Biking El Paso

Chamizal Loop

2011-07-03T20:25:00.000-07:00

Here’s a 40-mile ride that takes you around much of Central, Northeast and Eastside El Paso, with a healthy mix of climbing, speed and city touring.

This was an El Paso Bicycle Club ride that started at the Chamizal National Memorial -- until we found out that the parking lot was off-limits that day, so we actually started in the Bowie High School parking lot just across the street.

The first stage of the ride involves a lot of climbing. Head through Central El Paso via Paisano/Cotton/Yandell (there are several options here) to Brown, which is a steep road up the leading edge of the Franklin Mountains that connects you to Scenic Drive. Scenic Drive offers a great rest stop at the top, looking out over El Paso and Juarez.

Stay on Scenic and at the east end you turn left on Alabama, which will provide plenty of rollers as it runs along the east slope of the Franklins, turning into Magnetic before ending at Hondo Pass. The convenience store there is a good refueling point before the steep descent to U.S. 54. This also begins the “speed” section of the ride, with long uninterrupted stretches of highway.

You’ll go north on the Gateway to Woodrow Bean Transmountain Road and turn right. Just before Dyer, get on the on-ramp (from the left lane) to Loop 375.

Loop 375 curves to the southeast. It’s pretty much a freeway, but has a wide (but debris-filled) bike lane. Exit at Spur 601 (Liberty Expressway; signs also indicate this as the El Paso Int’l Airport exit) and turn right, then left on Global Reach. At Montana, Global Reach turns into Yarbrough. This begins the city tour of the ride, running through Eastside and Lower Valley/South Central neighborhoods.

You can stay on Yarbrough all the way to North Loop; or shave a little distance off the ride by cutting through via Montwood/Viscount/Hawkins/Tony Lama and zigzag through an industrial park to get to North Loop. North Loop connects to Delta at a 3-way stoplight. Then there’s another tricky intersection ahead -- watch the signs carefully -- it’s easy to get on Paisano or Alameda by mistake.

Assuming you manage to stay on Delta, you will get back to San Marcial just east of Downtown to return to your starting point.

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/39912204

Central-NE-Eastside Loop

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El Paso to Hatch

2011-07-02T19:29:00.000-07:00

This is what might be called an ultra-distance ride. Just as the marathon is the signature distance event for runners, the century (100-mile) ride is the signature distance ride for cyclists. And just as there are runners who push the envelope with ultra-marathon events of 50 to 100 miles, there are cyclists who routinely go far beyond 100 miles.

The organized form of this kind of riding is the brevet, also known as randonneuring. The shortest brevet ride is 200K (125 miles) with longer rides of 300K, 400K, 600K and the granddaddy of them all, the 1200K Paris-Brest-Paris Brevet, held every four years and which dates back, in various formats, to 1891.

Enough about that – I just wanted to give you some background to understand why I rode such an insane distance in the middle of summer. It happens that I know some brevet fans, and two of them – Margaret O’Kelley and Bob Lynn – invited me to join them on their favorite training ride: a 150-mile ride from the northwest edge of El Paso to Hatch, NM and back.

A map of our route is embedded below. I won’t go over too many of the route details but will highlight some and also our stopping points. Stopping points are crucial on a ride like this – there are stretches of up to 20 miles without easy access to water.

Also – I don’t recommend doing this alone, and definitely do not recommend it for anyone who has not done some distance riding. I ride 100-200 miles a week, and in the past have ridden many centuries, including two official brevets of 200K. I had not done a century for almost two years, so I wanted to get in a distance ride – hence my invitation from Margaret and Bob to join them. I thought I might just tag along for 100 to 110 miles of their ride, but felt good enough after 55 miles to keep going. As it turned out, I did OK and kept up with my friends for the duration – although I was fighting an overheated body at times.

We started at Crazy Cat Cyclery at 5:15 a.m. (Margaret and Bob had headlights and we all had taillights – I have a headlight but left it behind on this ride since it would be light within a few miles).

We took the I-10 frontage roads all the way to Berino, NM, crossed over to NM 478 and then made our way to Mesilla via Mesilla Park. Our traditional stop — The Bean in Mesilla — wasn’t open yet so we rode up to a nearby McDonalds for breakfast. Back to Mesilla, then took NM 292 to Roadrunner and eventually got on NM 185, which took us all the way into Hatch (with a stop at Fort Selden to refill water bottles).

NM 185 is the old U.S. 85 – one of the byways of Southern New Mexico. It runs along the Rio Grande, skirts the Robledo Mountains and passes through chile fields. There are quite a few rolling sections between Radium Springs (where Fort Selden is) and Hatch. In general, this is a pretty flat ride.

