This trip is a bicycle ride on paved roads from Jemez Springs to the Gilman Tunnels and back. The trip is in conjunction with the Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC), and is free for Los Alamos Mountaineers Members and PEEC Members, but PEEC charges a small fee for non members.
Background: This is another in a series of hikes that I like to call local treasures. We live in a spectacular setting, but often find ourselves fleeing the area to get away from our weekday lives on the weekends. There are spectacular adventures to be had within minutes of where we live. This is one of them. Monument Canyon was a designation given to the area in 1932 to protect a 1-square-mile section of old growth Ponderosa Pine Forest. I like to think it was given the name due the number of tent rocks and hoodoos in the area.
Join Zack for a nice fall bike ride and coffee on Saturday, Oct 22. We'll start at the Motorola building at TA3 and bicycle around past Bandelier. We'll stop for coffee at the Pig and Fig in White Rock, then continue back to Los Alamos. We'll start around 8:30 to let it warm up a little. Let Zack know if you want to come at zackbaker@gmail.com
This is an announcement for an October 2016 White Rim trail Mountain bike ride, October 17 through October 22. This is an approximately 100 mile mountain bike ride, ridden in 4.5 days with four nights camping, and will be supported by three 4WD vehicles. The route is very beautiful through southern Utah canyon country. While good mountain biking skills are required, the route is not particularly technical. However, the ride from the mesa top down to the White Rim (first day) and the ride up to the mesa top (last day) requires some skill and endurance and/or hike-a-bike.
I previously announced a Canyon Country trip for these dates, and am happy to now provide details. We have taken dozens of backpacking and pack trips to the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument area over the decades. All of the time, we have been driving past a number of interesting day hikes as we head deeper into the wilderness.
get more comfortable and efficient riding uphill, downhill, lean your bicycle into turns to keep momentum going, use your brake less because speed is your friend in mountain biking: learn how to get over small rocks.
Bring your bicycle, helmet, gloves, water and snacks
Meeting Place: Los Alamos horse stable arena at 10 am (at the east end of the horse stables on North Mesa), will be out at least until noon
get more comfortable and efficient riding uphill, downhill, lean your bicycle into turns to keep momentum going, use your brake less because speed is your friend in mountain biking: learn how to get over small rocks.
Bring your bicycle, helmet, gloves, water and snacks
Meeting Place: Los Alamos horse stable arena at 10 am (at the east end of the horse stables on North Mesa), will be out at least until noon
Canyoneering in Zion National Park
(A 2016 trip of the Los Alamos Mountaineers)
Pre-Trip Training:TBD (Two days)
Trip to Zion National Park: September 29th - October 4th
Trip Leader: Daniel Creveling
This is an all-day trip that begins/ends at Taos Ski Valley (TSV) and covers ~9 miles and ~5,100 feet of elevation. We can drive to and park near the Phoenix Grill at TSV. The plan is to hike up the Chair 4 route and the higher Kachina Chair route to Kachina Peak (12,481 ft), then hike CCW over Lake Fork Peak (12,881'), then along the cirque ridgeline over unnamed peaks 12,807' and 12,728' to Wheeler Peak (13,761'), and finally down to Williams Lake and back to the cars. This traverse is mostly Class 2 with several Class 3 portions with exposure that should not be taken lightly.
