A few of us in El Paso, TX (it's the furthest west you can go in Texas before you either jump the Mexican border or get into New Mexico) are putting together a little shindig the weekend of November 2. The main ride is a 65 miler from Dell City, TX to Dog Canyon Campground (DC3) in the Guadalupe National Park. It's about 65 miles...30'ish dirt. Here is the gpx track for that section.
http://geobetty.com/rides/guadalupe-mtns-nat-park-tx/96/dell-city-to-dog-canyonI'm trying to find some folks that would be interested in a 300 miler that would overlap with the group riding the DC3 course and camp with some others. My route would start at the edge of El Paso near Hueco Tanks and take the Hueco Ranch Road to Dell City. I'm thinking about starting this at the butt crack of dawn or before on that Saturday with hopes of making it all the way to Dog Canyon around nightfall or slightly after. Lights would be necessary for sure. There is actually a bit of traffic on these roads as the Border Patrol runs regular patrols out there. They'll be watching us with FLIR and we'll most likely not see half of them. Here is the gpx track for that stretch.
http://geobetty.com/rides/el-paso-tx/94/hueco-ranch-road-to-dell-cityThe second day may end up being closer to 150 miles or more. I need to work on the track. I had it but lost it when my computer crashed. It would head due north from Dog Canyon and follow the old National Livestock Rd up to 24 and head west through Pinon, NM and on to the pavement at the Border checkpoint on US 54. It's about 60 miles of pavement back to El Paso. I might work up a shuttle for that or try to hitch-hike back.
The weather is awesome that time of year with temps at night only getting down to around 50 or so. Some years it's been MUCH warmer and we've seen rattlesnakes out at night on that weekend. Food would be the biggest issue as Dell City doesn't have much and Pinon has less. The guy putting on the DC3 is trying to work up a shuttle vehicle to carry food and other supplies from Dell to Dog. I'm going to try to carry everything as I'm going to put myself into TD mental mode with this event.
Hopefully some of you will be interested in some wide open desert riding and you'll want to come down and check it out. I can host a couple of folks but you may be on the floor or on a cot. Hit me up if you have any questions. When I get around to plotting the rest of the loop I'll post it here. You can keep up with the Facebook page here.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1381983112034732/1383388465227530/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity
