2018 New Mexico Outdoors Calendar

West Rim Trail

The calendar has flipped and the 2018 Event & Outdoors Calendar has now been brought up-to-date (see Tab at page top^). Most of the year's early season events have been pushed back in hopes of snow, we'll see if the storms are late to arrive or pass us by.

The U.S. Indoor Track & Field Championships is back for another go at the Abq Convention Center. Love this event so much. One season-changer finds the fledgling Outside Bike & Brew event here in Santa Fe jumping from May into early September.

Big additions to the calendar or events that have ceased operations? None that come directly to mind. Announcements or listings welcome at highdesertdirt at gmail dot com.


Related Posts:
 - 2018 Outdoors Calendar
 - 2017 Outdoors Calendar
 - 2016 Outdoors Calendar
 - 2015 Outdoors Calendar
 - 2013/2014 Outdoors Calendar

2017 New Mexico Outdoors Calendar

Galisteo Basin

The 2017 Race/Outdoors Calendar has been brought up-to-date (see Tab at top of page ^). The one significant addition for the current year is the return of the U.S. Indoor Track & Field Championships to Albuquerque. U.S. pros had a huge haul of Olympic hardware across several distance events in Rio and will no doubt be gunning for more at this summer's World Champs. U.S. Indoors is the season's first shakeout at the elite level.

Deserving of a highlight - two additions to last year's outdoors calendar that stood out as welcome events to the area race scene were Ultra Santa Fe and the Bull of the Woods Trail Run in Taos. If you couldn't make either event last year you ought to make plans to do so this Fall.

At least one event falls off the calendar, the Ragnar Relays in Angel Fire does not look like it's returning in 2017. An entertaining writeup in Outside published recently comes to mind. I didn't run at Angel Fire either year however the website was on the receiving end of several emails about promoting and volunteering for the event.

Two great events that always come and go before I can get my bearings set for the new year are the Chama Chile Ski Classic and Santa Fe WinterFest (beer!). Fast approaching as I type.

Related Posts:
 - 2017 Outdoors Calendar
 - 2016 Outdoors Calendar
 - 2015 Outdoors Calendar
 - 2013/2014 Outdoors Calendar

When an Awesome Run gets Awesomer

Visiting and running in Boulder this last weekend. Memories from my days as a student are now more than a decade past and my internal map of the area trail system is incoherent. A wonderful side-effect of such haziness is to run unfamiliar trail sections then round a bend or exit a grove of trees to a marvelous and long forgotten viewpoint. Like greeting an old friend - over and over and over again. It's an enlightened experience, especially when you're also running with an old friend.

Our Sunday long run routed up and over and through until we made a quick change in direction and cut to a little known thru-trail in a residential area. At the bottom of the hill, setup right off the footpath, were two guys dolled up in red cocktail dresses and makeup, unloading three coolers of ice and Pabst beer from a truck. It was like the day couldn't have been a more perfect day, than this. Beaming, I laugh and call out through a maniac's grin, 'we've been looking everywhere for you!'

At this, the red-dress guys frown and look confused. They were expecting a group of runners in matching red dresses to come through, but we dropped in from the opposite direction, outfit in regular dirtbag attire plus mud-caked shoes and ankles. Little of this made sense to them at that moment. In contrast and in an apex of irony, their presence made clear and absolute sense to me along with my fading memories of life in Boulder in my 20's. The badassness of hitting an inadvertent beer stop during a long run ranks quite high. To be fair, it's most likely an act of God. I may have even said this out loud, in which one red-dress guy blinked slowly and indifferently in response. Then we remembered there was an incredible amount of beer sitting at our feet and we laughed and laughed. One celebratory PBR and several hi-fives later and we were clipping down the path again, stepping briefly to the side as an impressive fleet of on-coming runners feted in red dresses stormed right on by.

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 - Not Seen on Treadmills - Busch Beer in Taiwan

 - New Belgium Brewery and Their Awesome Beer

 - Drink Beer, Support Local Trails

The Santa Fe Watershed Association's new Arroyo Project

The Santa Fe Watershed Association is partnering with Santa Fe Brewing for the launch of SFBrewing's new Hefeweizen River Brew. The beer label will incorporate the SFWA's logo design (at left), and if this launch is similar to last year's partnership with the Santa Fe Conservation Trust, something like $.25 from each pint or can will go toward support of SFWA and their mission. Aside from rehabilitating the Santa Fe River (which is slowly rising back to life) SFWA's newest project is to begin restoration and cleanup work on some of our major arroyos. A fundraising goal of $10,000 has been set for the work they're planning which ties-in to the new marketing campaign for River Brew.

