Angel Fire Motorcycle Trip

This trip was less than last minute. I was at work, on Friday at about 10AM wondering what to do. We were getting out early at 12 so I had to think of something quick. I decided that, assuming everything was ready to go and I could find my gear, I was going to head for the mountains!!
Pretty soon the mountains will be getting cold so an overnight somewhere in the high elevations would be perfect!

I got home, threw a bunch of gear into my bags and headed out!
Here is a vid of some of the High Desert section on the way to the mountains. Then my video camera decided to quite.



The first major town I hit was Las Vegas. This town has some history as far as Hollywood goes. A few scenes from Easy Rider were shot here. Check out more info at the Wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas,_New_Mexico



Now, don't get me wrong, there was some neat history in Las Vegas, NM. That being said the town had a bad vibe. Lots of angry aggressive people. I've never said that about a place other than a big city so it felt weird that in such a pretty part of the country everyone seemed angry! I even had a couple of random people yell F YOU! to me. Not in the jovial FYYFF sense either! Oh well, that's why I have a motorcycle. To get away! In the mean time, here is what I did see.
 


OOOH! look at the time! I need to get the hell out of here! ;-)
 

So many options! Oh well, as long as it leads further away.

The country up here became so beautiful. It was a completely different vibe. The people were nice and waved. There was literally no traffic to speak of. On the Friday afternoon of Labor Day Weekend that is really saying something! As I road higher and higher in elevation the temps dropped and the road narrowed. It narrowed to the point of having no center stripe. I was pretty sure I'd taken a wrong turn, but who cares! I wanted to see where this went!








Well, it did head into Angel Fire after all!! I was pretty surprised since, unlike most trips, I had purposefully done this one unprepared and was sure it would get me lost! The only person I know in this town... actually this STATE was Brice. I had met him at the Overland Expo this year. I knew he had a pizza place that had Angel Fire in the name so I figured I'd go and eat there if I could find it before finding a place to camp. Sure enough the very first intersection in town I stopped at had a blazing sign for the pizza place! I recognized the logo!



So, at least I could go inside and say "Is Brice here?" and likely hear that he wasn't. I just figured I'd say, that cowboy from the ExPo says hello!
I lucked out. Not only was he there, but he treated me like an old friend from the word go. By the end of the evening it was decided that I was staying in his guest room and I was folding silverware into napkins to help them keep up with the Holiday weekend rush. Wow. What a turn of events. I need to do more of this spontaneous travel. Here is more info on Angel Fire from the Wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_Fire,_New_Mexico
By now it was sunset so I had to walk onto the balcony to snatch this pic of Angel Fire resort.



Hammond's parking space next to Brice's WR250R.

The next day I took a little tour of his property. I have never met anyone with a similar setup to what I'd like to do at my own house. This was it. He has some serious talents as an artist both in metal working and painting. Not a bad spot to sit and read a book or watch someone moto around the track!


The Duece! It started life as a US Military Duece, but Brice has put considerable work into it.

Part of the track. Need to work on Mountain Bike or Moto balancing skills?


Get air, but not TOO much!

Blast through the tunnel!

See who's been here before you inside the tunnel walls.

This guy is one of my favorite. Form and function. Form is obvious. Function? You ask. Fill the top with water, build a fire in the bottom. Within a half hour you'll have a hot shower!! The medal radiates the heat too!
 

For the Aliens.

Even seen the snow equivalent of soap box derby cars? Here you go!

A bit blurry, but just to show you can ride it all. There are so many hundreds of combinations to fit together into a loop that you may never get bored.






Then I decided to go out and do a big loop. Part of it included what they call the Enchanted Circle and then tack on another loop south from Taos down to Mora. More info: http://www.enchantedcircle.org/enchanted-circle-scenic-byway.php It was an epic loop. Less talk, more photo.



Headed down into Red River.


Where are all of the people on a holiday weekend!?



Rolling into Taos Cow Coffee!


Darth Vador says hello.



Then I rolled into Sipapu. It's a very small ski resort that Brice mentioned may have some good Green Chile Cheeseburgers. Good enough for me! Plus, once I realized you sit on a quiet little stream next to a sleeping ski hill I was sold.




As I walked in I noticed another Bonneville Black outside. I started talking to this fellow named Steve and we went from bikes to life to roads to etc! You meet the nicest people on a Honda or so they say, but you meet the most interesting on a Triumph!


Steve and I road for a little while and split in a little town called Mora. I look forward to meeting up with him again on my New Mexico adventures!


Carving turns like this are what life is all about. Cool air, no one around and views for miles!




NEW Mexico is very old. So many old ruins all over the place.




You can't tell, but this fellow is on an old Indian from the 50's.


That's what I like to see!


Sky for miles in front:


And in back:


And in front. haha.


I met up with Brice and we road our bikes over to the Blues, Brews and Bikes festival. For such a small event I thought it was pretty cool that just about every brewery in New Mexico was represented! MMMM!

There is that Indian again!





As if that wasn't enough for a little town that had a "year round" population of maybe 500 there was a downhill mountain bike competition going on too!




Well, I had another good night (Oh yah, did you notice I planned on a quick overnight and now here I am heading into night two? Haha) sitting at the Pizza place and enjoying good beer, talk and pizza. The next morning my brain was feeling tired. (Another way of saying I think I had one too many of the... darnit. What was the name of that drink Brice made...) I slept in nice and late and then started puttering down the hill. I took a well marked "highway" and it ended up turning to dirt. I had a blast playing flat tracker on the Triumph for 10 miles! haha. I thought it would never end!




In the end it did and I was just a little sad to be heading DOWN in elevation.


mmmmmmm Fresh Tarmac!



Well, in the end I made it home to Albuquerque. Going on 3 months since seeing my real Home, but it's all an adventure. If you don't take advantage you're libel to just sit there and miss it all. Night all!!!