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Low Budget New Mexico

Joined
Mar 27, 2017
Messages
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Location
Fort Worth
I've spent most of the summer planning a trip that would take me through Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, but, life conspired against me (thanks in part to medical bills, two kids in college, and a screwy home air conditioner). Out of desperation I pared my plans down to a really quick trip to southern New Mexico. I decided on Mayhill, New Mexico. I initially thought about staying in Cloudcroft, but nighttime temperatures in Cloudcroft were in the 40's. Just down the road, nighttime temps in Mayhill were in the mid 50's-much more comfortable.

I managed to sell some junk on Craigslist and ended up with around $400. I figured that by camping and limiting myself to one fast food meal a day (I was carrying food and a camp stove), a three to four day trip should keep me well under my $400 budget.

I loaded up and left Fort Worth early Sunday morning (09-10-17). I rode in very light traffic on Interstate 20 to Weatherford. From there it was US-180 to Hobbs, NM, and US-82 to Mayhill.

I had picked up a bear canister a little while back, not so much for bears, but mainly to keep determined mice from chewing through my gear to get to my food. I wasn't real sure how I was going to carry it on this trip. I ended up taking the Wald basket off of one the kid's bicycles and zip tied it to the rear rack. The basket and cargo net combo worked great!
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Mineral Wells: I've only been riding since May, and it's been hot and humid the whole time. It was in the 60's in Mineral Wells and I was freezing. Luckily I had packed my down jacket and windbreaker. This kept me comfortable till Anson when it warmed up enough to put my mesh jacket back on.
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Near Snyder
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I ended up staying at the Camp @ Cloudcroft in Mayhill. It's a really nice RV park with clean shower facilities. They charge $18 per night for a tent site. I could have camped for free in the Lincoln National Forest, but I like my showers.
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Drying my stuff due to dew.
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Convenience store in Mayhill, NM.
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I spent the day exploring the gravel roads off of NM-130 before heading over to Cloudcroft for a late lunch.
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Heading home Tuesday morning.
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The basket was the perfect place to store a wet tent fly and ground cloth.
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Well, there you have it; approximately 1200 miles traveled in three days, $160 spent for fuel, food, lodging, and a souvenir t shirt. Not too bad.
 
Nice trip!
I grew up southeast of there and spent many weekends camping with the fam in that area. Had a great aunt that lived in Mayhill we used to go visit.
Good that you made time to make a run out there. I tell people that you can step out onto 380 in Denton and look west all the way to New Mexico. Still a long haul but 180 or 380 gives you a good break from the Interstate.
 
180 was really nice. Very low traffic and good road conditions. I'd like to head out to Mayhill again when I have a little extra time to explore.
 
Great place to visit. I've been there many times by bike or car. Glad you had a good time.
 
Sounds like it was a very nice trip!


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Nice trip. You've given the KLR guys another idea in being "frugal". The kids bike basket will be all the rage soon. :lol2::rider:
 
Rat, check out the "Moto Camping on the Cheap" thread. You should post your basket idea there, as well as seeing what sorts of frugalities the rest of us have come up with.
 
Thanks for taking us along,good ride report. I heard the Mayhill cafe is a good spot to eat.
Next year you can do northern New Mexico.:rider:
 
:tab The area around Cloudcroft has TONS of great riding. I would suggest though that you might like to have a TKC 80 or some other relatively dirt oriented DS tire at least on the front. It makes a big difference in the sand and loose gravel. It is nice on the back as well, but not as critical. The Heidenau K60s were really good on my 1200 GS. If you get over to Weed, be sure to eat at the Weed Cafe!!
 
Dang those silver stroms look good-Even with a bicycle basket zip tied on! ;-)

Hey, that's alright- i have a plastic Hefty tub bought at Dollar General zip tied on mine. Works great.

Thanks for sharing your trip. Aren't you glad yoo went?
 
Hey guys, sorry for being slow to reply. I always seem to draw a blank when it comes to replying on forums etc. I'm terrible at it.

