As I was driving through town, I started to get freaked out by the nasty smog cloud blowing over from Juarez! But luckily as I headed north out of the city and climbed up to the foot of the Franklin Mountains, the air cleared. I parked at the Tom Mays Unit of Franklin Mountains State Park. The winter air was in the mid 60s, a perfect temperature for mountain biking in the Chihuahuan Desert. I don’t even want to think about what it’s like to ride here in the summer! There is not a speck of shade anywhere to be found.

The trails are rocky and technical. There is only one steep long climb, but the ride is constantly up and down the whole way. There aren’t too many places to get going very fast before a corner or a gully or a pile of rocks causes you to trim your speed. Overall, it is a fun ride. I road the loop all the way out and back, and it was a solid three hours or so, not that I was really keeping track of the time.

I continued my trend of finding random treasures along the trail. Today I happened to notice two pills on the trail. I ate them, but I didn’t really feel any effects. I did get lonely on these trails after a while. Luckily my spirit animal came and kept me company for the middle portion of the ride. Who would have thought that the rare albino desert platypus was my spirit animal? I was really impressed in his technical riding abilities.

The main thing that I was struck by was the fact that every bit of plant matter (other than the grass) was covered in thorns and prepared to shred my skin to bits. It has been three weeks since the ride, and the scabs from all the scratched on my legs are finally gone. The desert seems to have the desire to take the trails back, and there is growth encroaching on the trails. Crashing is not an option. I pity the person who tries to learn how to mountain bike here, because the trails are definitely hard enough to knock down an intermediate rider! It is for sure true rugged western mountain bike riding.

Every time I see this trashed car on the Picture Rock Trail I think that I want to do a photo shoot there. It’s just not really all that accessible other than by bicycle. My Bianchi Rita has so many portraits done of it that I’m going to have to give it it’s own Facebook page.

After the ride we Ned-itated in the woods and drank some post-ride refreshments and played with my new 85mm PC Tilt Shift lens.  Don’t even think about stealing Bobby’s beer.  He’ll give you the stink eye.

.: Nikon D700, Nikon 35mm f/2.0D @ 1/8000, f/5.0, 400ISO :.

Last weekend Ryan and I headed out on a mountain biking road trip. It had been WAY too long since my last one, I think it was the 2006 Colorado Springs trip. We decided to check out Durango, since neither of us really knows anyone who has ridden in the area. Durango was at one time the epicenter of the new sport of mountain biking, and we were sure to find some great riding there. The other attraction is that the lower climate should allow us some riding in the early season when there is still snow in the hills of the high country.

I could have taken tons of pictures. But I didn’t. I needed some decompression time ahead of the busy summer season ahead. So I took some picutres, but not too many. For the most part we ate, slept, and rode. We did 5 rides in 4 days with 2 full days of driving.

Our first ride was actually in the Denver area on the way out of town. We rode Lair of the Bear which is between Morrison and Evergreen. It was a really buff singletrack, somewhat similar to Betasso. Its only about a 10 mile out and back ride if you ride it by itself like we did. Apparently it’s easy to link up with Mt. Falcon, which we rode on the way back from the CO Springs Trip. Funny how that works. The best part of the Bear was the top section which was FAST FAST FAST with some good waterbar jumps.

.: Nikon D700, Nikon 35mm f/2.0D @ 1/320, f/14, 500ISO :.

So after a quick ride we were off to Durango via the scenic route down 285. We almost made it to Durango before dark, when we came across a nice empty campground about 40 miles east of Durango in the hills. So we set up camp and parked it for the night. Check back tomorrow for Ride 1 in Durango!

.: Nikon D700, Nikon 45mm f/2.8 PC-E @ 1/4000, f/5.0, 500ISO :.