Riding the New Mexico Backcountry Discovery Route (BDR)
I did ride the New Mexico BDR twice that year but not the entire trail. The first trip was a TARA event organized by Richard in May. The ride started in Ruidoso to finish in Bernalillo and back to Ruidoso. You can check Richard's ride report on Two Wheeled Texans forum. The second trip was in October and was also loop but starting in Carlsbad this time to end up in Reserve. |
 |
I was riding my AfricaTwin on the first trip and the CRF 250 Rally on the second one. My son was riding its KTM 1090. Needless to say that I had much more fun with the 250 the second time. The pictures and videos for this ride report are mostly from the second trip with occasional pics from June trip.
The ride from Carlsbad to Ruidoso was quite long (over 300 Miles), mostly gravel and small rocks except for the paved section from Carlsbad to the point where we cross the BDR.
|
|
After Carrizozo, it is a nice and easy ride through cattle ranches.
The next trail section was the famous Jornada del muerto, a long sandy stretch of about 80 miles that starts somewhere on the 380 and goes all the way south to Elephant Butt. The trail may have deep sand, which we did experience unfortunately after about 25 miles. The ride was becoming uneasy and I was more and more skeptical about making it to the end so we agreed it was safer to turn back and take an alternate route.
 |
| la Jornada del muerto |
 |
| My son is keeping some distance...you never know. |
The next day from Truth or Consequences to Reserve was the most challenging. Chloride Canyon is a very rocky trail with couple of tricky switchbacks. Also the rocky section close to Reserve is rather difficult on a big motorcycle; it is steep, narrow and very rocky.
The section between Truth or Consequences and Winston is very scenic and perfect for an early morning ride. We stopped at the only gas station in Winston to top off the gas tank, the next service being pretty much around Reserve. The Winston general store has about everything you need and it's a nice place to cool off before tackling Chloride canyon.
Well sometimes it doesn't exactly go as per plan but luckily so far no serious injuries. The KTM's rear shock have been leaking for a while and the gnarly rocky terrain that we had been riding so far did not help at all.
 |
| This crash took us an hour before getting back on track |
 |
| yeah that one did hurt a bit... |
We finally got to Reserve late afternoon.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
For the return route from TorC we decided to take an alternate route to the south to Las Cruces and then up north to Cloudcroft where we would spend the night. We also picked this route because it's going to be more gentle on the KTM's shock. There is not much oil left in the shock and it's going to be needed the following day to get to Carlsbad.
Slightly before Hatch we saw a trail that seemed to be a nice shortcut across the desert. The map confirmed the existence of the trail so we decided to go for it. Well there was a trail indeed but it was not too friendly as we got stuck for a couple of hours in really deep sand. The temperature was way over 100F and one crash drained up all our energy; I swear I never sweat that much in my life.
 |
 |
 |
 |
The rest of the day went well and we did recover pretty well in Cloudcroft that night. We did start early next morning for the last day ride back to Carlsbad. The KTM 's shock was completely dead by now and the ride was a true nightmare as the motorcycle was bottoming constantly on every little pothole.
We finally arrived by late afternoon, exhausted but truly happy by the journey.
Comments
Post a Comment