Ridin' Gallup

Sorry for the delayed post...we've been busy ridin'!!!!!!

Soooo yesterday, we got up and wasted some time to allow the temps to go up a little before we rode. We headed out to the Hgh Desert Trail system north of Gallup. It basically parallels the northern side of I40. We parked @ the west trailhead (Mentmore) to begin our ride. This trail system is a series of 3 connecting loops over 3 different mesas w/ one side close to the interstate. I chose for us to ride the Dawn 'til Dusk race course. Of course, I chose the most difficult route possible!!! We ended up riding about 22-24 miles in about 3 hours including the photo shoot. This trail system lived up to the hype featured in BIKE mag about a year ago...It far exceeded our expectations!

Hope the rock doesn't fall on her head!!!
Jen cruisin' the tech descent on Mesa 3

Jen found some little friends

Now off for ride #2 of the day. I had emailed Bill, the President of Gallup trails 2010, to try and ride together @ the Quaking Aspen trail. This time we could just sit in and ride...no stoppin and tryin to figure out where in the heck we are? Bill invited us up to his cabin in the NF to eat, drink, and ride. He had a really cool, rustic cabin right on the edge of the trails!!!! Our ride was set for 16 miles w/ Bill and his life partner, Albert and his wife who own High Mesa bikes, and another guy. We set out on the loop @ pretty moderate pace. Jen and I had skipped lunch as to make our scheduled meet time @ Bills cabin; Sooooomid-ride I was feelin it. The camelbaks were runnin low on H2O and no food was found in them. The group got split w/ Jen and I amongst the fast kids???? We descended the Quaking Aspen trail we'd climbed the day before and MAN WHAT A BLAST!!!! Once @ the rode Albert said it was only a couple of miles to the car...We made it. This poor fat kid was whipped. I had nothing left in the tank.

Instead of following our original plan, we opted to crash in Gallup for the night and killed some GOOD 'OLE Cracker Barrel!!!!

After all was said and done; our ride total for day #2 was right around 42-43 miles for the day while riding @ about 8000' avg elevation. Can u say Acclimate?!? We can't...