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- Joined
- May 6, 2006
- Messages
- 943
- Reaction score
- 237
- Location
- Eulogy, TX
- First Name
- Alan
- Last Name
- Edwards
I haven't posted a ride report since 2007, but what the heck, let's try it. My wingman, Russ, is living in a trailer at Eagle Nest NM this month so I loaded up the bikes and hooked it to the truck camper and headed that way. Two totally different experiences coming and going in the truck. On the way out, I went through Breckenridge, Stamford, Aspermont, Lubbock, Clovis, then up to Logan and Mosquero before reaching Springer, etc. I had the roads to my self and lots of nice scenery. On the way home I went Springer-Clovis-Amarillo and used 287 and you know what that's like. I'm going to stay off 287 whenever possible in the future; the accordion effect of grouping up in the towns at 30 mph, then spreading back out to 75 mph is a lot of work. NM 412 from Springer to Clovis is a very nice drive, however. NM 39 from Logan to Mosquero is a bit rough.
In the trailer, we have a 2020 KTM 500 EXC-F and a 2021 Ducati Multistrada V4S. My wife and the pandemic were very good to me as far as bike upgrades.
Since I wouldn't plug into campground hookups even if I had a regular spot, the owner let me park at the back of the place and boondock for $12/night.
The first day of riding, we hit the street on the big bikes. Russ has a Tiger 800 XC and a Yamaha XT250. It was nice and cool on 64 through Angel Fire, then we got around Taos as quickly as possible and hit 518 toward Sipapu. We took the "High road to Taos", 76, and included some good in-and-out detours on 75, some county roads, and 503. On 503, I could imagine I was in a foreign country: narrow streets surrounded by forested hills wound tightly through small villages with quaint dwellings and the inhabitants speak a different language. It worked. I just saved 7 grand on an Edelweiss tour. Disclaimer: I actually don't have many pictures. I don't pull out the camera regularly with reporting in mind, and I'm always forgetting to get the good shots in extrication situations. The goal for the day was Bandolier National Monument and it did not disappoint. Hwy 4 is great, and even with the slow speed limits, we managed to keep the pace at a fun level without risking incarceration.
We had discussed the heat wave and agreed we would avoid Espanola and get back above Taos before triple digits set in. But there is this road, NM 126, that I always look at on the map. After you go by Valles Caldera on 4, you can hang a right and take this great looking road to Cuba, NM. It's paved on both ends with an unpaved section of some unknown length in the middle. We had discussed it and agreed to go see the end of the pavement and make another decision there. I saw a local on the way and stopped to ask him about conditions on 126. He said "I see you don't have knobbies". I replied, "Is there any steep AND loose stuff?" to which he replied, "a little". Okay, just a little is encouraging. Since I got the MTS V4S, I've been waffling on whether I would treat it like an ADV bike or not. I hit a dirt road on the way home from the dealership, so I was pretty sure I couldn't resist at least some dirt, but at 2000 miles on the clock I wasn't ready to start throwing it down.
We got to the end of the wonderful pavement on 126 and we're looking at this well-maintained cinder road. Perfect. I say, "if it all looks like that, no problem" and Russ says, "we can turn around if it gets too bad". We both grinned, because those are the exact phrases we used in 2014 before embarking on the Dempster highway with both bikes wearing Metzler ME880 Marathons. Before we left for Alaska, we agreed NOT to do the Dempster and instead chose these hard tires for the high mileage. It's another story, but let's just say the Dempster is fine unless it rains....it rained.
So off I go up the cinder road and it's a wonderful winding surface with great forest scenery. After about a mile in, I start to notice sand on the outside of the curves, it quickly increases until only one track is not sandy and then I'm suddenly staring at hill covered with deep sand. With heart in throat I stood up, leaned back, and gunned it. The duck did its job perfectly. I, however, could only mentally handle this rodeo for about 50 yds. The road continued up and out of sight around a curve and called "calf rope". I got it stopped and, sweating and panting, I look down and see the temperature on the duck is 219 and fans are running. While we're discussing our turnaround procedure, we see a great wall of flying sand coming toward us from below. It stops 10 yards
from us and an Enterprise van slowly appears out of the suspended talcum powder. We wave him by and he revs the van again and plows out of sight up the hill. Kind of surreal, but it also told me that maybe the bad stuff didn't last too long. We didn't try it and I was later glad because I realized we didn't have enough water if it became a multiple bike drop situation. It was really starting to warm up in the trees and think we could have been in trouble if we started flopping around on the ground. Plus, we're old. I really wish I had a picture of that Enterprise van.
So, we ended up in Espanola and the temp hit 102 F, and we sweated in traffic all the way back to Taos. It was a great ride, but the ending was a slog. Here is Russ recovering in Taos:
Day 2 we rode through Red River, Questa, Rio Grands Gorge, Tres Piedras, Tierra Amarillo, lunch in Chama, Antonito and back to Questa via 142 and 159. Very straight and desolate roads. I managed a new personal record of 150 mph on the factory speedo on CO 142. I figure 8-10 mph error, but it was still ticking up when I let off. I wasn't checking the Zumo XT for verification during this process. (the previous statement about exceeding the speed limit is a complete fabrication. At not time did these riders reach triple digits in mph).
To be continued....
To be continued makes it sounds like there is drama or a climax in store, but there is not. I just had to go play golf and finish this later. It's later. Usually, either Russell or I end up on the ground, but not this trip, so you'll only see the top sides of our bikes.