We got to Hatch just after 10:30 and had an early lunch at Sparky’s – a great eatery full of nostalgia collectibles. The green chile cheeseburger was fantastic. They also let us refill our water bottles with ice.

From Hatch, we took a slightly different route on NM 154, paralleling the railroad tracks and the river, and NM 140 before reconnecting on NM 185.

At Radium Springs, we opted for a beer and water break at the Blue Moon Bar. This bar has been around for years, is particularly popular among motorcyclists, and is the only stop between Hatch and Las Cruces where you can get a cold beverage (Fort Selden just has water and their water fountain was out of order, so all we could get there was lukewarm tap water).

There is one other unofficial place to get water and even a soda – the border patrol checkpoint between Hatch and Fort Selden, which has a Coke machine for employees and if you’re nice to them, for thirsty bicyclists.

When we got back to Mesilla, we took a break at Shorty’s convenience store. By this time, the 100-degree heat was really taking its toll. We bought a gallon of cold water for our water bottles and used about half of it just to splash on ourselves. We also got some Gatorade.

From Mesilla, we took NM 28 all the way back to Canutillo.

We were fighting a headwind much of the way back as well, so we made an extra stop at La Mesa for more water and ice.

The whole ride took about 13 hours. Our actual distance was a little over 150 miles, since all of us had ridden to the start from our homes.

This was the longest ride of my life (I had done one of about 135 miles a few years ago) and to be honest, I was pretty happy to survive the ride and to manage to keep up with my friends (they told me I was the first person they had invited along who actually completed the whole 150 miles!).

Nevertheless… I am still not a convert to the ways of the brevet. I like the challenge of an extra-long ride – but not that often!!! But at least a century ride won’t seem quite so bad!

Here’s the map of the ride:

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/39769254

El Paso to Hatch ultra-distance ride

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Ditches to Mesilla

2011-03-15T16:44:00.000-07:00

My ambition for a while has been to ride the ditches to Mesilla, and today was the day. The general plan was to ride the main westside Mesilla Valley ditch to the Mesilla Dam and return via the main eastside ditch. All the major canals in this area have reasonably good truck paths running alongside them. The dirt paths get sandy in spots, but generally are easy to ride with a mountain bike.

I parked my truck at Gallegos Park on Bosque Road in Canutillo and started riding on the canal that runs north-south on the west side of the park. This is known as the Canutillo Canal. I followed it north and west. This becomes the La Union East Canal and it follows Westside Road. Westside Road (at least the paved part) ends at Washington Street in Anthony, but the canal keeps going north. About a mile or so later is the junction of the La Union East and West Canals (the La Union West will take you southwest through the valley). I kept going north. Just past Berino Road the canal -- I think at this point it is known as the West Side Canal -- crosses NM 28 and continues north on the west edge of the valley. One fascinating point of interest was an old "Drain Check Structure" that has a marker stating that "EBID (Elephant Butte Irrigation District) has preserved this site for its historic value." The purpose of the structure, the marker adds, was to slow down the water going through the canal.

The canal is blocked by a gate and no trespassing signs where the Stahmann Farms pecan orchards begin. Too bad -- this is the most scenic part of the canal. You get a great view of the "Black Mesa" just ahead to the northwest -- it's the edge of the volcanic field that continues west along the mesa. It got the name "Black Mesa" because of the volcanic rock.

At that point I decided not to press my luck by going around the fence, and doubled back on the canal to the first road going east. I hooked up to NM 28 and took the paved road to Mesilla and lunch at The Bean.

Then I headed west on Calle del Norte to pick up the river levee road as far as the Mesilla Diversion Dam. This is the main dam that diverts water from the Rio Grande into the West Side and East Side canals. The West Side canal (the much bigger of the two) is the one that also delivers water to the El Paso Upper Valley.

Today was the first day water was running in the Rio Grande, having been released a few days earlier from Elephant Butte and Caballo dams. But none of the water was being put into the canals just yet. Along my ride, however, several farms were pumping water from the ground to irrigate their crops.

I goofed at this point and took a smaller canal instead of the East Side Canal. The smaller canal followed the river then curved east. At Hwy 28 I turned north for about a mile to pick up the East Side Canal at Snow Road.

On Snow Road and a few other places along this ride, I "cheated" and rode on the pavement instead of the canal path. The canal follows Snow Road to NM 478, then continues running south along East Side Road, paralleling 478 most of the way. Eventually it runs along Three Saints Road until it hits O'Hara Road. At some point before I got to Three Saints, I biked through a pecan orchard that had a fenced entrance -- but the entrance gates were wide open and there were no "No Trespassing" signs, so I kept on going. Even if those gates were closed I probably would have just gone around them.

