End of the Line

 Small check-off on the mental bucket list today. I have been meaning to ride the Santa Fe Rail Trail all the way out to US 285 for a long time, but something always interferes. Short ride plan. Lazy. Not enough water. Not enough reasons to avoid making excuses.

Last weekend I rode out to Spur Ranch Road with the bike on the light wheels and turned around. Yesterday, having goaded myself into doing the full ride, I put the heavier duty wheels, a set of hoops built on LX hubs, 32, 3x Wheelsmith spokes and Salsa Delgado Cross rims shod with 700-40 Xplor MSOs on the bike as I recall the last almost two miles being rough, rocky singletrack. I also filled two water bottles with Gatorade along with the Camelbak full of water to avoid dehydration or running out of water/Gatorade. Off I went.

Note that in the AllTrails link above, they recommend a mountain bike for the dirt portion. I've done the trail on both a double boinger mountainbike and on a cyclecross bike (seen below, a Salsa LaCruz) and prefer the 'cross bike as it is more efficient and I don't think a full on mountain bike is really needed, even for the southernmost couple miles. I do recommend wide off road rubber, for both comfort and control on tight dirt curves where a slide can bring you into the loving arms of a tree or fence. But YMMV and regardless of whether you use a mountain bike or a cyclecross or gravel bike, it will work if you do.

Was a beauty of a day. Not too hot, not too windy. Checked the mental box and had a good time. Round trip about 34 miles (I have to check to see what tires were on the bike when I calibrated the Cateye).

Urban parts of the trail have recently been refurbished with new deck planking on bridges and a nicely paved cut-through on the Rail Trail towards the Acequia Trail near Baca St. Oh, sure, you can shorten the ride 5.5 miles from my house by driving to the Rabbit Road trailhead but really. Load a bike on a car when you have a beautiful paved trail system just about from your doorstep out to the rural trails? Eeeeyewww....

And if you love trails, please support the Santa Fe Conservation Trust with your donation. The Rail Trail is one of their many priceless creations.

Bridge just north of Zia Road crossing

Here the bike has the 700-32 Richey Cross Pro rubber on a Speed City wheelset (from last week's ride)

The cut-through near Baca at Santa Rosa Drive at Monterey is now paved the entire width of the easement

View North somewhere in Eldorado

View North between Spur Trail and Rabbit Road trailhead/parking lot

 

Just north of Spur Ranch Road in Eldorado, you now go under this RR overpass to continue on a wide trail until the trail goes down to rough singletrack (with some doubletrack) south of Spur Ranch Road

Some nice scenery along the way

Nice overlook of the Galisteo Basin in the last mile of the singletrack above US 285

Note the 700-40 Xplor MSO's

End of the Line, at US 285

And, speaking of the End of the Line, I couldn't in good conscience use that title for this post without including the original.