WAY West Tx Ride from ELP to Cloudcroft Sat, 12 Jun 21

[Carter Fury]

Howdy. Finally syncing calendars and planning a ride this Saturday from the east side of ELP (Chevron on Justice & Montana (near 375 & Montana) at 0830 to ride up and back to Cloudcroft. Route being sync'd but plan on graded, ranch and FS roads up and back.
- Up will be off Hueco Tanks Ranch Road and then back down is being worked.
- Planning for about three hours up, lunch then three hours back.
- Will have at least 1x spare gal of gas but come prepared...

PM with questions.

Cheers.

 

[Texas T]

A good friend of mine lives in Alamogordo, about 15 minutes from the Natl Forest border and he rides up in that area all the time; wonderful roads, so I can understand why you chose that area. He said it was about 61 degrees this morning at the higher elevations. Enjoy your ride.

This is one of his favorite routes to get out of the house and kill a couple of hours.

 

[misterk]

Sweet!

 

[SpiritAtBay]

Sounds great

 

[JoToPe]

Hmmmm… I’ve been to Cloudcroft every other year and getting that itch to go again. Let me see what I can do. Wonder if Mark is still camp host at the Silver campground?

 

[Carter Fury]

A good friend of mine lives in Alamogordo, about 15 minutes from the Natl Forest border and he rides up in that area all the time; wonderful roads, so I can understand why you chose that area. He said it was about 61 degrees this morning at the higher elevations. Enjoy your ride.

This is one of his favorite routes to get out of the house and kill a couple of hours.

View attachment 294817

Thanks for sharing, and yes, the rigtht side (FS 91 through Sunspot) is one of the routes we are planing to take, will look into the left side...unfortunately the weather will be a little warmer for us coming back. High there is projected to be 82 when we stop for lunch the we are blessed with a high of 106 in El Paso upon our return...good thing we'll have the air conditioners on.

 

[Klr56]

Would like to go on this ride, was gonna go to Cloudcroft tommorrow, but would like to ride with others. Riding a Klr650 with 90/10 tires 90 being off road. Can do pavement ok.

 

[Klr56]

Howdy. Finally syncing calendars and planning a ride this Saturday from the east side of ELP (Chevron on Justice & Montana (near 375 & Montana) at 0830 to ride up and back to Cloudcroft. Route being sync'd but plan on graded, ranch and FS roads up and back.
- Up will be off Hueco Tanks Ranch Road and then back down is being worked.
- Planning for about three hours up, lunch then three hours back.
- Will have at least 1x spare gal of gas but come prepared...

PM with questions.

Cheers.

 

[Klr56]

Would like to join you saturday if ride is still on.

 

[Carter Fury]

Would like to join you saturday if ride is still on.

Cool. My cell phone number 904.874.2684 so just send me a text and I’m trying to limit the amount of on-road time for this loop.
see you Saturday morning at 0830.

 

[randypower]

How was the ride?

 

[Carter Fury]

Was a good but long hot day of riding. Most of the ranch roads you can go as fast as you’re comfortable going and the the Forest roads become more rocky.

Started with six riders until one of the guys hit a larger rock and blew out his sideway (speed contributed) but fortunately he didn’t go down. so five of us enjoyed lunch at Big Daddy’s in Cloudcroft.

Temps started at 74 in ELP, it hit 90 before cooling down some in the mountains, then ended up at 105-109 for the last hour home…heat was expected and we were well hydrated.

First time with new camera (Sena 10C Pro) and will have to zoom in more and clean dust off the lens in the future…but here are some pics of the wide open southern NM.

Forgot to list the bikes:
KTM 1090 and 3x 790Rs
KLR 650
Honda 250Rally (not sure the exact nomenclature)

 

[randypower]

Sounds like a fun day. I might have had trouble at 105-109°. That's toasty.

What is a "sideway?"

 

[Carter Fury]

Sounds like a fun day. I might have had trouble at 105-109°. That's toasty.

What is a "sideway?"

Oops...autocorrect got me again, he blew out his sidewall after hitting the rock at high speed, so it wouldn't hold air.

Yes, but we kindof get use to it out here, although the water from my camelback for the last hour or so was about the same temperature as the hot water faucet, which isn't fun, even with the "insulated tube".

 

[tshelfer]

Wow, I love Hueco Tanks - haven't been there in years, but it was always one of the fun things to do on a spring afternoon when I was going to UTEP back in the dark ages. And Cloudcroft road? Can't go wrong there!

 

[Carter Fury]

Wow, I love Hueco Tanks - haven't been there in years, but it was always one of the fun things to do on a spring afternoon when I was going to UTEP back in the dark ages. And Cloudcroft road? Can't go wrong there!

Yep, amazing history there, and UTEP has been busy adding buildings so you'd probably have challenges walking on campus now, but both the Far Eastside and Westside are doing the same, new stores galore.

 

[tshelfer]

Yep, amazing history there, and UTEP has been busy adding buildings so you'd probably have challenges walking on campus now, but both the Far Eastside and Westside are doing the same, new stores galore.

From what I've seen, UTEP has more than doubled in number of buildings since I graduated in 1973, plus enrollment being "slightly" up from the 12,000 students that was the norm back then. I lived (Army brat) in Logan Heights, between Sheridan Rd and Railroad Dr. Last time I passed through, Sheridan Rd no longer existed - it had changed from a sleepy, 2-lane road to a multi-lane highway. Yeah, it's pretty amazing how much the city has changed and grown in the past 45 years.

I'm just grateful that Cloudcroft remains much the same. There are certainly more luxury cabins around the outskirts, but the town itself looks very little different now (or at least, last time I was through 5 years ago) than it did when I used to snowtube there in the early 70s.