Just before Washington Street in Anthony, the canal ends, flowing back into the Rio Grande. I followed the levee road for about a mile and then picked up the paved River Trail that runs along the east side of the river for 2.5 miles until it hits Vinton Road (the River Trail then picks up again on the west side of the river and continues 10 more miles, ending just north of Country Club Road). I turned west on Vinton Road past the river, turned right on Bosque and returned to Gallegos Park.

Total distance for this ride was about 65 miles. It took me a little over 7 hours, including various stops and lunch along the way. On the way up, my only rest stop was at the Stahmann Farms store on NM 28. On the way back, I was getting a bit tired and dehydrated, so I stopped at a convenience store in Mesquite (about 1/4 mile west of the canal where it crosses Mesquite Road) and stopped again at Anthony Country Club (about 1/2 mile west of where the canal crosses O'Hara Road).

I'm glad I did this ride just to become more familiar with these routes. I would love to do this again, but in shorter segments. I only average 9-12 mph on the dirt paths. It's also a lot more fun to ride when the ditches are running with water -- which should begin in a week or two.

If you're interested in exploring the irrigation system between El Paso and Mesilla, make sure you have good thorn protection (slimed tubes, good tires, spare tubes, etc) and plenty of water and snacks. There are no convenience stores along the ditches! It also helps if you are familiar with the major roads crossing the canals, so you know where you can detour to get to a rest stop.

The payoff is riding without worrying about cars or trucks, seeing the cotton and chile fields and pecan orchards up close, and just exploring parts of the region you can't see any other way.

Mountain Biking El Paso

2011-01-18T10:19:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been expanding my horizons, bicycling-wise, and trying out some of the Franklin Mountain trails on a used mountain bike I bought late last year.

I'm not going to go into particular trails in this post. The Borderland Mountain Bike Association has lots of information at http://bmba.wordpress.com/

I just want to post a few words of warning to fellow roadies, especially middle-aged ones like me, who aspire to go off-road.

The mountain trails around here are not for the faint of heart. I've been venturing out from where Redd Road ends, just past Helen of Troy, following the old jeep paths and single-track trails uphill toward Transmountain Road.

One of the trails ends with what is called "Ten Minutes of Hell," maybe 1,000 yards of pure, vicious rock surrounded by cactus that steeply ascends to a bluff next to Transmountain Road. In my case it was more like 15 or 20 minutes of hell since I had to walk quite a bit.

At least when I went out on my own, I tended to ride slow. The other day I asked a friend to show me some of his favorite trails. Of course they included TMOH. Just after we turned back to go downhill a further north on another trail, I fell and landed precariously atop a lechuguilla and prickly pear cactus. Fortunately I avoided catastophe and was able to pick out most of the cactus spines without much pain.

This kind of bicycling is a whole other sport. Road bicycling, except at a competitive level, actually doesn't require a lot of coordination. You sit on the bike and pedal. Mountain biking on trails like these requires a lot of coordination, great balance and reflexes, constant focus on the trail ahead, and tolerance for pain. While occasionally I will max out my heart rate on the road bike, I found myself consistently running out of juice climbing the steep sections of rocky road.

I'm not sure I will ever convert to mountain biking, but I hope to make it an occasional part of my cycling diet. If nothing else, it keeps me humble about road biking. Riding 20+ mph on the road is nothing compared to 5 mph on a rocky uphill trail.

Santa Teresa Time Trial

2010-10-12T10:22:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while you need to work on speed. One way is interval training -- occasional blasts of speed during a ride. We did this a few times this year on the Tuesday night Beginner Intermediate Group (BIG) rides. We would ride on some low-traffic rides as a group and every so often go at maximum speed for 45-60 seconds.

Another way is to talk your friends into a time trial event. We did this on an El Paso Bicycle Club ride last Saturday. The ride offered two time trials -- a 2 1/2 mile climbing segment and a 10K flat segment.

We rode up to the intersection of Artcraft and McNutt Road (Artcraft actually is called something else at that point -- I think it's Pete Domenici Hwy. McNutt is also known as NM 273). There's an area just west of the intersection where we regrouped. Riders were sent off one by one at 30 second intervals for the 2 mile climb, with the finish line another 1/2 mile away. Most of us did this in 9-11 minutes.

Then we rode south on Artcraft (Pete Domenici) to Columbus Road (it's 2 1/2 miles south of the intersection with Airport Road. About 1/2 mile or so west on Columbus there's a start line marked on the roadway. The road also has 2.5K, 5K and 10K markings. We did another time trial to the 10K line, using the same procedure. It took most of us between just under 16 minutes to just under 18 minutes on this very flat course with very little traffic.

Afterwards, we rode back to Pete Domenici Hwy and rode to the border crossing to get a few more miles in.

