Taos trip

About 10 miles from home, we realized that we forgot our camera, so we have no new pics of the joys and sufferings of our Taos trip. Can you believe how cheap it is to drive places? We spent maybe $25 worth of gas for 2 people round trip. That's gotta be cheaper than even trains in Europe. But note that I'm not counting depreciation, insurance, maintenance, road construction, land wasted on parking, and so on. Drive on!

On Friday afternoon, we planned to ride through the Taos Pueblo reservation area on our way to Arroyo Seco for a scoop of Taos Cow Ice Cream. Upon entering the reservation, I saw a sign that said no bicycling, hiking, or other nefarious non-car transporting through the reservation. I thought to myself, 'that can't be right', since their casino was 1 mile ahead. Well, a generally nice guy pulled his truck over in front of us and told us that the sign was correct. Of course, people in motor cars are welcome to drive on in. We were both a little shocked at getting kicked out of the reservation. But considering that our ancestors killed huge numbers of their ancestors, the treatment wasn't so bad.

On Saturday, we rode the enchanted circle in the counter clockwise direction. Lunch was at a one week old cafe called Judy's in Eagle Nest. No one told us about Bobcat Pass, elevation 9800' between Eagle Nest and Red River. To get over this pass requires climbing 4 miles up a 8ish% grade. Ouch! Just west of Red River is a giant molybdenum mine, but one can only see some processing equipment and ginormous piles of tailings. The mountain of waste is shockingly ugly in the midst of a national forest, but I can understand -- molybdenum is a key alloying ingredient in high strength steel which can be made into very nice bicycle frames. In Questa, we bought a sports drink at a gas station. The proprietor's new mtn bike was parked outside, and he came out to admire my bike (the Bianchi) and joke with some of the locals. We asked one of them how far it was to Taos. About 20 miles, said the man with a rusty pickup truck and 4 pack of Mickey's. Well, after we'd climbed 3 reasonably long hills, a sign suggested that it was still 19 miles to Taos. About 10 miles from our hotel, we were out of water, and there is only desert between that point and the town. Did I mention that it was 85 degrees? Thankfully the wind was somewhat at our backs. We made it. Jill felt nauseous, but I was okay.

Good food was had at Michael's, Pizza Outback, Dragonfly, and Judy's in Eagle Nest.

Because Jill hates to post without pictures, here are photos from past Taos adventures: