Abiqui to Ojo Exploration Ride

Here's a ride report from yesterday's epic ride. Also posted in ADVRider Rockies Regional Forum. Enjoy.

Yesterday I went on a solo ride to explore some of the riding areas north of where I live (North NM - weather was awesome too)....seems to me since I've been on here not too many reports from the area, so I decide to do some scouting for a group ride in the future.

I call this ride the Abiqui to Ojo (short for Ojo Caliente). I planned this all out by maps, not knowing what I would encounter. Here is a map of the ride. The red is what I actually rode. The green or blueare sections I wanted to ride, but for various reasons (like the road didn't exist or was way to washed out arroyo), that plan was thwarted.


In any case, starting from Espanola and heading west toward toward the Jemez on FR144 (I road avery familiar to alot of us) :


It is a well bladed dirt hwy , and then you start to climb along this ridge:


Soon you find yourself amonst somes seens next to Santa Clara peak like this (this apot alway makes for a good photo op of my ride too):






In the north Jemez near the caldera, you do reach elevations of about 10,800 ft on FR144. Given the fact that we had snow earlier in the week, there are reminders that winter is coming:


Here's another nice view from FR144:


Soon after peaking, and still heading west on FR144, I start to descend I begin to see my first destination before lunch: Abiqui down below (looking north) in the distance.




My chosen route to begin a northward direction is FR99 off of FR144. This eventually takes you to NM Hwy96 and Abiqui Lake, but there's a alot of riding & sighseeing between this turn off and the hwy. This is the turn off to haed north:


FR99 may look like another dirt hwy, but shortly after this turn off there is a fork called 99A that really takes you thru some neat areas that aren't so well groomed:




Some improvisation is required to get to these places:


This 99A route then gets you connect with what I think is FR100. Here is a clearing on FR100.


Other pics from FR100:




As I approach Abiqui, I get these nice scenes of the famous red rock in the area:


Also notice the terrain becomes more desert-like:


I finally make it to NM Hwy 96 and stop to take some pics of Lake Abiqui:




I then decide it would be fun to go down and ride along the Rio Chama as I make my way for my first stop and refuel in Abiqui convenince store. This is where I drop down to the river:


This is how close you get to the water along Rio Chama:




It's a wonderful little section:




You get to peer into some of the red rock canyons:




Well, I finally get to the Abiqui convenience store to refuel and head out again. The next section
of the ride had its "surprises" waiting for me.

Out of Abiqui and on my quest to Ojo by way of El Rito, I started along this road just NE of Abiqui (this is the blue portion of my attempted route) off of Co Rd 155. The road is not the one that is graded on the left, but rather the obscure one on the right going into a canyon:


Needless to say, my attempt along this quickly turned into a rock hell. It is no longer a road, but turned into a nightmare of rock & boulders. I dumped the bike (no pics of this), and being solo, I decided to back out and give it up.

Instead I had to take the highway (NM Hwy 554) to El Rito for lack of an alternative.

Here's an interesting rock formations off of Hwy 554:


Once in El Rito, I got on to Co Rd 247 and went north. This is where I hit dirt again. Here's pics of the road:




I get to my farthest point north. By now I am well into the Carson NF and on my way to Ojo in a roundabout way. Off of Co Rd. 247, there is a great stretch that was fun to explore. It "cuts" through the mountains as you head back south-southwest. I think this one is FR122:






Although FR122 is called a forest road, there are some treacherous parts that can put you off the side into a canyon if you are not paying attention:




Lots of rock walls around this canyon:






I get out of FR122 at NM SR 111 and make final dirt connection to Ojo off of this. I do not know the name of this dirt "road", but near Ojo it is call Co Rd 477 & 478. The gate leading into was open and it began innocently enough:


However, after the horizon in the previous pic, the road disappears into this arroyo river wash :


This was fun! I saw only one other set of tracks thru here (probably a truck), but there could be no other delight than kicking up fresh dirt & sand:




What a playground! It's called Arroyo El Rito.




There was lot of space and some interesting formations along this arroyo:




As I made my way ever closer to Ojo, I realized that there is alot more exploring in this area to do.

This is my final pic just before I hit US Hwy 285 in Ojo (I slabbed it back home from there).


Another "surprise" before after this last pic was that I had to cross Ojo Caliente Rio. No the water was not hot...Although my muscles could've used the healing hot springs in the area. But there was alot of water running in the river that I almost fell (no pics of this river crossing either, sorry)

This is where I pop out from Arroyo El Rito back on US Hwy 285 to go home (Los Alamos):
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Co%20Rd%20478&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl

All in all I say the exploration was just the tip of the iceberg. I hope there is more good weather ahead to return to find more treasures.

Atomic:

Good stuff! And WATER, too!

It's cool to see the brittle-bush so heavily in bloom. At least I think that's what it is.

Thanks for sharing.

Dave

The "brittle" stuff in yellow that's in bloom is called "Chamisa" out here. Native to the area and generally grows between 4000 to 7500 ft elevation. It only blooms at this time of the year from late Aug thru early Oct.

Geo

Dave P wrote:Atomic:

Good stuff! And WATER, too!

It's cool to see the brittle-bush so heavily in bloom. At least I think that's what it is.

Thanks for sharing.

Dave

Well, at least I got the family (Asteraceae) right.

Dave

Very nice.

Do you have and electrical outlet to power your GPS?

I need to ride in NM!

Any snow as of yet?

No, my Garmin Rino 530HCx runs off a 8.4V, 2400 mAh Li ion rechargeable battery. It works great. It has plenty of juice to run all day. I've ridden days and tracked for as long as 12hrs, and by the end of the day it still have 40% charge. For example, this weekend's ride I started at 8:30AM and had it on all day till the end of the ride at about 4:30PM, and it still had 55% charge. If I really push it, it'll last two days (all day rides), but I usually charge it up overnight if I am riding the next day. Charging time is a few hours.

As for snow...yes it snowed once briefly last week, and it melted...it only stuck around at high elevation like above 10k ft. The mountain peaks in the area are at 11k to 12k ft, and they have dustings of snow.

I think we should plan a forum group ride here and another one in AZ...that way we get to taste the terrains in each state. Payson, AZ sounds like a place I would want to ride.

AURORA wrote:Very nice.

Do you have and electrical outlet to power your GPS?

I need to ride in NM!

Any snow as of yet?

My understanding of the Rinos is they are easy on batteries unless you are using the radio. Then it really eats them if you are on the radio a lot. Like a few hours for chatters.

And some say if you are really riding hard or in a lot of impacts that the battery will bounce inside the it and it will reboot.

I really like the idea of a Rino. Especially seeing where everyone else is. Can't tell you how many people don't understand "Follow me."

This is correct. I usually shut off the radio part. If I do use the radio, I get about 5-6 hours on the charge.

The battery however, does not bounce or come loose. It is clip-locked on, and no way comes loose even in hard bump rides. It has never rebooted on me either.

Can't say I've used the fellow rider locating/tracking feature much other than a copule of times, but it does work.

Bump wrote:My understanding of the Rinos is they are easy on batteries unless you are using the radio. Then it really eats them if you are on the radio a lot. Like a few hours for chatters.

And some say if you are really riding hard or in a lot of impacts that the battery will bounce inside the it and it will reboot.

I really like the idea of a Rino. Especially seeing where everyone else is. Can't tell you how many people don't understand "Follow me."

Nice report! Makes me want to hit the road. I've done some exploring via 4x4 out there, but never hauled the bike out.

Nothing better than exploring new territory!

I really like this place.