For an unofficial time trial like this, the easiest way is to just let each rider keep track of his or her own time. If you get a volunteer with a car, you can have that person synchronize a stopwatch (most cell phones and iPods have that feature) with a volunteer at the start line. The volunteer in the car can drive ahead to the finish line and record when people finish. This also has the advantage that the car can carry any extra gear (water bottles, saddle bags, clothing) that riders want to dump to lighten their load on the time trial.

Doing something like this every so often helps monitor how you're doing as far as speed and encourages you to keep doing intervals occasionally on other rides.

The map below just shows the two time trial segments.
Santa Teresa Time Trial
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Ditch ride to Vinton

2010-10-04T03:42:00.000-07:00

Ditch riding is a cross between road cycling and mountain biking. You ride a bit slower than on the road, but it's still offers a much smoother and consistent pace than riding mountain trails. There's also the advantage that the area's network of ditches offers miles and miles of traffic-free riding but you're always close to local roads in case you need a quicker way home.

On the first Sunday of October, three of us ventured out to Vinton via the Montoya, Canutillo and La Union East canals. We were lucky that this coincided with the last irrigation of the season, so the canals were running full. Riding along a canal brimming with water adds a special feel to the ride. We spotted ducks, egrets, a heron and roadrunner along the way.

We picked up a branch of the Montoya Canal at Country Club and the Rio Grande, and followed it to the Montoya Main at Montoya and Mulberry, then followed the main canal along Montoya until it met back up with the river levee. Between Artcraft and Borderland, the Montoya Canal goes underneath the river and joins the Canutillo Canal. We rode the levee road to Borderland, crossed the river and got on the Canutillo Canal just west of the river. From there, the canal runs north through farmland. North of FM 259 it enters the residential neighborhoods of Canutillo, passing by Canutillo Middle School and Gallegos Park.

The canal eventually merges with the La Union East canal, which travels through more farms and orchards. At South Vinton Road it was time to turn back, so we opted to take S. Vinton east to the river and ride the paved river trail back to Country Club.

This added up to a little over 20 miles, which takes nearly two hours. One of my goals is to do some segments along the canals going north, just to see if it's feasible to ride them all the way to Mesilla and beyond.

One word of caution about ditch riding: Make sure you are riding the most puncture-resistant tires you can get. At a couple of points we ran through weeds that covered our tires with goatheads. I had just changed the tubes on my bike to the thickest ones I could buy, and they held up well. One of my riding buddies ran out of luck with about a mile to go. It's a good idea to carry a patch kit, pump and extra tube in case of emergencies. Carry plenty of water, also -- it's a long way between places where you can refill a water bottle.

Ditch and river trail Vinton ride
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RIding across El Paso

2010-09-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

I was asked recently to offer my favorite cross-town route in El Paso. This is a difficult ride no matter what the options, because we lack bike-friendly routes in many areas.
Since I live in the Upper Valley, I occasionally take the long way to the far East Side: Transmountain to Loop 375. This is about 30 miles and involves climbing. It's also not very practical for most West Side-East Side trips.
I've attached a map of my most common route to the East Side. I take Doniphan to West Paisano to Delta to North Loop to North Carolina to Yarbrough. The part of this ride that scares some people is West Paisano. The traffic is fast, but a bicycle is fairly visible as you're going toward Downtown. There are bike lanes/routes designated most of the rest of the ride.
If you're going from east to west, West Paisano is trickier because the street curves in such a way that makes bicyclists less visible. One suggestion is to cut up to Yandell through Sunset Heights and then enter Paisano from Yandell. This involves a steep climb as you go into Sunset Heights, but avoid some of the riskier traffic as Paisano leaves Downtown.
If you are coming from the West Side, there are no good routes. Mesa is the only option for much of the way. At Brentwood you can head over to Stanton and take Stanton to Downtown. Or you can take Executive Center to West Paisano then to Downtown.
Occasionally I've taken Montana from Downtown to the East Side. I don't like it much because there are so many stoplights and so many side streets. It's very easy for a car NOT to see you.
No matter which route you take, cross-town riding is not for the faint of heart. Be as visible as you can be. Use a rear-view mirror if you can.

Cross-town ride
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Levee and Ditch Ride

2010-09-09T05:43:00.001-07:00

If riding the levee road all the way from El Paso to Mesilla (see previous post) is a bit over the top, there are plenty of easy scenic rides along the local levee roads and irrigation ditches.

Recently (Sept. 6) I led a small group on an El Paso Bicycle Club-sponsored ride of about 13 miles that featured the levee road and ditches in the Upper Valley.