Day 3 was dirt day! Yea! Russ took me on this great forest road (76) from Angel Fire over to Tres Ritos on 518. The climb up on the Angel Fire side was plenty challenging for our meager skill level with lots of boulder gardens (which I have no pictures of because all my attention was on not falling down). If it wasn't for the rocks on the north end, I could take my wife on this road on her Super Sherpa. Great fun.
And of course, there was lots of this:
The end.
In the trailer, we have a 2020 KTM 500 EXC-F and a 2021 Ducati Multistrada V4S. My wife and the pandemic were very good to me as far as bike upgrades.
Since I wouldn't plug into campground hookups even if I had a regular spot, the owner let me park at the back of the place and boondock for $12/night.
The first day of riding, we hit the street on the big bikes. Russ has a Tiger 800 XC and a Yamaha XT250. It was nice and cool on 64 through Angel Fire, then we got around Taos as quickly as possible and hit 518 toward Sipapu. We took the "High road to Taos", 76, and included some good in-and-out detours on 75, some county roads, and 503. On 503, I could imagine I was in a foreign country: narrow streets surrounded by forested hills wound tightly through small villages with quaint dwellings and the inhabitants speak a different language. It worked. I just saved 7 grand on an Edelweiss tour. Disclaimer: I actually don't have many pictures. I don't pull out the camera regularly with reporting in mind, and I'm always forgetting to get the good shots in extrication situations. The goal for the day was Bandolier National Monument and it did not disappoint. Hwy 4 is great, and even with the slow speed limits, we managed to keep the pace at a fun level without risking incarceration.
We had discussed the heat wave and agreed we would avoid Espanola and get back above Taos before triple digits set in. But there is this road, NM 126, that I always look at on the map. After you go by Valles Caldera on 4, you can hang a right and take this great looking road to Cuba, NM. It's paved on both ends with an unpaved section of some unknown length in the middle. We had discussed it and agreed to go see the end of the pavement and make another decision there. I saw a local on the way and stopped to ask him about conditions on 126. He said "I see you don't have knobbies". I replied, "Is there any steep AND loose stuff?" to which he replied, "a little". Okay, just a little is encouraging. Since I got the MTS V4S, I've been waffling on whether I would treat it like an ADV bike or not. I hit a dirt road on the way home from the dealership, so I was pretty sure I couldn't resist at least some dirt, but at 2000 miles on the clock I wasn't ready to start throwing it down.
We got to the end of the wonderful pavement on 126 and we're looking at this well-maintained cinder road. Perfect. I say, "if it all looks like that, no problem" and Russ says, "we can turn around if it gets too bad". We both grinned, because those are the exact phrases we used in 2014 before embarking on the Dempster highway with both bikes wearing Metzler ME880 Marathons. Before we left for Alaska, we agreed NOT to do the Dempster and instead chose these hard tires for the high mileage. It's another story, but let's just say the Dempster is fine unless it rains....it rained.
So off I go up the cinder road and it's a wonderful winding surface with great forest scenery. After about a mile in, I start to notice sand on the outside of the curves, it quickly increases until only one track is not sandy and then I'm suddenly staring at hill covered with deep sand. With heart in throat I stood up, leaned back, and gunned it. The duck did its job perfectly. I, however, could only mentally handle this rodeo for about 50 yds. The road continued up and out of sight around a curve and called "calf rope". I got it stopped and, sweating and panting, I look down and see the temperature on the duck is 219 and fans are running. While we're discussing our turnaround procedure, we see a great wall of flying sand coming toward us from below. It stops 10 yards
from us and an Enterprise van slowly appears out of the suspended talcum powder. We wave him by and he revs the van again and plows out of sight up the hill. Kind of surreal, but it also told me that maybe the bad stuff didn't last too long. We didn't try it and I was later glad because I realized we didn't have enough water if it became a multiple bike drop situation. It was really starting to warm up in the trees and think we could have been in trouble if we started flopping around on the ground. Plus, we're old. I really wish I had a picture of that Enterprise van.
So, we ended up in Espanola and the temp hit 102 F, and we sweated in traffic all the way back to Taos. It was a great ride, but the ending was a slog. Here is Russ recovering in Taos:
Day 2 we rode through Red River, Questa, Rio Grands Gorge, Tres Piedras, Tierra Amarillo, lunch in Chama, Antonito and back to Questa via 142 and 159. Very straight and desolate roads. I managed a new personal record of 150 mph on the factory speedo on CO 142. I figure 8-10 mph error, but it was still ticking up when I let off. I wasn't checking the Zumo XT for verification during this process. (the previous statement about exceeding the speed limit is a complete fabrication. At not time did these riders reach triple digits in mph).
To be continued....
To be continued makes it sounds like there is drama or a climax in store, but there is not. I just had to go play golf and finish this later. It's later. Usually, either Russell or I end up on the ground, but not this trip, so you'll only see the top sides of our bikes.
Day 3 was dirt day! Yea! Russ took me on this great forest road (76) from Angel Fire over to Tres Ritos on 518. The climb up on the Angel Fire side was plenty challenging for our meager skill level with lots of boulder gardens (which I have no pictures of because all my attention was on not falling down). If it wasn't for the rocks on the north end, I could take my wife on this road on her Super Sherpa. Great fun.
And of course, there was lots of this:
The end.
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