As it happens, I spend a fair amount of my time hanging out in arroyos as well as wedging in a minute here and there to admire the occasional pint of beer. The Desert Babe doesn't find either of these interests to be much of a coincidence. Point being, this project and fundraising effort is a stroke of unholy genius which includes a Beer/Project launch party on June 10th. It's as if they sat around brainstorming how to come up with raddest invite list to their summer party, and someone was like: What if we invite mostly just the cool people rockin' out the arroyos, and those hiking and biking the drainages and creeks, and those that love snow and the rain, and maybe maintain other trails in their spare time, and really like beer? NAAAILED IT.

Incredible Santa Fe arroyo map

This guest list self-selects of course. So head over to the fundraising page to get your ticket to the event, or a shirt, or a hat, or a package with all the stuff. If you're too lazy to do this then make a point to show up at Del Charro on June 10th for the party and bring your checkbook. Too lazy to remember any of this or too poor to part with $10-$20?, then show up to lend a hand with the arroyo work when that begins. For added incentive I'm going, and I've got two extra tickets for the event (which includes a pint glass) that I'll give away via random drawing to folks who will share, post, tweet or re-tweet the current fundraising effort. Add your name in the comments below that you shared and want to be included in the drawing. Add something witty or complimentary to bend the odds in your favor. You can also send an email if you're internet averse but an anonymous comment is strongly suggested. Something about how beer is delicious or a quip about your favorite arroyo is fine.

And with that, time for a run.

Related Posts:

 - Drink Beer - Support Local Trails

 - Santa Fe's Arroyo Systems

 - Charitable Giving to Area Outdoor Organizations

 - Craft Beer in New Mexico

2015 New Mexico Trail Running Calendar

I spent some time bringing the Race/Outdoors Calendar up-to-date (see Tab above). One addition for the year is the new trail relay in Angel Fire, a Ragnar type event. I can't figure out the distances involved or even how you win this event, but I imagine it will be a nice addition to the area race scene.

The week/weekend I'm most fired-up for is in May. Santa Fe Bike & Brew is coming back for an expanded 2nd year. More of a beginning of summer festival than a race, but it's bike-centric, there is an element of good beer (in fact, it's my understanding that this entire event was the brain-child of Chris Goblet of the NM Brewers Guild), and the timing coincides with the Santa Fe Run Around on Sat (May 16th), and the Santa Fe Century on Sun (May 17th). Big week. Biiiiggg fuuuuun outdoorsy week.

As it happens, I was absent for Bike & Brew last year due to travel, but one new event I made was XTERRA Glorieta which was first-rate. Really hoping the organizers bring that one back for a second go.

Two great events that always come and go before I can get my bearings set for the new year are the Chama Chile Ski Classic and Santa Fe WinterFest (beer fest). Fast approaching as I type. Need to get on it.


Related Posts:
 - 2015 Outdoors Calendar
 - Calendar update 2013

Drink Beer - Support Local Trails

Awesome squared

Stopped off at 2nd Street Brewery last night. They're canning some of their beer now which is a terrific addition. They're also featuring a special batch of brew with the handle, Boneshaker Bitter, which is being marketed in tandem with the 20th anniversary of the Santa Fe Conservation Trust. $.25 from each pint or can will go toward support of the SFCT and their mission to preserve land, build and maintain some of our largest rec trails on said land, and advocate for starry nights.

It's fitting that the two organizations are working together. Both 2nd Street Brewery locations sit along the Rail Trail, and though they're located on the city maintained sections, the Trail as it extends south of town toward Eldorado was one of the first efforts of the fledgling Conservation Trust back in 1994 (along with the build-out of the Dale Ball Trails). 2nd Street's campaign aims to raise at least $5,000 in funds for the Trust, in addition to providing a marketing platform for greater public support of their programs.

