"It ain't New and it ain't Mexico" Part 3. New Mexico scouting trip #4

New Mexico scouting trip 4. November 2019 Author: Eric Milano

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Scouting Trip #4

We now had a 95% complete route. Still a few question marks, but we had alternate routes for those and we were very confident we could make fuel and lodging each night with a small group. I reached out to a few past customers and we formed a group of 5, plus photographer, Bob Locicero.

The 2021 tour is on! Click for details on our October '21 New Mexico Tour!

Our group arrived at ABQ airport Saturday afternoon and we began riding Sunday morning.

We were on the trail within 3 miles and it was a beautiful, crystal clear day.

Lunch at the old church and then onto the wash road which we all enjoyed very much. Imagine riding through a 200 yard wide river plane with little banks to jump off and small streams trickling through. Too much fun.

We arrived in Magdalena with plenty of time to fuel and relax. Day 1 is not super long, but it's a good work out and introduction to the type of riding we will be doing over the course of the tour; trails with embedded and loose rocks, sandy two track, water crossings and some maintained dirt/paved roads.

This time the Magdalena Hall hotel was open and renovated. Very nice rooms inside the historic "cowboy hotel".

Big breakfast and to-go burritos at the ever-so-delicious Magdalena Cafe, then a quick stop at the Very Large Array observatory. These radio telescopes are on train tracks and get moved around according to what they are looking for. Astronomers using the VLA have made key observations of black holes and protoplanetary disks around young stars, discovered magnetic filaments and traced complex gas motions at the Milky Way's center, probed the Universe's cosmological parameters, and provided new knowledge about the physical mechanisms that produce radio emission.

And, back to the trail...