Gila Wilderness Loop

Man, did we have a great time! A 10 day bike trip around the Gila Wilderness. We started outside of Mimbres, NM and headed North. Our first night we camped in Rocky Canyon, we only went six miles that first day, but it was a steep, rocky six miles. Plus, this was our first big adventure since leaving Florida (Sea Level) and our elevations for this trip were between something like 5000 ft and 9500 feet. We then camped at Black Canyon where we met Kevin, Adrian, and Steve who were riding the Continental Divide trail. We then headed up to Dry Diamond Creek - which happened to not be dry this year and then up to Beaverhead workstation. We then headed west, a 31 mile day to Snow Lake and then down to Willow Creek. We then went to two of our favorite little towns Mogollon and Glennwood. Then hit the Highway back to Silver City. It was an amazing trip, highly recommended, just make sure the water sources are available, we hit it on a wet year and I guess Beaverhead used to be a year round water source, but now it's shutting down for the winter. We hit it 2 days before it closed for the season. We will post some pics from this loop soon.

Gila National Forest - Generalized Forest Map

We are in Reserve, New Mexico and I'm typing as fast as possible because we're headed into the Gila National Forest this afternoon! The plan is to ride up along the Wilderness boundary, and then make a giant loop depending on how the weather stays! And it should be good, keep your fingers crossed.

Gila National Forest - Generalized Forest Map

2nd Street Brewery Santa Fe, New Mexico

Our first stop on our bike and brew tour was the 2nd Street Brewery (www.secondstreetbrewery.com) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, recommended to us by Frankie at Frankie Flats bike shop. It has a nice laid-back atmosphere and the Hot Club of Santa Fe was playing upbeat bluegrass music in the background. I stuck to the ESB Extra Special Bitter, a "caramel/nutty beer with a fruity profile," I found it to be a smooth, mellow and overall tasty beer. Dan had an IPA, Cream Stout and Rod's Bitter Ale. They were all fairly tasty: the IPA was mellow with a hoppy aftertaste, the cream stout was fine and thick but easily digestible and the Bitter was also good, but Dan can't really remember anything about it. Maybe three beers was one too many ~ they also happily filled our growler with the ESB and it's chilling in our cooler right now waiting to be drank on a hot day after a long bike ride. Also, the food was very good, we split the mussels, nachos, and "christmas" enchiladas. All were very yummy, but was maybe a little too much for two people, the servings were big and we walked away very stuffed.