The Trust currently does more for area biking/hiking/running trails than any other organization in Santa Fe. Through their trail maintenance arm, the Santa Fe Trails Alliance, they organize and manage regular volunteer trail maintenance days on lands they hold in trust (Dale Ball, Arroyo Hondo) and those they don't (La Tierra, Winsor, Atalaya). A large pool of their volunteers is comprised of the good folks from the Santa Fe Fat Tire Society who - very appropriately - appreciate a well made beer from time to time.

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 - The Santa Fe Rail Trail Re-Imagined
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View Santa Fe Rail Trail - Santa Fe, NM in a larger map

Santa Fe Winter Brew and All Things Beer

This Friday is the 3rd Annual Santa Fe Winter Brew sponsored by the New Mexico Brewers' Guild. Good times, tasty beverages, a helluva lot more fun than your regular happy hour. In fact they sold clear out of tickets on Tuesday. In honor of Winter Brew I thought I'd pen some beer related write-ups this week. Here goes:

Duel Brewing became the newest Santa Fe craft brewer when they opened shop on Rufina St. this last summer. The place specializes in Belgian brews and serves waffles, so it's an awesome addition to the current options in town. If you haven't been out there you'll find they did a more than admirable job building out a warehouse space on Rufina. A recent report in the New Mexican notes that they're already tripling their space under lease to increase production demands.

Duel Brewing

This same New Mexican report states that Santa Fe Brewing Co. continues to grow apace under owner Brian Lock. Now solidly a regional brand, the company just purchased an extra 3 acres of property adjacent to their facilities off NM 14 in an effort to continue expansion. They hope to eventually ramp up their production from 30,000 barrels (already the state's largest by volume) to as much as 200,000 barrels in a few years.

Lastly, Embudo's own Blue Heron Brewery, long a staple on the drive up the Rio Grande Gorge to Taos, has presented plans for a second location on the west side of the river in Espanola, in a now defunct restaurant space near the Espanola Plaza. If approved and finalized they'll be the first brewpub in the Espanola valley, and an extra rest/food option on the road between Santa Fe and Bode's up in Abiquiu.

All of the above brewers will be sampling their wares this Friday at the Farmers' Market Pavilion. Consider that I'm in need of an extra ticket to Winter Brew if you happen to 'know a guy'. Email is at the top of page.


Related Posts:
 - Craft Beer in New Mexico
 - Santa Fe Winter Brew (2012)
 - New Belgium Brewery and their Awesome Beer



View New Mexico Craft Beer in a larger map

Come Hell or High Water - Monsoon Season

Hail piled a foot high at the office

August is here and July is past. It will be remembered as a month that brought weather that was juuust a bit north of the cray-cray. I will recreate some of it here.

It begins with severe drought conditions and a near statewide closure of the National Forests, then swiftly proceeds to be one of the wettest months in years. Then armageddon paid a visit to Casa Dirt around mid-month, bringing 1.25+ inches of rain cascading down in a twenty minute period. Along with the downpour came a hard driving blast of blueberry-sized hail which shredded all plant life. Hail cover accumulated on the ground like super-mean-spirited-hostile-snow before the rains melted it down and washed it away. Unexpected would be a fine way to describe it.

End result:  Rain barrels filled-over with water sitting mere feet away from a garden now torn asunder. A whole fence line of grape vines (and grapes), no mas. An entire plot of happy green chile plants reduced to stems with roots. Now if that ain't a step-back kick in the junk. I didn't cry, but it did get me thinking about how other men sometimes sob and cry and carry-on and that all sunk my spirits some. Then I remembered that there was some cold IPA in the fridge and that was that and now here's August.

Front porch geranium took one for the team. Sorry bro.

The St Francis underpass did not fair well. Took a day to
drain and dry then a crew from the City came in and swept it clean.

High water mark from the tunnel flood reached just above the crossbar of my bike. That's no joke. 

And some downstream video of the biblical event:

The Arroyo Chamisos in flood mode - near Camino Carlos Rey

Cray-cray

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  - Arroyo Chamiso Bike Underpass Nears Completion
  - More to Dirt than just Trails and Adventure




View Gail Ryba Trail - Santa Fe, NM in a larger map

Craft Beer in New Mexico

This evening is the first annual Santa Fe Summer Brew at the Railyard Plaza. Sort of a follow-up on several successful area beer-garden events in the last few years presented by the New Mexico Brewers Guild (see: 2011's WinterBrew). Herman and I, and a few of our other traildog buddies plan to be there lingering about, sampling the merchandise as it were.

