As I posted in the teaser I showed up just after dawn driving 100 miles to the site. No other humans were there and it looked like I had thee whole 9,000 acre Area to myself!
Of course If I wrecked I was in deep do-do.I had one bar of cell phone.
The park is mainly High Desert with large Mesa's,Dry Washes, Flash Flood Run Off's and a dried-up prehistoric River Bed.( that ran for miles and miles) Most of the rock formations were Sandstone.
Millions of tons of gravel and plain old sand. In some places the sand was several feet deep.
As you climb Gordy's Hill you ascend several thousand feet up and along the Mesa's ridge line. The main trail on the ridge Line goes for over ten miles.
On the west slope of Gordy's Hill, just about the 5 mile mark on the hill, is the Sand Hill that you can climb. It is like any other sand dune in the world and has been climbed so many times the sand is very soft as you will see.
The view as you climb is typical S.W New Mexico and is quite scenic. You can see 100 miles from the top of the Mesa's. The weather was going to be in the 90's and the wind was due to pick up at noon.
The Area is maintained by the Bureau Of Land Management. And I can say they do a great job. Unknown to me a massive Grader plowed the Dirt Road just minutes before I arrived. I couldd see its dust trail several miles up the road.
I pulled up to the bottom of the trail head and got my act together. I wanted to ride as far as I could before it got too hot. There is no shade. And your at high altitude. The sun is intense and Sun Screen is a must. There are no facilities and no water. Services to provide these are 5 miles away. The Town Of Socorro is 6 miles away.
Socorro is the home of the Very Large Array. (VLA) that you see on the opening credits of " Ancient Aliens" as well as "Myth Busters" Explosive Bomb Range at NM Tech.
I fired up the Hawg Ty's engine and started up the first portion of the climb. It is very steep. You could walk it with a lot of effort.
As I start to climb,the trail gets steeper and steeper. The rear tire spun a few times as I acceded the first portion of this climb that went on for miles.
From the tire marks, it looked as though this was the END of the trail. The regulars must park here and drive the dirt road to the far end of the Mesa and ride back ridge line ending up at their cars when done. What did I not know? Huummm....
I've got up 1/4 mile so far and the trail is still climbing. Traction is still very good and I'm doing about 15 MPH. The new TAV is working well.
And I'm still climbing. The "hill" looked small from the road.
I cleared the last portion only to go imedeatly into another steep climb. The TAV is very hot. The fan is blowing air off the engine you could cook a hot dog with.
I made the top!.....
Ah, maybe not. The trail goes off to the south East and is still climbing. Unbeknownst to me,the end of the trail is the rounded Mesa at my eleven o'clock which is many miles away.
At my 9 o'clock,you can see how high I climber above the dirt road where my car is parked. were actually higher than that mountain ridge line in the foreground.
What are those steps? No those are Moguls. I thought What Fun!
Of course we have to climb higher. no lets add some front wheel lift as you blast over them!
The bike handled them with ease. I did have to start to lean forward in order to keep the traction going and the front wheel on the ground.
Look at the Moguls go out of sight! And a new twist has been added.
And the Moguls keep going and going as I keep climbing higher and higher.
The Moguls smoothed out but I'm still going up and up!
( I'm shooting dead into the sun. Sorry about the quality of the images)
End of Part 1.
Of course If I wrecked I was in deep do-do.I had one bar of cell phone.
The park is mainly High Desert with large Mesa's,Dry Washes, Flash Flood Run Off's and a dried-up prehistoric River Bed.( that ran for miles and miles) Most of the rock formations were Sandstone.
Millions of tons of gravel and plain old sand. In some places the sand was several feet deep.
As you climb Gordy's Hill you ascend several thousand feet up and along the Mesa's ridge line. The main trail on the ridge Line goes for over ten miles.
On the west slope of Gordy's Hill, just about the 5 mile mark on the hill, is the Sand Hill that you can climb. It is like any other sand dune in the world and has been climbed so many times the sand is very soft as you will see.
The view as you climb is typical S.W New Mexico and is quite scenic. You can see 100 miles from the top of the Mesa's. The weather was going to be in the 90's and the wind was due to pick up at noon.
The Area is maintained by the Bureau Of Land Management. And I can say they do a great job. Unknown to me a massive Grader plowed the Dirt Road just minutes before I arrived. I couldd see its dust trail several miles up the road.
I pulled up to the bottom of the trail head and got my act together. I wanted to ride as far as I could before it got too hot. There is no shade. And your at high altitude. The sun is intense and Sun Screen is a must. There are no facilities and no water. Services to provide these are 5 miles away. The Town Of Socorro is 6 miles away.
Socorro is the home of the Very Large Array. (VLA) that you see on the opening credits of " Ancient Aliens" as well as "Myth Busters" Explosive Bomb Range at NM Tech.
I fired up the Hawg Ty's engine and started up the first portion of the climb. It is very steep. You could walk it with a lot of effort.
As I start to climb,the trail gets steeper and steeper. The rear tire spun a few times as I acceded the first portion of this climb that went on for miles.
From the tire marks, it looked as though this was the END of the trail. The regulars must park here and drive the dirt road to the far end of the Mesa and ride back ridge line ending up at their cars when done. What did I not know? Huummm....
I've got up 1/4 mile so far and the trail is still climbing. Traction is still very good and I'm doing about 15 MPH. The new TAV is working well.
And I'm still climbing. The "hill" looked small from the road.
I cleared the last portion only to go imedeatly into another steep climb. The TAV is very hot. The fan is blowing air off the engine you could cook a hot dog with.
I made the top!.....
Ah, maybe not. The trail goes off to the south East and is still climbing. Unbeknownst to me,the end of the trail is the rounded Mesa at my eleven o'clock which is many miles away.
At my 9 o'clock,you can see how high I climber above the dirt road where my car is parked. were actually higher than that mountain ridge line in the foreground.
What are those steps? No those are Moguls. I thought What Fun!
Of course we have to climb higher. no lets add some front wheel lift as you blast over them!
The bike handled them with ease. I did have to start to lean forward in order to keep the traction going and the front wheel on the ground.
Look at the Moguls go out of sight! And a new twist has been added.
And the Moguls keep going and going as I keep climbing higher and higher.
The Moguls smoothed out but I'm still going up and up!
( I'm shooting dead into the sun. Sorry about the quality of the images)
End of Part 1.