Tourmeister-I wanted to check out the area around Weed. I actually thought about staying the night at Guadalupe Mtns NP, and then riding north from Dell City to Mayhill, but, I'd read that that I'd probably encounter a good stretch of sand. Since I have no experience riding in sand, and I'd be in the middle of nowhere, I decided against it.

Kickstand-Prophet-Mayhill Cafe looked like the place to be (it's the only place to eat in town). I thought about stopping in for breakfast on my way home, but I was in a hurry and I've somehow developed an addiction to McDonald's coffee. Closest McDonald's to Mayhill is in Artesia, NM.

Tshelfer-I'll be checking out "Moto Camping on the Cheap". That sounds like it's right up my alley.

Gixxerjasen-My foods cost were mostly due to stops at McDonald's and DQ (about $30 total). The rest of the time I ate canned chicken and dehydrated backpacking meals left over from previous outings.

Jhansen, SpiritAtBay-I've used a Wald basket on my touring bicycles for years. I figured that a basket would be nice to have to carry awkward shaped items and things that I'd need to get to in a hurry but didn't want to carry in the tank bag-toilet paper etc. I'll be using the basket on all my trips from here on out.
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Tourmeister-After doing some research on tires, I thought I'd give the standard Mitas E07's a try, not the Dakar version. I haven't experience any buzz on the road and they seemed do well on the gravel. Of course I was probably riding at old lady speeds.
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I actually thought about staying the night at Guadalupe Mtns NP, and then riding north from Dell City to Mayhill, but, I'd read that that I'd probably encounter a good stretch of sand.

I did that several years ago: not sandy, but lots of BIG loose gravel and rocks:

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I woke up in Marfa, rode into Guadalupe MT park and took a quick hike around, then, to Dell City and north up to Cloudcroft. I got into town just after dark - VERY long day...

(sorry if this is thread hijack..)
 
:tab Those look like good tires. They'd probably do fairly well in sand as well.

:tab I had a Vstrom 650. I don't know what it was about that bike, but I just never felt comfortable with it off the pavement. This was even after doing many many off pavement miles on a BMW R1150 GS and a KLR 650. The front end just never felt right to me. When riding off the pavement, confidence in the front end matters. To be fair though, I don't think I ever put a really good aggressive tire on the front. I know other riders that did and they seemed to be okay with the bike off pavement.

:tab If you plan to be doing a lot of DS riding on the bike, I would strongly recommend doing some kind of dirt bike/adventure riding class unless you already have good dirt riding skills. If you don't have those skills, a class can make a world of difference for you and save a good bit of wear and tear on you and the bike. I learned this in the school of hard knocks, flips, and flops :doh:

:tab It was a wise choice not riding from Dell to Cloudcroft alone, even for an experienced rider. That area is quite remote and even the best rider can get caught out and injured.
 
I did that several years ago: not sandy, but lots of BIG loose gravel and rocks:

I woke up in Marfa, rode into Guadalupe MT park and took a quick hike around, then, to Dell City and north up to Cloudcroft. I got into town just after dark - VERY long day...

(sorry if this is thread hijack..)

That's interesting. That's a route I'd like to try someday. Maybe head out to the east a bit and visit the north side of Guadalupe Mtns NP.
 
:tab Those look like good tires. They'd probably do fairly well in sand as well.

:tab I had a Vstrom 650. I don't know what it was about that bike, but I just never felt comfortable with it off the pavement. This was even after doing many many off pavement miles on a BMW R1150 GS and a KLR 650. The front end just never felt right to me. When riding off the pavement, confidence in the front end matters. To be fair though, I don't think I ever put a really good aggressive tire on the front. I know other riders that did and they seemed to be okay with the bike off pavement.

:tab If you plan to be doing a lot of DS riding on the bike, I would strongly recommend doing some kind of dirt bike/adventure riding class unless you already have good dirt riding skills. If you don't have those skills, a class can make a world of difference for you and save a good bit of wear and tear on you and the bike. I learned this in the school of hard knocks, flips, and flops :doh:

:tab It was a wise choice not riding from Dell to Cloudcroft alone, even for an experienced rider. That area is quite remote and even the best rider can get caught out and injured.