In a very timely article, New Yorker Magazine has compiled and published some interesting figures just this week about the meteoric growth of the craft beer industry over the last few years. There are currently 2,360 breweries (not including brew-pubs) in the U.S., up from just 79 in the 1980's. In a very cool interactive graph the magazine pulled together you can see that New Mexico is the home to 27 small brewer/bottlers, more than half of which will be at tonight's Summer Brew event. This collection of craft brewers ranks NM 26/50 states, and together they produced 48,000 barrels of hops flavored go-juice last year which ranks us 31/50 states. New Mexico's craft brewery to population ratio is even more impressive, 6.6 per 500,000 residents - which slots us 12th out of the 50 states.

Other interesting facts: The largest craft brewers by production are Sam Adams (Boston, MA), Sierra Nevada (Chico, CA), and New Belgium (Fort Collins, CO). A list of the 50 largest breweries by volume can be browsed in the click-through graphic.

Cool inter-active craft brewery figures by state. Disregard the unintentional focus on the state of Texas.

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  - Santa Fe WinterBrew
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View New Mexico Craft Beer in a larger map

New Belgium Brewery and Their Awesome Beer

Alright, I'm sitting at home the other evening drinking a cold frosty beer. Three separate friends brought it to my attention earlier in the day that it's the anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition. It's Repeal Day! I'm pretty ok with that. What kind of nonsense feeds into prohibiting beer anyhow? It's both delicious and refreshing. There are clearly better things to go about stamping out of American culture.

OK, but here's the real story I'm getting around to here - the frosty beer I was drinking was a New Belgium Snow Day. A marvelous beverage. A bicycle on every beer cap, what more can you say. So several weeks before this I was - in a very similar manner as before - drinking a New Belgium beer thinking the exact same thing, and I thought to myself 'is there a way to invest in New Belgium, Inc.? Because these guys are sitting on a damned gold mine'! The answer to my question it seems is no, at least not in the publicly traded markets. Samuel Adams, yes. New Belgium, no.

But in my research I discover that New Belgium is so popular right now that they cannot make and ship their product fast enough to meet demand! They've actually had to reduce distribution of late to meet demand in their core markets in and around Colorado. That's a fantastic problem for a business to have. Their solution - which has been in the works for some time now apparently - is to add production. Specifically, build a new commercial sized brewery on the east coast. They put together plans for a new $175m LEED-certified facility and narrowed down their choice to bids from the cities of Philadelphia and Asheville, NC, and went with Asheville on account of the little town being a lot like the little town of Fort Collins, CO, the beer capital of the largest craft beer state in the country.

Asheville already had ten craft breweries before this announcement. Since the announcement it has landed the new east coast commercial expansion of Sierra Nevada. It also has a boat load of trails to go out and hammer on to work up a thirst for malt and hops. To sum up this little anecdote on beer I want to make it known that Asheville, NC - of all places - is now firmly on my list of places I have to visit, as it should be for any adventurous soul who likes to get out on the trails and recover later with a cold beverage and then tell cool stories. Simple pleasures my friends. The secret to life.

P.S. When I'm not drinking New Belgium I'm drinking local. Support your local breweries.

Not Seen on Treadmills

My man Komarnitsky was in Taiwan recently and snapped this sweet image of the Busch beer stock at the local market. Apparently the secrets of Busch as an athletic performance enhancer are not entirely unknown even in the Far East. Nice get Komar.

Cold Taiwanese-sourced Busca

Busch was a widely used recovery beverage in Boulder, CO back in the day, or any place really that the old Boulder Hardman Adventure Club used to map out impossibly unrealistic endurance challenges and assorted suffer-bunny epics. Busch was prized among other recovery options due to its unique combination of favored properties:

1. It is cold and delicious
2. It has a colossal glaciated peak on the label that is an instant conversation starter regarding how it should be reconnoitered and climbed
3. It is more-likely-than-not fortified with loads of anti-oxidants and trace minerals
4. It is inexpensive

Busca for the win.

