Ruidoso, NM mid-August 2007

[The Bruce]

I had been talking with several friends about a road trip and the plans came together for a ride to Ruidoso. One of the guys has a brother with a cabin there and the offer was made for us to stay there. At one time we had eight folks on seven bikes riding out for three days of fun in the Lincoln National Forest. As it got closer to the time to leave we were down to four bikes. Family issues and mechanical problems, the '06 Goldwing lost it's tranny , thinned the herd. Then we ended up riding out in two groups of two. I left with "P" a day early so we could include a route through Alpine, TX. I was on my 2002 Suzuki Intruder 1500LC and P was on his Kawisaki 1600 Nomad. The other two rode out to meet us the next day in Ruidoso. P and I left around 0700 and headed south from Pflugerville. We decided to take 183 south to IH10 to avoid all the traffic since it was a workday. It's a little farther that way but a whole lot less stress. We stopped for some tacos in Lockhart and by 1000 were through San Antonio and headed west on US 90.

I let P do most of the planning for this trip and he did very well lining up things to see. It was nice to be following, just along for the ride. The first stop was in Bracketville at Historic Fort Clark. http://www.fortclark.com/fortclarksprings/index.htm
This was one of the last horse cavalry posts when it was shut down after WWII. The fort was turned into a resort and the old officer's quarters were sold to individuals for private homes. All buildings are historic so they have to be maintained to preserve the old native stone buildings. Very nice.

A memorial to the cavalry units that protected our southern border from 1868 through 1947.

Back on the road we made the right turn in Del Rio, grabbed some lunch at the DQ, and made our way toward Amistad Reservoir.

This railroad bridge is cool.

Next we made our way to the highest bridge in the state of Texas where US 90 crosses the Pecos River. 273 feet above the river when it was built in 1957. It's a little shorter since Amistad backs up the river now.

By now it was starting to get pretty warm. This is west Texas in August after all. I was real pleased with my gear for the weather. I wore a Joe Rocket Phoenix jacket, First Gear Hypertex mesh pants, Cortech mesh gloves, topped off with a KBC TH-Eight full face helmet. The helmet was definitely the hot spot in the ensemble. I really think the vents are just for show. I could not feel any air movement but with the shield open I got enough air to make it bearable. A wet towel around my neck every time we stopped and I stayed pretty cool, considering.

We pressed on west and stopped for the night in Alpine. You could actually feel the temperature dropping as we rode the last 30 miles from Marathon. Dinner was BBQ recommended by the nice lady at the Antelope Lodge. A place called the Shotgun Grille. The special was combo fajitas plate. Hard to beat a plate of smoked fajitas, YUM.

The Antelope Lodge is a motor lodge style from the 50's. The AC was a little weak but the accommodations were comfortable and very clean. And the price was under 60. Not bad.

First day done. Tune in for more.

 

[The Bruce]

Day 2

We were up at first light to take advantage of the cool air. Loaded up and headed toward Ft. Davis for breakfast. First we had to stop for a picture in front of this mural celebrating the history of Alpine.

The air was cool and felt real good on this short ride.

Breakfast was at the Drug Store in downtown Ft. Davis. A dish called Toby's Trash was a delicious blend of eggs, potatoes, onion, peppers and whatever meat was leftover from the previous days business. Served with some really large and really good biscuits. Very good. A quick picture of the courthouse and we were on the road.

We rode through the Davis Mountains past the observatory toward Kent. Very nice highway, smooth and curvy and beautiful scenery.

P's hitchhiker got bored and decided to change his position. Monkeys!

We got on the IH10 super slab at Kent and headed west toward Van Horn. No pictures here because as we all know there is nothing to look at along IH10. At Van Horn we took the highway north toward Guadalupe National Park. The sky was very hazy so we couldn't get a glimpse of El Capitan till we got pretty close.

Once past Guadalupe National Park the road turns into what you would expect in eastern New Mexico, flat, featureless, not much to take a picture of. We motored north through Carlsbad and on to Roswell. We had time so we took a scenic loop around to the north and west of Roswell toward Capitan. The road was NM 246. Sweeping curves through a grassland type area and ending up in the hills around Capitan. From there it was about 30 minutes down NM 37 to Ruidoso. We had the address of the cabin and nothing more. Turned on the right street and voilà, we knew we were there.