Good advice ref the dirt bike/ adventure riding class. Most of the off-pavement riding I'll be doing in the near future will involve travelling down forest roads looking for campsites and relaxed pace sight seeing. I've got many years experience mountain biking (I can pick a good line through rough terrain) but I don't know what, if any of my mountain bike experience will translate to the motorized world.
 
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:tab The bike experience will definitely be useful. Body positioning will be very similar. The skill of looking ahead and trusting the bike to roll over stuff is BIG. Braking might be a little different just because of the weight difference. On long descents, you can experience brake fade if you ride the brakes too much, so engine braking is often used in combination with the actual brakes. Gotta be careful with the front brake when traction is questionable... Learning good low speed riding skills using the clutch and throttle are important. Again, body position is also big there.

:tab An often overlooked skill is deciding when to ride with old guys... Trust me on this one. Spend a few minutes talking with them and ask about when they started riding. Many of them raced in their younger days. Sure, they might claim to have "slowed down", but experience has taught me that "slow" for most of them is still a good deal faster than my "having a good day" fast speed ;-) Probably the most common cause of a rider going down on a dual sport or street ride is trying to keep up with faster riders. Ride your own ride. Showing up later is less embarrassing that not showing up at all :zen:
 
Hey guys, sorry for being slow to reply. I always seem to draw a blank when it comes to replying on forums etc. I'm terrible at it.

You did just fine.

An often overlooked skill is deciding when to ride with old guys... Trust me on this one. Spend a few minutes talking with them and ask about when they started riding. Many of them raced in their younger days. Sure, they might claim to have "slowed down", but experience has taught me that "slow" for most of them is still a good deal faster than my "having a good day" fast speed ;-) Probably the most common cause of a rider going down on a dual sport or street ride is trying to keep up with faster riders. Ride your own ride. Showing up later is less embarrassing that not showing up at all :zen:

This applies to old guys on sport bikes too. :giveup:
 
Miss me some New Mexico! Just never could find anything boring about that state on my Dual Sports or Street bikes.
 
Dang those silver stroms look good-Even with a bicycle basket zip tied on! ;-)

Hey, that's alright- i have a plastic Hefty tub bought at Dollar General zip tied on mine. Works great.

Thanks for sharing your trip. Aren't you glad you went?



Proof of my cheap-skate-ness. Or my preference for function over form...

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I'm so cheap I just use a bungie net. I have put everyting from a case of wine to a chain saw on that rack! Works great. I have a set of saddle bags for longer rides and use a canoe bag that is water proof on the rack. Those two handle most of the stuff I need.
 
Rat Trap Press, thank you for this post. It gives me hope that I can try something similar in the near future. I live south of Dallas and once I can get a few miles under my seat, I want to outfit my 09 Versys with some decent tires for gravel/dirt roads and try something like your trip. I eventually want to try something like the Alpine Loop in Co, but that is a fair bit away. Less than 400 bucks for a few days out of the city sounds like its worth every penny.

I have a similar basket on my little Yamaha sr185. I plan to move it to the Versys once I get the top case mounting hardware. Its perfect for grocery trips because you can tie anything to it.
 
:tab The bike experience will definitely be useful. Body positioning will be very similar. The skill of looking ahead and trusting the bike to roll over stuff is BIG. Braking might be a little different just because of the weight difference. On long descents, you can experience brake fade if you ride the brakes too much, so engine braking is often used in combination with the actual brakes. Gotta be careful with the front brake when traction is questionable... Learning good low speed riding skills using the clutch and throttle are important. Again, body position is also big there.

:tab An often overlooked skill is deciding when to ride with old guys... Trust me on this one. Spend a few minutes talking with them and ask about when they started riding. Many of them raced in their younger days. Sure, they might claim to have "slowed down", but experience has taught me that "slow" for most of them is still a good deal faster than my "having a good day" fast speed ;-) Probably the most common cause of a rider going down on a dual sport or street ride is trying to keep up with faster riders. Ride your own ride. Showing up later is less embarrassing that not showing up at all :zen:

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