Santa Fe WinterBrew

Last night was the first annual Santa Fe WinterBrew, a craft beer festival featuring breweries from around the state in conjunction with the second annual Santa Fe Winter Fiesta. It’s a crying shame that I forgot the camera because this thing was freaking awesome.

Sid and I arrived at 630pm and stood in line for a half hour to get in, by then the commemorative pint glasses were long gone. I was told they had 570 glasses on hand and something like 1500 people showed up over the course of the evening. This was at the Farmer’s Market Pavilion, the place was past capacity at 630pm to allow anyone else in. Holy shitballs! Along with the breweries and beer we naturally saw a ton of people – Tom and Sheila, Palmer and Lanell, Scott Hussion and Tommy Olsen from the ‘hood, Kennedy and his new family, and Herman who was walking the queue outside handing out discount passes. I think just about everyone in town under the age of 40 had to have been there. I’d never seen anything like it. 

Packed the house - Santa Fe Farmer's Market Pavilion

Some recognition for our namesake High Desert Brewing out of Las Cruces who brew a fine Anniversary Ale IPA

Waiting to get in, Sid and I were sincerely concerned that the beer would run dry since the place was such a zoo. Thankfully it did not. We bought ourselves some pint glasses at the Blue Heron Brewing table and proceeded to sample just about all the stouts and porters brewed in the state of New Mexico. Most were outstanding. Chama River Brewing was exceptional. I tried a couple of Black IPAs - something I’d never heard of or even seen before - from the Santa Fe Brewing Co. and Tractor Brewing Co. out of Los Lunas. These were far and away the winning beers from where I was standing. Tom Anderson insisted that the Turtle Mountain Brewing IPA had no equal. I respect Tom but he was clearly misinformed. 

This event, without question needs to be repeated next year. And they need to double the size of the venue to fit everyone inside. Beer plus snow is an unstoppable combination, the lack of photos does not do it justice. Apparently there was an after-party at Second Street Railyard that must have been fun (and rowdy) as all hell. Sad to have missed it.

An Early Start to the Ski Season - Wolf Creek

The wife at the ski lodge

So, a lot of running and racing in my circles of late. It did not escape my attention however that Wolf Creek spent most of October being blasted with snow, and has been open and operating for a month now. Capping off a rather full week for myself, we loaded the car and headed up to Pagosa early Saturday for some turns and a happy visit with the Colorado winter.

We saw several other cars and trucks with ski-racks making the morning drive up from NM. The gas station in Chama was packed at 7:30am. Quite a sight. Conditions at the Creek were terrific, and we skied a full day on the mountain and an hour on the nordic trails afterward. The Alberta Lake nordic trails at the east end of the Wolf Creek parking might be the best cross country skiing in the area in my opinion, along with Enchanted Forest in Red River.

Aside from having all the snow, the Creek has all kinds of other nice things that Ski Santa Fe doesn't, such as affordable lift tickets and locals days, beer at the cafeteria including bombers of all kinds from Colorado's great local breweries, and actual green chile on their green chile burgers. The latter is really in-excusable not to have in New Mexico. Here's to more mountain snow (and holiday cheer) for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.

Two things you could never find at Ski Santa Fe, PB&J and a bomber from the Alamosa Brewing Co.

 

Fresh snow and open turns, with the Alberta Meadows below

My mighty Rossignols ride again, along with a new pair of duct-tape free ski pants

Christina skiing the Alberta trails, Alberta lake to the left, Alberta Peak in the distance

Christina and a stretch of climbing up from Alberta Lake

Related Post:
Nordic Skiing - Alberta Lake Trail (4/611)



View Alberta Lake Nordic Trails - Pagosa Springs, CO in a larger map

Things Not Seen on Treadmills

Climbing a hill on the bike, I actually stopped and turned around to document this for posterity. And hilarity. Close friends those two.

Seen in Las Campanas (Sep 2011)

Muralistas and the Taos Gorge

Alright, I'm busy and was going to flake on a Friday post but I was goaded into it by one of my many readers.

