Rick & Lori: September 2015

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

September 20, 2015

We arrived at the cabin on Thursday evening and were joined a few hours later by JD and Jill. We rode mountain bikes from Cloudcroft late Friday morning on our usual trails on a bright, sunny mid-September day with temps in the mid-70s while temps in Lubbock hit 100 degrees for the third time this year. We did the singletrack, Switchback Trail and climbed back up the singletrack. Rick climbed back up Old Cloudcroft Highway. It was a beautiful day for riding and the elk were bugling all around us on the singletrack. Jill was at the back and could even hear them grunting. We were starving but split an order of nachos four ways and had a pitcher of beer before heading back to the cabin to shower and get ready for dinner. We rode a few more miles in our neighborhood (bad idea after nachos and beer!). Then Pat and Liza arrived and we headed back to the Western for dinner.

Saturday was overcast and cool. We went to Lumberjack Days at Zenith Park and watched some interesting Lumberjack/jill contests with an interesting crowd consisting of locals, tourists, lumberjack types and LOTS of bikers from the Ruidoso rally. We had an early lunch at the BBQ place to beat the crowds. Rick and I split a brisket plate this time in anticipation of doing some mountain biking. We finally headed out on a similar course to Friday's ride with cool temps and some heavy clouds. At the bottom of the singletrack, radar showed rain moving into the area, so we cut the ride short, climbed back up the singletrack and rode back into town for a short 11 mile ride. We had smoked salmon pasta back at the cabin for dinner and watched a movie.

We decided to hike the Rim Trail on Sunday rather than riding. Pat opted to stay on the deck and read, and Rickey, JD, Jill, Liza and I hiked from parking lot 3 to parking lot 2. It's 4.7 miles long and is the segment I crashed on last month. We found my approximate crash site but elk or something have been through there and I was unable to locate the missing piece of my bar end. The weather was low 60s with heavy clouds and even some fog at times, so the views weren't as good as usual. We ate a light lunch, cleaned the cabin, loaded up and headed back to Lubbock by 3:30pm.

The leaves were already starting to turn in some areas. Hopefully it'll be good weather in a few weeks so we can explore some new roads and trails in the Russia Canyon area which has lots of aspens.

Beautiful Friday afternoon ride in 75 degree temps while Lubbock hit 100 degrees again. Note the aspens in the background are starting to turn.

On the Harkey pedestrian bridge looking up hwy 82 toward Cloudcroft

Perfect September Friday afternoon

My favorite forest road back into town

Top of the single track with aspens in background starting to change color

Cheese enchiladas and moose drool at the Western were back on track!

Lumberjack Days

Chainsaw competitions

That's one BIG boy!

Hiking the Rim Trail on Sunday

Huge root ball on a fallen tree

The rest of the tree

Goofing off on the Rim Trail

View from an overlook on the Rim Trail--couldn't see White Sands due to clouds and some fog

The group

Sunday, September 13, 2015

September 2, 2015

It was another great and extended trip to the mountains. Rick was able to get away on Monday, August 24 to repair the hole in the deck, replace/paint eaves and work on finishing the bathroom remodel. Vince, Amy and I came up on Thursday evening, and Dina & Shane joined us Friday afternoon. The weather continued to be ideal with temps ranging from the low 50s to the 70s with some rain showers mixed in at times. Unfortunately, the pool house burned down on Friday night from a lightning strike!

Vince, Amy and I rode some of the usual trails from Cloudcroft on Friday while Rick worked on finishing up projects. We met Dina & Shane at the BBQ place late afternoon (we were the last customers of the day) for some great brisket. Temps were a little cool that night from some rain showers so we had our first fire of the season.

On Saturday, Rickey, Vince and I finally decided to ride the Rim Trail south of town while Amy & Dina hiked the same trail a little farther down the road, and Shane worked from the cabin. It turned out to be too muddy to ride comfortably and safely, so the ride was fairly short. We shopped some, met at the Western Bar for a light lunch, and picked apples down at High Rolls. We later went to the pizza place for what turned out to be our last pizza of the season as they decided to close earlier this year to work on the ski operation! :(

Amy and Vince headed back on Sunday, but not before another great MTB ride from town and a trip to the Western Bar for some delicious green chile cheeseburgers.

We had the opportunity to get some firewood from our subdivision at a reasonable price without having to drive down to Alamogordo (and Rick's pickup and trailer were both available), so we got a trailer load on Monday morning with Dina and Shane's help and probably now have enough firewood for the winter. We then drove to town, hiked the Osha Trail and had lunch at the BBQ place.

On Tuesday, Rick and I had to come back to Lubbock, so we got up early for a MTB ride in the James Ridge area on our favorite trails. We saw elk in several places and even heard elk bugling on the back, remote areas. It was an earlier and chillier start than usual but was a great last ride for the trip. We had lunch at The Lodge with Dina and Shane before heading back to Lubbock. Dina and Shane stayed one more night before returning to Dallas on Wednesday.