. Whatever goes down, it will all be Sanders fault .

The general plan was no set plan, just ride in the Organ Mountains and bebop around with some other likeminded folks. So we bee’d and bopped and minded the like.

We flowed through the single track, till we couldn’t, someone has to get a flat in all this cattail stuff right? Specimen A:

The group all pitched in and we got it done, you welcome Jim!

Organ, what is up with that? Some say the Spaniards named them when passing through here as they look like pipe organs. I can see that.

Some say the mountains were inhabited by a tribe of Indians that the Spaniards called Lose Orejones, referring to their wrinkled faces. Their name was applied to the mountains and over time corrupted to Lose Organos. I like that one better.

Who knows, but they are pretty and look like a little brother to the Tetons? The Motley Crew:

500s represent!

YZX bike crushing it.

Couple 300s representing!

Someone’s 500 laying down on the job towards the end of the day. Not sure who was riding that ol girl, but seems unacceptable. He said something about cross rutting or some nonsense. What a dork!

The group split mid afternoon, smart ones went back to the motel, the glutin for punishment dweebs wanted more.

Our fearless leader….what can you say? I don’t throw this out lightly, dude can ride, his bike is on rails and he is a great trail guide. Here he is scouting the beyond, thanks for all your hard work today brother!!

Rolled back towards the motel

Back for parking lot riding anecdotes and spiritual healing. I wonder what hillbillies brought a little pit to have a fire in the parking lot?

Wait a minute, that was us!!

Thursday night is party night?

 

[bwdmax]

Mirror adjusted way to far to the right…major fail.

Looks like some good riding.

 

[Blue is Best]

Now that sounds like a great get together! I sure miss those dirt bike days.

 

[KsTeveM]

Again, the group didn’t have a big plan for the day’s plan, just bepoparound the Dona Ana Mountains, this time to our northeast. Dirtbags getting organized and slabbing it out.

What’s up with the name Dona Ana Robledo? Dona Ana died in 1680 fleeing the Pueblo Revolt. What’s with the revolt? Basically it was the local Pueblo folks fighting back against the foreigners trying to colonize their homelands. They won the 1680 Revolt but it was just temporary. Colonize….sounds like a nice word, I won’t go deeper to avoid making things political……but definitely a lot more history around here than I ever knew. Back to the riding.

We had our own revolt going on, avoiding people so we could get our groove on.

Typical rocky desert riding, everybody seemed to have a spring in their step.

Cool break spot with a view.

Groovin around…..little bit o washin around.

We had a cool lunch spot. We were also solving a lot of the worlds problems at this spot.

One of them that couldn’t be solved was men using umbrellas.

Somewhere around here, one of us decided to spin out the rear tire and face plant into a yucca plant looking dude.

Punched a hole in his chin, bleeding, bike down.

No damage really, it was already a face only a mother could love.

Sander started stepping things up.

Sometimes we let him do his thing while we critiqued his poise.

Once again he decided it was time for another toughy, I thought why not. Till I started thinking why didn’t I not. Survived, I think he got some video of my lack of skills. This was the view from my GoPro.

Some more flowy fun.

We got it done and started making our way to the house.

When they tell you it’s going to be a windy day in Las Cruces, they ain’t kidding neither.

We deviated to check on things at the getting store. Man could I spend some dough in here. But total we only spent $6 for a fuel hose.

Once again we are back at home base, partaking in parking lot pleasures.

 

[sanderjavant]

KsTeveM unfortunately I got out out of sync at the top of the climb, turning my GoPro off when I thought I was turning on. I missed capturing your awesome save and final push to the top.

Here is the POV full climb up, and partial down.

 

[GrapeApe]

my digger

 

[KsTeveM]

 

[KsTeveM]

On these short trips, day 3 seems to always be the wild card day. We wanted to play in the west and the Magnificent 7 were lining up.

Who is James Coburn? Or Yul Brynner?

Or Steve McQueen?

We rolled out, our normal 15 to 20 minute ride to dirt.

What about these Robledo Mountains, what’s that all about? I don’t know why, but I like saying that name. I’m sure I’m ruining it with my white boy ways, too bad, rowbleedoh!! We stuck our butts in the wind at a trail head, west of I25, north of I-10.

We were west of the Radium Springs area, am I the only one that wants to call it Radiator Springs?

Fun little fact, Douglas MacArthur’s father was stationed here in this area at Ft. Selden and so he spent 2 years here as a little boy. He learned to ride and shoot in this same area, before he learned to read and write. I secretly, and perhaps stupidly, yearn for a time that learning to ride and shoot took precedence. Canyons and washes take precedence today!

