Aspen Vista to Windsor mountain bike ride.

So yesterdays ride was a long and difficult but so worth it. The ride I'm talking about is a shuttle ride located on the Sangre De Cristo mountains near Santa Fe, NM. We took one vehicle to Tesuque, NM and shuttled all the bikes up to Aspen Vista picnic ground (elevation 10,000 ft.) up towards the Santa Fe ski hill.

So when we started at Aspen Vista I was a little bit overwhelmed when I realized I had 6 mile +2000 ft vertical elevation climb ahead of me. The Aspen Vista trail was long and steep but not at all technical because it was a service road for the electronic site on top of the ski hill. There were a few stops to catch my breath during the climb but it took us about 1.5 hours to do the climb.

Once we were on top of the ski hill elevation 12,045 ft. we all felt accomplished and tired. The fruits of our labor was ahead of us. The ride down the ski hill was a bit treacherous. Even the green trails were full of loose rocks and boulders that could have you off your bike and on the ground before you knew it. Dangers aside the ski hill was exciting, although the brakes on my bike were very upset at me. My buddies and I stopped for a well deserved snack at the bottom of the ski hill after we played on some stairs for a bit. It was now time for the Windsor mtb trail.

The first part of the Windsor trail kind of disappointing me cause there was a ton of uphill. Not only that my buddy Leif's bike decided to give up the ghost. His derailleur hanger broke off after a tiny 1ft drop. We spent over an hour turning his once glorious geared bike into a single speed. Alot of our attempts at making a single speed were futile cause we couldn't achieve the correct tension on the chain so it wouldn't jump gears by itself and lock up the drive train, which is a accident waiting to happen. We eventually decided to make the bike into a no speed bike. We removed the chain completely and Leif would scoot the bike with his feet. We made the best out of a terrible situation.

Windsor was pretty much awesome. We went from aspen and spruce to cactus and sage. The trail itself was a twisty single track with some loose rocks in portions which caused me to be a little more cautious than I would of been otherwise. At bottom portion of Windsor there are over 10 stream crossings which were awesome and got us all wet.

Overall the bike ride was awesome and when we got to the car in Tesuque we took off our sopping wet shoes and put on our sandals. Back up the mountain to Aspen Vista trail head to get the other car. After we got off the mountain it was time to find somewhere to eat. Burt's Burger Bowl was closed so off backroad pizza for some pizza and beer. A perfect end to a awesome day.