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.
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| Beautiful Friday afternoon ride in 75 degree temps while Lubbock hit 100 degrees again. Note the aspens in the background are starting to turn. |
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| On the Harkey pedestrian bridge looking up hwy 82 toward Cloudcroft |
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| Perfect September Friday afternoon |
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| My favorite forest road back into town |
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| Top of the single track with aspens in background starting to change color |
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| Cheese enchiladas and moose drool at the Western were back on track! |
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| Lumberjack Days |
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| Chainsaw competitions |
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| That's one BIG boy! |
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| Hiking the Rim Trail on Sunday |
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| Huge root ball on a fallen tree |
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| The rest of the tree |
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| Goofing off on the Rim Trail |
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| View from an overlook on the Rim Trail--couldn't see White Sands due to clouds and some fog |
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| The group |
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