Well, my daughter is bugging me about loading something on her MP3 so I'll take a break. Stay tuned for more.

 

[poser]

sweet
that area is beautiful
I've been up there skiing before, though the skiing isn't very good

 

[RedPill]

Looks great. I love Ruidoso. It just takes a lot of flat, hot riding to get there.

By the way, the monkey pic was left out. Very disappointing for me, because I have a co-worker who is nuts about monkeys, and I was going to harrass him with it.

 

[The Bruce]

Looks great. I love Ruidoso. It just takes a lot of flat, hot riding to get there.

That is why we wanted to take the southern route along the border through Alpine. At least there is more to see.

By the way, the monkey pic was left out. Very disappointing for me, because I have a co-worker who is nuts about monkeys, and I was going to harrass him with it.

I think I fixed it. BTW, the monkey is in about 4 of the other pics as well.

 

[The Bruce]

Day 3

The best thing about trips like this is not being on any kind of schedule. No hurry. Most of us were early risers though so we were up with the sun and fixin' breakfast. By 0900 we were on the road.

The route for the day would take us to Ski Apache, Nogal, Capitan, Lincoln, and Ft. Stanton. The road up the mountain to the ski resort is the kind of mountain road everyone loves. Lots of twisting curves with switchbacks and awesome views once you get to the summit.

Me and my LC

John with his Road King Firefighter Special Edition.

Richard with his 1500 Nomad.

The road coming up.

We made our way back down the mountain and headed north on NM 37. This would take us through the little town of Nogal. You have to wonder how these places got their names. One thing we did that was fun was swapping bikes around. Nice to see how the other riders get a long. We headed east on US 380 toward Capitan. The big attraction there is the Smokey the Bear Memorial. Yeah, he is buried there.

When our on the road like this it's fun to stop at little hole in the wall places to eat. This place was across the street from the park. Excellent hamburgers and Philly cheese steak sandwiches. And, they dealt in Liberty silver dollars. Very nice folks.

After lunch things got a little interesting. A group of about 20 Banditos pulled in and parked all around our bikes. They were giving us a little more than the usual once over as they checked out our bikes. We thought we would take a little initiative so we walked over and struck up a conversation. They were as polite and cordial as you would expect a bunch of Banditos to be. We found they were from San Antonio and were on "vacation". We directed them to the good food, mounted our steeds and headed out. Next stop was Ft. Stanton. This was one of the places Billy the Kid was held in the stockade during his career in Lincoln County. While standing in the parking lot we heard the distinct sound of loud Harley pipes coming up the road. A single rider, wearing Bandito colors, came up the road to the entrance to the fort, made a "u" turn, rode back to the bend of the road and stopped. He pulled off the road and up to the top of a little knoll and parked facing directly at us. Being the friendly Texans that we are, we waved to him. He stayed for about a minute then rode off. That's the last we saw of them. I figure he was a prospect that they sent of on an errand to check us out. It's tough being a hard case.

Continuing on the loop we came across a small airfield with this parked in the lot. We couldn't resist a photo.

Tip of the day: carry a small tripod for just such photos.

Back to the cabin for a great biker dinner.

Life is good.

We heard a bear get into the garbage latter that night but these are they only ones we actually saw.

To Be Continued........

 

[TexasShadow]

Oh, so sweeet........
I can't wait to make it down into that area and explore those places.
<sigh>
Great report and photos. Thanks for the day dreams

 

[The Bruce]

Thank you texasshadow. And on to the next day.

 

[The Bruce]

Day 4

This day our plan was to ride to Cloudcroft and make a couple of loops through the hills. I decided to make a map to give an idea of where we went. I hope this helps.

From Ruidoso we headed west on US 70; past the Inn of the Mountain Gods Casino. The Mescalero Apaches have quite the operation up there to fleece the tourists. More power to 'em. We had about 15 miles on the big highway.

Everyone got in line for a photo. We headed south onto NM 244. This is a nice curvy road that winds through the pine trees and takes you all the way to Cloudcroft. This road turned out to be the main route for the next couple of days. Very nice. After a fuel stop in Cloudcroft we headed south onto county road 6563. This road is a must ride if you are ever in the area. Smooth sweeping curves all the way down to Timberon. This would take us to Sunspot and finally Timberon.
Sunspot is the site of the National Solar Observatory.