Glance to your left there and you will see an image of the badass mural on Guadalupe St. I really enjoy Mexican-influenced Chicano-style murals, I wish I knew who the artist was. This mural is a particular favorite of mine with the Taos Gorge and the southern Colorado peaks on the right of the timeline. It says to me, 'where have you been, don't you want to come play?'. Conversely it tells me, 'it's alright if you're busy, we'll be here for another 100,000 years, there will be time'. I hope they never paint over this mural.

A few observations and notes for the weekend:

• Great issue of The Mountain Gazette out recently with a big snowy dog on the cover. It's the dog issue naturally. Lots of funny dog photos and dog inspired outdoors writing. There's also a giant photo advertisement for Shred White & Blue featuring the smiling couple of Justin Nyberg and Leah Gallant. Caught me off guard while I was flipping pages - wait, I know those people!..

• Sipapu is hosting the Black Diamond annual Telefest telemark Festival tomorrow and Sunday (Mar 12/13). There will be demos, clinics, tours, a race (with prizes including new skis), and a film screening. All events are free. The event coincides with spring break (spring what?) and the first annual Micro Brew Ski Week, specials, tastings, and giveaways all week. Telefest sounds cool if we had more snow, but micro-brew week might even that out some.

• Jacob over at the Santa Fe Trail Runner has a terrific post up this week not about which beers aid best in recovery, but rather about incorporating a pub crawl of area breweries into his trail marathon training. He bookends his weekend pub crawl with a long run to get used to training on tired legs and exhaustion. This marvel of a post includes illustrative photos and a listing of recommended beer selections as well as which ones to avoid. What a guy. Cheers to sacrificing the body for endurance training research. This would be a shoe-in for the running post of the week, but we'll have to go with this one which includes a photo of his new daughter Viola Ashley. Congrats man.

• And lastly, a video sent to me of the Cross Country Skiing World Championships in Norway this last week. The race is the men's sprint relay. First thing to notice, these guys are motoring at a comical speed. I was shocked at how fast these guys are moving, and in comparison how pathetically slow I am. Second thing to notice, there are tens of thousands of spectators howling at these racers from the sidelines. Why do they even bother holding the winter Olympic Games outside of northern Europe? That is their home. Are they too good for their home? The only guy I know in the race is Norway's anchor Petter Northug, the best skier on the planet and the guy that's going to deliver for the Norwegians. The Canucks apparently see things differently and ice these guys (and the Finns, and the Swedes, and the Ruskies) in front of a stunned home crowd. North America ftmfw. Incredible finish.

Be awesome this weekend.

Brilliance in Everyday Places

Madonna del Arroyo Chamiso

An image of unexpected brilliance that I happened across in the arroyo not long ago. The photo was taken from an overhead pedestrian bridge so the actual Madonna and Child were about 25ft high. Inspirational urban sand artist, now that's what I'm talking about. Don't know if it's the same creative mind who put up hidden poetry on the railroad rails south of town, but their genius is to be commended either way.

Tax season has gotten a hold of me so it's getting a bit more difficult to chronicle any trail sojourns this week. The weekend is also looking a bit cramped but I expect to get in a decent ride with the October weather we're having.

Being that it's now March, race season is fast approaching meaning that it's time to crank it up a bit. Both the La Tierra Torture and the Atomic Man duathlons are scheduled for the end of next month, along with the Boston Marathon. Ran that sucker last year and have been meaning to write up a race report before this year's running so hopefully I'll get on that one of these days, just not today.

A few observations and notes for the weekend:

• Rob Watson over at le Blog du Rob put together the running post of the week even though it's several months old.  He explains his moderately successful yet agonizing 'fast-to-the-front-then-fade' racing strategy. The money quote:  "Conservative and smart running? get that shit outta my face, I do one thing and one thing only. I get to the front...and I fade."  Everything Rob writes is funny as hell but this one may be his best. His posts are even funnier in the context that he's a Canadian elite who ran the steeple in Berlin and recently 'faded' to a 2hr16m debut marathon.
• In shades of the recent Boston Marathon registration stampede, registration for May's Jemez Mountain Trail Runs (50mi/50K/13.1mi) have all filled in record time and are now closed. Race organizers are still looking for volunteers if that kind of thing floats your boat.
• The Atomic Man Duathlon (May 1st), is offering $10 off early registration through March 15th. With all the non-running I've been doing this winter I'm thinking this race may be my 2011 season opener.
• Sangre de Cristo Mountain Works is currently having an end of year ski sale. Lots of great deals on big fat happy boards (30% off).