Pedro Robledo was a dude that came over from Spain and was part of the Onate Expedition. His soldiering life boiled down to this, fight some locals to the death or jump off a cliff. He chose the latter and died in 1598 and is buried somewhere around here. In case you were wondering about the name Robledo. And if you’ve been paying attention, yes Dona Ana was a descendant, her Mom was Pedro’s daughter.

Then we were six….one of us left to go get coffee….and drive back to SA.

We rowbleedo around for a bit more. Made me think of weeblewobbles. Heck, even they rode motorcycles!!! What are yall doing?

Eventually we made our way on some dirt roads crisscrossing the area, think BLM madness. I was also thinking about how those **** weebles have a cab over camper.

We got some good clean riding in!!!

We flew the drone in this little slot canyon.

Things started getting a little hairy. Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down….or do they? This involved some handle bars and knocking the air out of yourself. All is well, we keep going.

Lunch time….good little spot!

After lunch we had to make our collective way out of this pretty big canyon. Little trouble, some were prettier than others.

Well, let’s just say folks do fall down, from time to time and it’s part of our game. This was a nasty down hill, sketch for all of us. One in our group didn’t fare so well.

We had to go in triage/problem solving mode. His wrist was either severely sprained or broken. We wrapped his wrist up, and then Sander doubled up to get him out of the desert.

We had to keep getting creative, I rode out with double backpacks and we all scouted the fastest way out to pavement.

Couple of us rode back to the hotel and got my truck, loaded our patient and his bike up.

Could have been worse, glad he is ok! I wonder if they would have been holding hands even if he wasn't hurt? Pink jersey?
We all went out and grabbed some pizza and beer, super fun night! And the patient bought!!

Not sure about the furry driving the bike on our way home!! What the? They weren't wearing pink. Just saying.

Well that’s a wrap. I learned me some stuff. And if I ever make it back out this way, I got a good feel for things. Thanks Sander for heading this up, leading the posse and getting it on our radar! Well done sir!!!! We are winding down, bikes are loaded and we are trying to kill some brain cells within walking distance of our bed. Winning.

 

[KsTeveM]

 

[sanderjavant]

 

[bwdmax]

Looks like a good time was had. I rolled in from Big Bend and bought some of that liquid gold diesel too. Bike is in the garage resting. I had one of those funny looking 18” hoops on the porch with a box of spokes when I got home…

 

[sanderjavant]

 

[KsTeveM]

We got back yesterday. Good to be back with the family. I was running on fumes, only got like 4 hours sleep and then made the long drive back. Needed some precious sleep last night….and precious it was, like 10 hours of it!! Have a few more cool pics to share that others sent me. Enjoy!!

And some parting thoughts….full face helmets are cool, I know it saved KTMCarhart with that Yucca face plant. Elbow and Shoulder protection is a must in my book. You can see others wounds were much lighter cause of it. My shoulder was certainly saved in one get off as well as the countless brush popping I received in the washes in particular. I also won’t ride that kind of terrain without a chest protector. Rear tires….I was running a Tusk ADV rear half wore out, won’t do that again out there. It is rare that I run the same terrain for 3 days….this spot needs a more serious knobby. I didn’t know I needed all my bag of tricks to attempt to stay on Sander’s six. My trick bag wasn’t big enough. All in all, good solid place to ride you some desert!!!!

 

[KsTeveM]

Looks like a good time was had. I rolled in from Big Bend and bought some of that liquid gold diesel too. Bike is in the garage resting. I had one of those funny looking 18” hoops on the porch with a box of spokes when I got home…

How was Big Bend? Haven't heard too much chatter about it. How many riders, any carnage, fun stuff? Throw us a couple pics......

 

[sanderjavant]

The Bureau of Land Management has confirmed this hill will be renamed in KShaw's honor, due to his blood, sweat, tears, and pending X-Ray results.

The 2021 POV view.

 

[KsTeveM]

@Kshaw keep us posted on your wrist brother!! And you better post a pic of the xray if it looks cool (bad)

 

[Kshaw]

@Kshaw keep us posted on your wrist brother!! And you better post a pic of the xray if it looks cool (bad)

I didn’t get a pic of the X-ray but have the CD. I’ll try to post up a pic soon but only got macs. Anyway I broke off a bone splinter on wrist and cracked the radius bone.

 

[KsTeveM]

Dang man!! The good news, at least you know you are not a weenie

 

[bwdmax]

Must be mad at that KTM…Blue cast. You going to a Yamaha?

I didn’t get a pic of the X-ray but have the CD. I’ll try to post up a pic soon but only got macs. Anyway I broke off a bone splinter on wrist and cracked the radius bone.