Ah, the sun! Finally! Today we ride! Really! After breakfast we head for Loma, about 22 miles away. Well, ok, we’re not going INTO Loma, the trails are about five miles outside of town, and today, we’re doing Kokopelli. It’s famous. Hell, it was famous twenty years ago when we were first mountain biking, and The Bear has wanted to ride it ever since. Needless to say, when we got here  she was royally pissed, and rightfully so, what with all the rain – it was iffy if she was going to get to ride it this time. Anyway, here’s the trailhead:

Yeah, I cut off the right side – I took it as I was leaving, and I was TIRED. Deal with it!

First loop we did was Rustler’s Loop, an easy one. Here are some shots:

We were riding atop this … ridge … mesa … thing … river waaaay down there.

This is looking the other direction from the last shot, and up close to the edge so you can see the river. The things I go through for my readers …

After Rustler’s Loop, we thought we’d do Mary’s Loop, this one an intermediate. Yeah. Here’s a shot of a guy climbing the very beginning of the trail, and it goes up a lot further than you can see.

He’s just left of center in the middle of the photo. I made sure I held the phone level for this, did not want to exaggerate the slope. Below the trail is a line of rocks, and that is steeper than the trail, which gives the illusion the trail is steeper than it is – trust me, it’s steep enough as it is! Here’s a photo of later in the trail:

Why. yes, it does overlook the same mountains! Mary’s Loop is just beside the land that had Rustler’s Loop. While up there, what do we see? RAIN CLOUDS. Damn!

The Bear gives them a one-finger salute, and at least for a while they don’t pour rain on us. I took another shot at this same location:

It’s clear that direction, the dark clouds are to my right – my bike has not moved from the last shot. It’s on the far left in this shot. I cross my fingers that the rain stays away. For good measure, here’s a pano of the area Mary’s overlooks:

It was weird, click on the pano to see it larger – on the left, rain clouds, and VERY dark, on the right, full sun!

In the middle of Mary’s Loop, there’s a trail that drops off to the left, that gives you access to another trail – Horsethief Loop. The connector is not impossible to ride, but I’ll bet only one in a thousand can ride it, or is crazy enough to ride it. I didn’t get a shot of it while on it, unfortunately, but I did get some shots of it from below:

See that line of rocks that goes from lower left to upper right, the really big ones? Yeah, THAT is the lower half of the climb (or descent, depending). Here’s another as I got closer:

You approach on the trail, go left, that’s easy to ride, and you end up where the top of that bush is on the left. Then you climb to the right, along the big boulders. Yes, it’s hard, yes, it’s dangerous – not TOO much so, but it’s easy to fall on the trail or twist an ankle. You would not fall far, but you would hit hard and probably break something. It’s only about 80 feet, bottom to top along the trail, but it’s a hard one that takes a few minutes. That was NOT the fun part. The rest of it had its moments, and we had to walk quite a bit, but the rideable parts were fun. I would do it again. While on it, of course the sky started to spit on us, the pitter-patter of rain. Damn! The Bear gives the clouds another single-finger salute, and in a few minutes, the spitting stops. How does she DO that? I don’t fear her, I respect her. Ok, maybe a little bit of fear.

Anyway, when we got to the top, we’d had enough and decided to go back down Mary’s Loop the way we came. We parked at the entrance to the Kokopelli area, and there will be a massive climb out of the valley to get back to the truck. And the part that really sucks, is that after you climb out of the valley, you drop about half the distance to get back to the truck. Yes, up, then down again. They couldn’t just go straight across? Maybe a tunnel? Oh, well. It is what it is.

Ok, on the way back, I shoot a pano from Mary’s Loop, of the land that has Rustler’s Loop on it:

Click on it to see the trail, then click on it again to zoom in. Cool! At the top of the massive climb, before descending, I get a shot of Junior:

Yes, it’s that far out and that far down. Here’s a close up:

That was it – we were done for the day. On the way home, though, I saw some really cool clouds just before we pulled into the KOA, so I pulled out the good camera and took some shots, unfortunately, there are wires and poles in the way, but all of you should know, you have to shoot when you have the light, because the light does not wait!

Yes, very cool!