Shared: An article by Henry Shukman about bicycling and the beauty of Santa Fe's new city trail system, published in this weekend's travel section of the New York Times. I don't know Mr. Shukman, but I'm guessing we've criss-crossed each other around town and exchanged passing nods on several occasions. I'm almost thinking that's Cat Downing in the lead photo with the Slurp Airstream Trailer. Park the Pickup: Santa Fe by Bicycle (NYT, Oct 2012)
"...Every day I ride three miles to my office. These days there’s an autumn
crispness in the air, and an almost detectable scent of frost. Along the
way I pass under cottonwood trees, between adobe compounds and past the
Capitol building before the morning rush has filled its parking lots,
then follow the train tracks for a while along a dedicated bike trail,
before reaching the rusty loft where I work. It hardly ever rains, and I
have learned to love my bike..."
Busy fall. So busy it seems there's only time enough to operate as a Man of Action, and less so as a Man of Letters. But some activities are so first rate little description is required - an image gets the job done with aplomb. And so I present a summer's worth of toil in my garden, the first summer where the rewards outnumber the disappointments.
GREEN CHILE AND BEETS, SONS!! Wassup now!?
Spinach too but not pictured! I'm like the gardening equivalent of Hannibal from the A-Team but without the badass speeding black van. Life is good at Casa Dirt.
If you happened to wander downtown Santa Fe yesterday you probably noticed it had been half-overrun with mountain bikers and serious top-of-the-line bikes (there were also bus loads of Balloon Fiesta visitors which is nice to see but not remotely as interesting as the bikes. Bikes!). Yep, the IMBA World Summit is here and will be anchored at the SF Convention Center through Saturday discussing bike advocacy, trails and trail building, marketing and branding strategies, and naturally getting out for some riding on our local trails followed by green chile and refreshments at the local establishments.
New trail maps at La Tierra
This is huge for Santa Fe and it's the impetus for the city and county accelerating the time table on the La Tierra master plan and rushing work to install maps and building out proper trailheads at the site (heavy machinery was still at the site on Sunday). A lot of the ground work for this was done by members and volunteers of the Santa Fe Fat Tire Society and the Santa Fe Trail Alliance (the volunteer arm of the Santa Fe Conservation Trust) and their partner sponsor REI Santa Fe (general manager Bob Ward is a huge trail advocate and bikeaphile). Literally thousands of volunteer hours have gone into our trail systems this summer, and if you're a frequent visitor it's impossible not to notice.
A couple of World Summit events open to the public include a scooter criterium on the Plaza this Friday (7pm), followed by a screening of Where the Trail Ends - Red Bull's new mountain bike feature - at the Santa Fe Convention Center ($10 admission). This afternoon, Thurs. 10/11, Red Bull athlete Darren Barrecloth and a few of his bros will be out at the La Tierra Jump Park beginning at 5pm. I don't know much about Darren but do know that he rode in Red Bull Rampage this year which is the equivalent of surfing Mavericks, skiing Valdez Alaska, or climbing alpine big walls. Only dudes with spooky levels of technical skill admitted.