There is a free walking tour of the telescopes on the facility. A nice stop to stretch the legs. This is one of the instruments. The largest solar telescope in the world. I continues underground for another 120 feet.

Continuing south takes you on to Timberon. Here is were the paved road ends.

Timberon is actually a resort community complete with golf course. Just no paved roads. It's a lot bigger looking at the streets on the map than it looked from here. I will have to go back to this area some day on the Tiger. There were many dirt roads darting off the pavement to explore. From Timberon there is a dirt road that goes east to Pinon. The locals said it was a fun road that would get our street bikes in trouble but a dirtish type of bike would be fun.

This overlook is above the valley going down to Alamogordo.

Back to Cloudcroft for lunch. Where else but BBQ. Texas Pit, no less. Good stuff.

Topped off the tanks and headed SE toward Pinon on NM 130 and NM 24. Pinon is a tiny town, about 20 residents according to the four that we met in the little store. Nice folks. The terrain had gone back to rolling plains with, you guessed it, pinon pines. Not as scenic as the higher mountains but nice roads all the way. From Pinon we headed north to make a loop back to Cloudcroft on US 82. Then north on NM 244 back to Ruidoso. Topped of with some mexican food from a little hole in the wall restaurant and the day was done.

Tomoorow is another day.

 

[The Bruce]

Day 5

W"ell, I'm stuck at the house to help with the garage sale so I'll post another day off our journey.

This day the object of our attention was White Sands National Monument. We mounted up our trusty steeds....... OK; we rode west on US 70 toward Tularosa and Alamogordo.

It was getting hotter by the minute as we descended from the mountains to the high desert. You can see the white sands as you break out of the trees from about 50 miles away. No doubt where this place got it's name.

We are down to three now. RJ was meeting his wife in Cloudcroft and starting back home with her today. There is a scenic drive through the sand that is worth taking the time and paying the small entry fee to use. We are MGATT kind of riders but with the low speed limit and almost no traffic we lived life dangerously. It was awful hot and we were stopping here and there so we justified riding naked. Well it felt naked after developing the habit of wearing the proper gear.

The road ends about half way and you are riding on the sand. It's pretty hard packed and maintained. There were a few soft spots and washboard that kept you on your toes though.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Tc6Z6CFPNZs

Does this count as dual sport? You decide.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=V496lHLoHiI

The sand was soooo bright. My camera could not cope but you get the idea.

WE headed back east toward Cloudcroft and cooler temperatures. US 82 from Alamogordo to Cloudcroft is another one of the must ride roads in this area. You climb around 5,000 feet elevation in about 16 miles. There is a point were you hit a thermocline layer and you can feel the temperature drop at least 10 degrees instantly. Ah, felt good.

A tunnel about half way up the climb.

From Cloudcroft it was NM 244 norht to Ruidoso, again. I really could not get tired of riding this road. Very nice. We closed the day with an awesome steak dinner at the Cattlemans Lodge in Ruidoso.

 

[The Bruce]

Homeward bound

The final day, day 6, was nothing but the ride home. It was long, hot, and not much to look at coming across west texas. An 11 hour ride. Here is the route.

The only event of the day occurred as we left San Angelo. The road had been freshly coated with tar and gravel. The big, rough, ugly kind that hurts you and your paint job went it hits you. We slowed down and were keeping to the goove carved by the cages when a minivan decided that we were going too slow. They passed in the left lane, divided highway, but as they passed they moved so far to the left that they were in the loose stuff that had accumulated outside the lane. We blasted with gravel. I got my left hand up in time to keep it off my faceshield. My bike was not so lucky. Several nicks in the windshield. Seven chips in the paint on the front fender. And worst of all, a centerpunched hole in my headlight glass.

Later while washing the bike I discovered several chunks of gravel stuck to various places on the bike. A couple even stuck to the rear wheel.
Oh, well. All part of the adventure.

Over all we clocked around 2,000 miles over the six days. To sum it up; A good time was had by all.

 

[Tracker]

nice report and pics

 

[The Bruce]

nice report and pics

Thanks for saying.

 

[Texx]

Great report Bruce! God's country up there, and I've covered just about all of it you described. Motorcycle nirvana! Oh....there's no "the" in Smokey Bear....

 

[macktruckturner]

Awesome report! Looks like you had a good time.

 

[The Bruce]

Oh....there's no "the" in Smokey Bear....

Slap me silly. I stand corrected. The devil is in the details.