• SDC Mountain Works has also announced that the upcoming Banff Film Festival screening has been expanded to two nights this year, March 22nd and 23rd. Each night will have a separate selection of films from this year's Banff award winners.
• Lastly, March is Irish beer month at the Second St Brewery. A good Irish stout will give you strength - I don't care what my wine-drinking friends may say.  They're a bunch of pikers anyway and shouldn't be trusted.

Moonlight Skiing the Valles Caldera - Rescheduled

The Valles with better conditions and clearer skies

Tried to take advantage of the full moon this weekend with some moonlight skiing in the Valles Caldera. Ran into a couple unforseen problems - 1) The moon was obscured by clouds until after 9pm, 2) There was little skiable snow after a week of 60degree temps, 3) There was a howling wind storm. We did note a Nordic trailhead just east of the Valles on Highway 4 for future outings (conditional on a few winter storms). Christina and I bailed on the skiing/hiking and ended up at the Canyon Bar, notable because it's the first bar of any kind I've found in Los Alamos after a month of active searching. This place was awesome, a dive bar in the truest sense albeit with Sierra Nevada, Fat Tire, and Deschutes on tap.  Maybe not the place to grab a bite to eat though. After a beer we went down the road to the Los Alamos Sonic (possibly the best place to eat in L.A. aside from El Parasol), a must-stop for their hot fudge sundaes and onion rings.

Other notes from the weekend -

• I got out for my first run of the year on Saturday. Herman and I ran six miles out-and-back on the Spur Trail. The weather was great, there was some severe head-winds on a couple small stretches to test our strength. The legs feel sore in a way that swimming and biking can't replicate. It was very nice to be back out on the running trails although there was a bit of anxiety. Hopefully the body will cooperate and respond well.
• The Mt. Taylor Quadrathlon was held Saturday out in Grants. Colorado athletes stole the show with a 1-2-3 finish in the Men's solo division (3hr 33min won the overall), and 1-2 in the women's solo. Tamsen Schurman of El Prado held the last podium spot for New Mexico with a 4hr 55min finish good for third place.
• The US Indoor Track & Field Championships is being held in Albuquerque this coming weekend, not that you'd know that from any marketing or advertising or pretty much anything. I plan to be there at least for Sunday's events.
• I've been rocking to The Mighty Mighty Bosstones this week, but their videos suck badly. So I'll leave you with The Selecter who also knock out some high cadence tunes. These guys help me get my attitude straight if I find myself procrastinating before a workout. Rock more, procrastinate less.

Cycling Dale Ball Trail by Starlight

Start and Finish

I took advantage of the mild winter weather to see if Dale Ball is free of snow and ice. With the exception of some tight north-facing sections it was. I also used the opportunity to see if my bike repairs would hold together - they did.

I look forward to getting out on runs/rides like this with the moon overhead. My timing was off by about a week, so I rode by starlight rather than moonlight. It was very clear out, and for that reason seemed as though it should have been much colder. It was cold enough that the sandy sections were firm and ridable and my feet froze up a bit, but very mild for near-February weather.

Cerro Gordo Rd.

Dale Ball West

Trail Junction

 
Used my NiteRider bike lamp which worked phenomenally. I'd stop for short breaks at trail junctions or under lamp posts to listen to the night and snap a quick photo. It was mostly silent with the occasional distant dog barking and making a fuss over the unusual sound of my bike cranking through the evening. There was almost no snow and ice until I turned onto the far west switch-backs of Dale Ball that drop down to Hyde Park Rd. Even that hardpack and ice covering was tracked with dirt, so cornering was the only maneuver that required extra caution.

Descending the switchbacks

Vestiges of winter

Not surprisingly, I didn't see anyone out. I actually didn't see or pass any cars either until my return down Canyon Rd. My loop was more or less a big Dale Ball Loop starting and finishing at Second St Brewery Railyard, where I had planned to meet Christina and a group of friends afterward for food and beer. Recovered with a Bristish Mild, mmmmm. Eh, there may have been two British Milds. Life is short.

The ride was approx. 70min, over 10mi.