We started at River Run Plaza and rode over to the levee road that goes along the east side of the Rio Grande from Country Club Road. Note: You have the option of both the ditch road and the levee road at this point; the ditch road has better shade and slighter softer surface than the hard-packed gravelly dirt of the levee.

We turned east where the ditch heads towards Camino Real, then south on the ditch that dead-ends (with a fence barring the way) at the drainage ditch. Before we got to the dead-end, we turned east on Woodland, rode a block on pavement then continued south on the Montoya Drive ditch. Where Montoya hits Meadowlark, we jogged over to the canal that runs parallel to Portsmouth (not to be confused with the drainage ditch that runs slightly to the east of that canal). This branch of the Montoya canal took us back to the Rio Grande levee, where we kept going southeast until we hit the Sunland Park bridge.

At the bridge, you can cut down to the left across some vacant land and then ride the sidewalk a few blocks until you hit the main Montoya canal after crossing the drainage ditch and before you get to Emory Road.

The Montoya canal took us all the way past Mulberry to Montoya Drive, where we turned south then west on the lateral canal that begins where Mulberry intersects Montoya. This canal took us back to the Rio Grande, where we turned south and got back to Country Club Road and River Run Plaza.

This was intended just as an introduction to the levee/ditch network. Once you become familiar with the major elements, you should feel free to explore various ditches and see where they lead.

Ditch riding to me is pure enjoyment, free of the need for speed I feel on a road bike or the danger of crashing that deters me from technical mountain biking.

Here's a map to get you started.
River Levee and Ditch Ride
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Levee Road to Las Cruces

2010-08-31T07:25:00.000-07:00

For some crazy reason, I decided to try riding the levee road all the way from Country Club Road to Las Cruces. The good news is that it is doable. I rode my 1988 Miyata 1000, a touring bike that has good all-purpose (32mm) tires. Any mountain bike, hybrid or cyclocross would be fine, but don't try this with a standard road bike.

I tried following the River Trail at the beginning, but there was too much water and mud covering portions of it.

The bad news was that the levee between O'Hara Road and Mesquite Road was having improvement done (they're raising the level of the levee like they did in El Paso's Upper Valley), so at times the road itself was very hard to ride on due to a soft surface from the new dirt. But there was almost always a hard-packed surface below the levee on the river side that was ridable.

It's slow going -- I averaged about 11 mph. It didn't seem so bad because it was all new to me. The view isn't all that great -- lots of weeds and salt cedar. But there's something about being all alone near the river that makes it fun.

The highlight was the area around Mesilla -- north of Hwy 28 and south of Calle del Norte. There's a large diversion dam that feeds the two major canals irrigating the Mesilla Valley. And the river runs near the west mesa so there is more to see.

If you do this ride, make sure you are well prepared with lots of water, snacks and spare tube, etc. If you get stuck, you could end up doing a lot of walking.

I rode back via NM 28. The map below shows the route I should have taken. In fact, I got a little confused and rode down Snow Road all the way back to 28 and had to ride 4 miles back to Mesilla so I could eat lunch at The Bean. The map shows a 71-mile ride. I clocked in 83 miles due to my 8-mile mistake plus the 4 miles to and from my house to the starting point shown (River Run Plaza).

You probably won't do this ride often, or if you do, you may want to try just part of it. But it's worth it just to get off the pavement and enjoy the freedom a bicycle provides.

Levee Road to Las Cruces
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Wine Ride

2010-07-19T16:47:00.000-07:00

New Mexico Highway 28 is the premier cycling route in our region, famed for its pecan orchards and other agricultural charms. One of those growing charms has been its wineries. For years there has been just one, La Viña Winery, famed not only for its award-winning wines but also for its semi-annual wine and jazz fests. Zin Valle Vineyards opened a few years ago south of La Viña, and in early 2009 Rio Grande Winery opened near Mesilla.
If you want to sample the vintages at all three wine tasting rooms, and don’t want to rely on a spouse or friend to transport your bike part of the way, the grand tour of Hwy 28 wineries involves about 50 miles of riding. A more attractive option for casual cyclists might be to get a ride to the first stop near Mesilla, then ride the 25 miles south to La Union. Either way, having someone in a car accompanying you is a must if you want to buy wine along the way (or overindulge with the tasting!).
For the first-ever El Paso Bicycle Club Wine Ride July 17, we started our ride at La Union Station, which is not a winery but on that particular day was offering live music beginning in the afternoon. We rode 22 miles north to Rio Grande Winery (which is about 4 miles south of the Mesilla Plaza).
Rio Grande Winery owner Gordon Steel is a stickler for serious wine tasting, so be prepared for a highly structured introduction to his wines. The tasting charge is $5, which includes a free glass or can be refunded with purchase of a bottle of wine.
From there we rode four miles back south and stopped at Stahmann Farms Country Store for an ice cream break (plus great pecan treats).
The next wine stop was 16 miles further down the road at La Viña, which officially has a $5 tasting charge (you can keep the souvenir glass). But we opted just to buy some bottles and share them (and the winery let us sample for free before our purchase).
The intended next stop was Zin Valle Vineyards, which is another four miles south. They have a very hospitable tasting room (and free tasting!), but the summer afternoon heat (and maybe the wine) was getting to us so we cut the ride short and returned to our starting point at La Union for food, music and beer.
For future rides, we probably start at Zin Valle to make sure we included all three wine stops, since it would be easy enough to ride back up to La Union Station afterward if we wanted dinner afterward.
Unfortunately, the only summer option was an afternoon ride because all three wineries are only open from noon to either 5 or 5:30 p.m. We wanted to check it out now, however, so we would know what to expect before offering it again in the fall.
Here’s the itinerary that goes with the map (the stops are marked with the blue W):

