Gateway Off-Road Cyclists (GORC): south boundary

On the last riding day, GORC headed up to Garcia Park and offered three ride scenarios; Ride from there down South Boundary to town (11 miles); Ride Jaracita as a loop and ending on South Boundary back at Garcia Park (14 miles); or kill it and ride the Jaracita loop and then take South Boundary all the way to town (31 miles).

Half the group rode from the cars to town, though, they made a group decision and detoured onto the Ojito Canyon trail which made their total 18 miles. The other half rode Jaracita loop with Bryan, Ross and Jason leading ahead to also tackle the epic down into town.

However, little did we know, Jaracita's upper reaches was comprised of narrow singletrack/bear track with large stretches of just beaten down grass. It was a truly awesome trail with alpine views and the sense of riding where not many people go - except bears, deer, cows, elk, squirrels and cougars. The riding was generally uphill until we got to South Boundary at which point Jon, Tom, Mari and Steve W saw the black death cloud forming over our descent.

The final GORC ride was, as always, truly epic. Thunder clouds, lightning, heavy rain, coldness and wet electronics, I wasn't going to forget this ride. The descent was sketch, especially without glasses (hey, where are they?) and I forgot about the two mile climb near the cars at Garcia.

The loop riders all got wet. The townies stayed dry and rode the most mileage. It was a great last day in Taos.

Following a chicken path - it was an adventure that reminded me of the Alpine Tunnel loop.

Only bent grass indicated the trail in several spots

The narrowest singletrack of the week. Steve W was in heaven

Speaking of heaven, New Mexico felt like giving us a good old beat down. A great shot but it all went to hell six minutes later.

The South Boundary trail is Taos' trail gem. It's the equivalent of going to Salida and riding the Monarch Crest or Durango for Kennebac Pass.

We loaded up the trucks and drove for about an hour up into the mountains where we dropped Jason and Ross off at the Elliot Barker trail to get a longer ride. The South Boundary is right around 20 miles and coupled with Elliot Barker they were looking at about a 34 mile ride.

Once they were dumped off we continued onto a rough dirt road before reaching the trailhead. All the riders unloaded and Suzanne, Mike, Glenn and Karen were all kind enough to take the vehicles to the end of the ride. Had they not our shuttle recovery mission would've added an extra tiring hour to the day.

The South Boundary shot up at a steep but rideable percentage. We climbed an additional 800 feet at the start before topping out at 10,700 feet at the trail's crest. From there it was all generally downhill except for the uphills in the middle.

However, once we passed Garcia Park and climbed a bit more we got to experience an 11 mile downhill more or less. Flying through the aspens it was hard to take in the scenery at times. But - you also don't want your eyes to stray as the mountainside grade sloped away enough to make you pucker.

Eventually South Boundary quit playing nice and dropped 1900 feet in 2.5 miles. This part of the trail traversed the arid lower elevations so large loose rock and outcroppings kept things mighty interesting at speed.

After four hours of downhill bliss, smoked brakes, a bent chain and 'wondering' where Ross and Jason might be we rolled into the parking lot and drank in the scenery.... in a can.

You'll have to ask Jason about the bear in the woods, a guy with a weed eater, getting lost with a gps course and how much he cares for Elliot Barker for the full story.