Nuart - on Canyon Rd.

The Upper Crust still in Christmas lighting

Santa Fe Southern locomotive in the Railyard

The Rail Trail in lights

Refreshment and vital nutrients

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Colorado Hut-to-Hut, Neff Mountain

Touring gear, polka dot skins, and neck high snow pack

We were invited by friends on a backcountry hut trip for New Years.  The hut, or yurt in this case, was just north of Chama and Cumbres Pass in southern Colorado.  For years I'd wanted to check out the 10th Mountain Division Huts in Colorado, but I was unaware of a hut system in New Mexico.  Aside from the area where we spent New Years which is more or less the Chama area, the same outfit - the Southwest Nordic Center - has a system laid out in Taos and apparently Red River has built a few out their way as well.  So there you go.

The crew in queue, Tyson in rear guard

Strapped with six-packs of roman candles. And my Rossignols.

Was there anything not to be psyched about on a trip like this?  We drove up in a snowstorm that slowed us down a lot. We found the parking pullout just north of the pass, but initially had some route-finding problems because the snow was stacked so high on the road sides.  Foreshadowing perhaps.  Finally on the correct trail, we had figured an hour and a half for the 2.75mi hike in.  What we hadn't figured on was mechanicals with some of the gear, having to break trail through thigh deep powder in some places, and that our approach would stretch into darkness, semi white-out conditions, and below zero temperatures (-13F in Chama that evening).  There was a delicate period just near the end of what turned out to be a 3.5hr hike where the trip unnervingly began to exhibit all the hallmarks of an epic.  An epic in outdoors parlance meaning 'really bad evening'.

As night falls on our blind winter approach, smiles still abound

Our crew had a lot going for it though: We had at least three hand held GPS systems with the coordinates of our hut, we had hand and footwarmer packets bought impulsively at SDC Mountain Works earlier that morning (a brilliant stroke of luck), and we had a strong team with at least three Search and Rescue volunteers, a couple marathoners (what up!), an upstate New Yorker, and a mauy thai boxer/kettle bell enthusiast.  At the time that conditions began looking a bit grim, our trail breakers belatedly made the decision to dump the 40lb packs and b-line this thing to the hut.  The strategy cut a lot of time, and the GPS handhelds lead us right to the front door of our yurt.  In the end, the trip did unfold into an epic, except the epic included champagne, hot chocolate and brandy, home cooked meals with elk sausage and bacon, an Espanola-roadside-stand fireworks artillery show, and powder so freaking deep that Justin and John were launching half-gainers off the wood pile.

Justin firing up some fine New Year eats

Amy and John with dinner, champagne hoard, and warmth.
Note the ice on the bottles, they were frozen.

New Years!  John sets the night afire.

Shooting stars

There was much telling of tall stories, including the one that had just occurred, and much drinking of spirits.  The stars came out and it was lovely.  We made our own stars with roman candles and sparklers.  The next morning was even lovelier.

Casa Mt. Neff

Bluebird, boards, and miles of white stuff 

Winter above the Chama Valley

Leah touring the bright new trails

Tyson during our snow shear test

We trekked around camp, but found the snow to be unstable for any downhilling.  In fact we saw that it was unstable for sitting on hill tops.

I actually saw this guy slide.  Most likely wind-loaded.

I got out on my cross-skis later, backtracking the trail we'd come up the night before.  Took me less than 15min to backtrack what had taken us 75min to get through with packs and post-holing.  Better views the second time as well.

The second night was grand but we'd run through all our fireworks.  Food, brandy, and the telling of stories were still in abundance.  We packed it out on Sun. morning to greet the new year back home in Santa Fe. 

Yours truly bustin' trail

Christina and snow-bowed pine stands

I ought to mention our stop for lunch in Chama at the High Country Saloon.  Fun place, decent food, and a bar stocked with just about every local microbrew available.  On tap were Marble, SF Pale Ale, Alien Amber, Ska Blonde, and bottles of Monk's Ale visible in the cooler.

If you haven't made a trip to Chama lately, or planned a hut-to-hut trip you ought to, because it is awesome as hell.  Be safe, know your route, and get to where you're going in the daylight.

  Related Post:
   - New Years 2011-12: Bull of the Woods Yurt - Taos, NM



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