1. Start and end at
La Union Station
3117 Hwy 28, La Union
(at Mercantil, across from NM 186)
Ph: (575) 874-2828

2. Ride 22 miles north to
Rio Grande Winery
5321 Hwy 28, Mesilla
(4 miles south of Plaza)
(575) 524-3985
$5 wine tasting fee, refundable with purchase

3. Ride 6 miles south to Stahmann Farms Country Store
22505 Hwy 28, San Miguel
(ice cream, pecan treats)

4. Ride 16 miles south to La Vina Winery
4201 Hwy 28, La Union
(575) 882-7632
$5 Wine Tasting Fee

5. Ride 4 miles south to Zin Valle Winery
7315 Hwy 28, La Union
(915) 877-4544
Free Wine Tasting

6. Ride 3 miles north to La Union Station

&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/nm/anthony/370127932034982007"&amp;gt;Wine Ride&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/nm/anthony"&amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Anthony, New Mexico&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

Anthony Gap-Transmountain

2010-07-12T05:55:00.000-07:00

The Anthony Gap-Transmountain ride is the mainstay of serious cyclists in El Paso. Depending on the route, it's about 44 miles with a great combination of climbing and flat riding. I always feel like I've put in a good ride when I'm finished.
On this particular day (July 11), the El Paso Bicycle Club's official ride was to the top of Anthony Gap and back, but five of us decided to keep going and do the full AG-TM loop.
From the West Side, you have the option of doing the Gap or Transmountain first. To be honest, doing TM first is the best way to go, particularly in summer. Get the hardest part out of the way before the temperatures rise. Also, the eastbound ascent of TM and the westbound grade on AG are both easier on the legs.
We started in the parking lot on Resler across from Franklin High School. This is a good place to begin and end a ride because there is a bike shop (Power Shots) and good places to eat (The Bagel Shop is a favorite). You head north on Resler, and can take your choice of 1) staying on Resler all the way to Transmountain, then turn west and get on the frontage road; or 2) cut over via Helen of Troy/Northwestern/Paso del Norte (Artcraft), which is a bit easier.
The frontage roads along I-10 are often referred to as "The Rollers" because there they keep going up and down. Stay on the northbound frontage road (also known as Desert Blvd North) until you get to Anthony (I-10 exit 0). You can't go any further or else you will enter the freeway. Turn left and go past the I-10 off/on ramps on the other side of the freeway then turn right on Sandia Road, which is a 2-way road that takes you to O'Hara Road. There is a gas station/convenience store at Sandia and Anthony Road that is a popular rest stop for cyclists.
Once you're on O'Hara road, it's an 8-mile ride east across Anthony Gap (see details below). O'Hara (NM 404) dead-ends at War Road; turn right and go south. War Road becomes Martin Luther King once you hit the state line and enter El Paso. At MLK and U.S. 54, look for the Shell station on your left if you need a rest and water bottle refill. From there, turn right onto the U.S. 54 frontage road and continue south to Transmountain, then get ready to climb (see details below).
Just past the top of TM coming from the east, you can cross the road to get to the overlook picnic areas.
As you approach the bottom of the descent on TM, look for the left turn to get onto Resler, which will take you back to the starting point. (Resler is exactly one mile uphill from I-10).
For folks who are not familiar with Anthony Gap or Transmountian, here's what you need to know.
"Anthony Gap" refers to the pass between the Franklin and Organ Mountains. NM 404 (also known as O'Hara road or sometimes Anthony Gap road) goes through the pass, connecting I-10 on the west side to Martin Luther King (also known as War Road) on the east. It's about 8 miles long, with a maximum elevation of nearly 4400 feet in the middle. The west end (I-10) is about 3,900 feet; the eastern end (War Road) is about 4,100 feet high. So the west to east route involves much more climbing.
Some warning/advice: the shoulders on O'Hara road are nice and wide but full of debris. Make sure you're prepared for flats!
Transmountain Road (Loop 375) spans I-10 on west and U.S. 54 (Patriot Freeway) on the east. It's about 10.7 miles. Elevation begins at about 3880 on the west side and 4,000 on the east, rising to 5,280 at the summit. It's about a 6-mile climb from the west and 4.5 miles from the east. East to west is a much tougher climb, but the descent to the west side is longer and in my opinion, safer. The eastbound descent involves more severe curves and, at times, unpredictable crosswinds.

