Paul and I decided to hit the Elena Gallegos mountain bike trail in Albuquerque since it came highly recommended from my buddy Mark Kittelson. After calling 5 or 6 bike shops in town, I found the one place that rented bikes: Northeast Cyclery. In fact, only one location of Northeast Cyclery rented bikes for $25 a day so we drove to the store around noon. Paul talked Chris into letting him ride Chris’s diamondback so I was the only one who needed to rent a bike. Twenty-five bucks seemed a bit steep but it was the only choice plus it was less than I remember paying in Marin to ride China Camp. I was hoping I could try out a sweet full suspension rig since I’m considering buying one this summer but I ended up with a piece of crap, heavy as lead Raleigh hard tail. Seriously this bike was one step above a $100 Wal-mart bike but I was determined to ride by this point.

The trails at Elena Gallegos are great and well worth the $1 per car entry fee ($2 per car on weekends). We headed out on FS Trail 365 and made a loop around the park using various numbered trails. At one point we came to an interesting rock pile obstacle and I demonstrated the correct line on the Raleigh. Paul followed, rode the pile perfectly, then endoed on the flat sand beyond the rock pile. Determined to land the obstacle cleanly, Paul decided (against my advice) to try again. This time the endo occurred on top of the rock pile and according to Paul was more painful than the first.

The weather was cool and windy and there was a fair amount of snow on the trails in the shady spots. I was very uncomfortable on the Raliegh for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the lack of clipless pedals (I asked the shop if they had any, they said no.) Next time I rent a bike I’ll have to remember to bring my own pedals (in addition to my helmet, shoes, gloves, etc.). Needless to say I was not impressed with Northeast Cyclery and would not recommend them to other mountain bikers. Elena Gallegos, on the other hand, gets two thumbs up.

After a relaxing Saturday of chorizo and egg burritos and catching up on email, we struck out around 3:30pm for Durango, CO. After initially missing our exit for US 550, we quickly got back on track and heading high into the desert. There was some snow in patches on the rocks around us and by the time we rolled into Durango around 8pm it was a full on snow shower. We ate and Scoot n’ Blues and were treated to some live music from a local jazz group. After dinner we checked into the Hampton Inn just as the pool and hot tub were closing for the night. Not that it really mattered anyway, we were planning on getting an early start on the slopes in the morning.

It ended up snowing all night and when we got down to our free breakfast around 7am there was almost a foot of new snow on the ground. Fortunately Paul’s Subaru has 4 wheel drive and we were able to quickly get on the road. The first ski rental place we hit in town was PACKED with high schoolers from Texas so we decided to head for Durango Mountain to rent our equipment there. The roads up to the mountain were pretty snowy and there was a good bit of traffic, including several idiots who felt it necessary to pass in the middle (unplowed) lane. Paul kept a steady course and we arrived in one piece.

The rental line at Durango Mountain went quickly, like a well oiled machine. While in line two men offered Paul and I lift tickets for $25 (retail $59) and we decided to bite. I was a bit nervous that the tickets might be counterfit but in the end they were legit. Chris returned the two tickets he had just purchased for us so it was all good. Paul and I ended up renting the “Performance ski” package for $32 and the skis were awesome and just what we needed for the 2+ feet of powder we encountered on the mountain. I’ve never skied that much powder and it definitely took some getting used to. Few of the trails were groomed and by the end of the day almost all the trails were “bumped.” It was a great chance to learn to ski powder and to find out why I need to buy new skis.

This morning we broke camp and hit the road around 9am bound for Albuquerque. Paul’s friend Chris recommended that we take the scenic route to Albuquerque and skip the flat, boring route through Roswell. It turned out to be great advice and well worth any additional driving that we ended up doing.

Our route today took us through Cloudcroft, NM which kinda reminded me of Woodland Park, CO. I realized after the fact that there’s an interesting sounding mountain bike trail in Cloudcroft that we could have checked out but it was a little too cold and windy anyway. We descended into Alamogordo and stopped at White Sands National Monument. White Sands is very cool and we took tons of pictures and did some sand hiking in our bare feet. The sand is actually gypsum crystals and the stuff was blowing everywhere during our visit. We both ended up with lots of gypsum in our ears and hair but it was definitely a highlight of the trip.

We got into Albuquerque around 6pm and had dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. They put either green or red chile on EVERYTHING, a great authentic New Mexican dinner.

We spent a VERY windy and dusty two nights at the Carlsbad RV and Campground with the tent tied to Paul’s car to make sure the thing didn’t end up on the nearby highway. The campground had free wi-fi, an indoor pool, and a sweet game room so we didn’t complain.

On Thursday we hit Carlsbad Caverns for the basic tour since all the special tours were already booked. We spent about 2-3 hours underground then headed out to Sitting Bull Falls. Sitting Bull was interesting for the fact that it is about 30 miles away from everything but with excellent parking and picnicking facilities and a $5 entry fee. There were a few trails here but we were tired from our backpacking the previous day and elected to only hike up to the top of the falls (about 170 feet high).

I flew into El Paso, TX on March 7th and after a fairly uneventful flight (there was a woman on my flight I’m quite sure was Rachel from the Real World Austin) Paul and I hit the Albertson’s to get some backpacking grub. Next we hit a sporting goods store for some stove fuel and a camping pillow and we were off into the wilds of west Texas.

Guadalupe Mountains National Park contains Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in the great state of Texas. We struck out on the 4 mile, 2,500 foot climb to the Pine Top campground at around 4pm and made it up just after 6pm. The campsites in Pine Top are great and as soon as we had our tent up the winds started and continued for the duration of our stay at Guadalupe.

The next morning we decided to leave the tent up and take a day hike around the park. We did a nice 10 mile loop through the interior of the park and had lunch on the trail. After our 4+ hour hike, we settled in for a quick nap before packing down the Bear Canyon trail. As we were laying in the tent it started hailing, quite a surprise since it had been sunny all day. We got a few moments later and packed up camp. The 5 mile hike down the Bear Canyon trail was very steep, I would not recommend climbing this trail. We made it down around 5 or 6pm and headed into the town of Carlsbad for the night.

I’m heading out to New Mexico for a week to do some hiking, camping, backpacking, skiing, spelunking, and potentially mountain biking. I’ve only driven through New Mexico a couple times (and each time I have encountered local law enforcement) so I’m stoked to actually get my feet on the ground for a few days. The plan is to hit Guadalupe Mountains NP (actually in Texas), Carlsbad Caverns, Taos or AngelFire, and Albuquerque. I’ll be taking lots of photos and posting all my adventures on various TripleBlaze sites (camping, hiking, and mountain biking) including this blog.

You can also follow along on Paul’s Road Trip Blog. Adios!