Anthony Gap-Transmountain
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La Mesa Loop

2010-07-07T06:02:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I just want to ride flat and look at the scenery. I have a strong preference for loop rides, so that I have more to look at instead of just returning via the same way I went out. This La Mesa Loop is a great flat 1/2 century ride for just that purpose.

This ride encompasses the Wednesday night route (see earlier post), but adds another 13 miles. After heading up Upper Valley Road to Borderland to Bosque to Vinton to Westside, the ride goes east on Washington, then north on Dairy Farm, connecting to O'Hara Road and then north again on Three Saints past Berino. On this ride, I tried out Six Mile Road to link up with NM 478 to Vado, then headed west on NM 189 to get to NM 28 and then the turnaround at Eagle Grocery in La Mesa.

Eagle Grocery, by the way, is a popular rest stop for all the cyclists going between El Paso and Mesilla. It's a mom-and-pop market with all the usual convenience store stuff plus good empanadas and burritos if you're hungry.

For the the return trip, I stuck to NM 28 then back home via the usual Weds. night route (FM 259 to Gato to Morrill to Cocula to Upper Valley).

It adds up to about 47 miles on the map -- just over 50 for my ride since I rode from my home. I did this on a hot summer day between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., so this was plenty.

La Mesa Loop
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Rollers and River Anthony Gap Ride

2010-05-07T18:41:00.000-07:00

I was in the mood today for a ride with a lot of variety. I decided to head to Anthony Gap, but picked a different route that was perfect for a warm mid-day ride. I headed up Upper Valley Road, took the bike path along Artcraft east to Strahan then north to Borderland and east to the Rio Grande where I rode along the River Trail north to Vinton Road. The River Trail is perfect on a weekday when there are few walkers, so I can ride at a fairly fast clip without annoying the pedestrians and casual riders.

At Vinton Road I turned east to get onto the frontage road along I-10 (aka "the rollers"). Vinton Road, which has been completely redone from Doniphan to I-10, is the easiest access to the rollers (Thorn, Redd and Transmountain all are steeper). From there I went north to Anthony Exit 0, then crossed I-10 to get onto Sandia Road, a 2-way road that runs alongside I-10 north to O'Hara Road (you have to cross over -- the frontage road enters the freeway at this point). O'Hara Road is the Anthony Gap road. I rode to the summit and turned around.

When I got to Anthony, I decided to take NM 478 back into Anthony then turn west on Washington Street and get back onto the River Trail. This is a little dicey for road bikes, since you have to ride on unpaved levee road along the east side of the river for about 1/2 mile before picking up the River Trail again.

The River Trail runs along the east side of the Rio Grande for about 2 1/2 miles north of Vinton Road then crosses over to the west side where it continues for 10 miles, ending just north of Country Club Road. Today I was running short on time, so I crossed over to Doniphan when I hit Doniphan. The route on the map gives a slightly alternate route for riders who begin and end at River Run Plaza.

I figured out how to embed the map into the blog, so here goes (when I get time, I will go back and edit the earlier posts to embed those maps as well).

&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/tx/el-paso/383127328252470245"&amp;gt;Rollers and River Anthony Gap Ride&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/tx/el-paso"&amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in El Paso, Texas&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

La Union / Border Crossing

2010-04-16T12:42:00.000-07:00

This is a typical ride for me: Head north through the Upper Valley, connecting to Hwy 28 and up to La Union, then take La Union Road to Alvarez to McNutt to Artcraft to the Border Crossing, returning via Airport Road and McNutt to Country Club. It's about 32 miles total (actually 36 from my home, but I use River Run Plaza as the starting and ending point for maps). Here's the link (map is shown below the post):

http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/tx/el%20paso/168127144731919989

This is a good everyday ride because it has a lot of variety and not much traffic. I feel pretty comfortable riding while listening to my iPod on these roads.

The first 15 miles are pretty much of a warmup. Then there's the climb up Artcraft, which get the heart pumping. By the time I get to the overpass just the Airport Road intersection, I'm ready to crank up the speed for the 5-mile flat stretch to the border crossing and the five miles back. Then there's the downhill cruise on Airport and a short jaunt back to the starting point.

I always cut through the University of Phoenix parking lot 1) to avoid the stoplight at McNutt and Country Club; and 2) it makes a fun bicycle slalom course as I make my way around the speed bumps.

La Union Border Crossing Route
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Wednesday Night Rides

2010-04-15T10:52:00.000-07:00

The oldest biking tradition in El Paso is the Wednesday night ride during Daylight Savings Time. The ride starts at 6 p.m. from River Run Plaza on Country Club road (sometimes earlier depending on the group and whether it’s early or late in the season, when there is less daylight to work with). The usual route is a 24-mile loop that goes north along Upper Valley back roads to Washington Street in Anthony, then west to Gadsden High School, returning south on Hwy 28 to FM 259 and other roads connecting back to Upper Valley Road.

Back in an earlier biking phase in the mid-1990s, the route was shorter and more social. We would ride 10 miles up to La Union Station, have a beer and return. The only reason for going fast was to allow time for a second beer. It was a lot of fun and attracted riders of all abilities.

When I returned to riding in 2007, the Wednesday night rides had become more of training ride, with lots of fast riders leading the way. Usually there are several groups leaving River Run and riders generally find plenty of company at whatever pace they want to ride. El Paso Bicycle Club members often hang out afterwards at Hello Pizza at River Run.

La Union Station later closed down, but a couple of years ago it reopened and just this past year regained its beer and wine license. So in 2010, on the first Wednesday night of the season, March 17 (St. Patrick’s Day), we re-inaugurated the traditional Pub Ride. La Union Station usually isn’t open Wednesday nights, but agreed to host the cyclists that night. It was so successful that La Union agreed to host it on a monthly basis, so upcoming Pub Rides will be May 5 (Cinco de Mayo), June 2, July 7, Aug. 4, Sept. 1 and Oct. 6. Pub Rides will start at 5:30 p.m. for those who can get there early.

Wednesday night rides are not for the faint of heart. By mid-summer, there can be as many as 75 riders taking off, and after a few miles of warmup pace, the ride turns into a race for those so inclined. Usually the fast riders wait to turn on their turbochargers until they reach Bosque Road just past Canutillo Middle School and Gallegos Park, The pace will suddenly jump to 26 to 30 mph in spurts, forming a peloton of hard-core riders in front. The pace may back off a bit afterward, especially on the bumpy, chip-sealed sections of Vinton Road and Westside Drive, then may speed up again once the riders turn south on Hwy 28. Because we have so many riders packed together at times, with many struggling to hang on to the fast pace, Wednesday night rides have been the scene of some of our worst accidents. Last summer I went down when I clipped the wheel in front of me, sending me to the asphalt at 24 mph. Not only the worst case of road rash I had ever suffered, but it also ranked among the worst my friends had seen. I was still able to get back on the bike and finish the ride (I was halfway done at the time), but decided to go to a clinic the next day for a tetanus shot and some professional bandaging.

The pace varies with the wind, which can be very strong in the spring – usually a crosswind coming from the west. Thunderstorms may hamper the ride during mid-summer and occasionally other times.
Some of the advanced riders may opt for a slightly longer route, returning via McNutt and Artcraft. Other riders can choose a shorter distance, cutting over to Hwy 28 via Vinton Road North or South instead of going all the way to Washington Street.

A map of the typical Wednesday night ride is posted at
www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/tx/el-paso/572451579

Last night (April 14) was an unusually perfect evening for April. The temperature was in the 70s, the wind was a comfortable 10 mph from the west. I was with a group of club riders who started a few minutes before 6 p.m. Somewhere along Bosque Road a peloton of faster riders passed us and three of us managed to hang on at the rear. They dropped up on Westside Drive and the three of us hung together with vague hopes of catching back up. At the southward turn on Hwy 28, we passed some club riders who had started earlier and were taking a break at Gadsden High. I slowed a bit too much and my two colleagues, Fred (the Ironman Recumbent Rider) and Fidel dumped me. Eventually another group caught up to me and I was able to hang on long enough to catch back up with Fred and Fidel and couple of other riders. We finished the ride averaging over 21 mph, not bad for early in the season.

Wednesday Routes
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Welcome to Biking El Paso

2010-04-15T10:49:00.000-07:00

This is a new blog I created to promote bicycling in El Paso. I won't say too much about it right now because I don't know exactly how it will evolve. My intent is to recruit some fellow cyclists to post about their favorite rides to encourage other to explore the various cycling options in the El Paso region. It will take a while to get this going, but hopefully it will benefit the area's cycling community.
-- Randy