Ride to Cloudcroft and back to Las Cruces, NM

[gnu88001]

In the autumn of 2006 I decided to take a spin up into the Lincoln Nat. Forest before it got too cold. It was pretty chilly when I left Las Cruces and headed over the Organ Mts., across the Tularosa Basin and up into the Sacramento Mts. above Alamogordo. Driving across the Basin I could see Sierra Blanca covered in snow off in the distance but it's almost 12,000 ft. high and I figured where I was going it would be clear.

About half way up the hill I started to see this white stuff all over the ground -- the area had received an early dusting of snow! Cloudcroft, at 8500 ft. elevation, had close to a foot on the ground but the roads were clear so, What The Hey!! I used to work up there in reforestation research for NMSU and I always enjoyed checking out some of our old plots where I had tested a variety of methods of planting Ponderosa pine seedlings.

Anyway, I got off the main roads and had fun slipping and sliding thru small snow drifts and mud puddles on the forest roads. The air was cool to cold, the sky was blue, and my bike kept putting along. A great trip! That was the first "long distance" trip I made on my GZ -- total of about 200 miles round trip.

[rusty rider]

Looks awesome, can't imagine riding in the snow with street tires O_o . I used take my racing bike out in the snow get a 100' rope and attach a sled. I would put my little sister on it and take off accross the fields. After about a 1/4 mile I would look back and there would be two little eye holes where her face had been. She was quite the trooper, I would have to drag her off the sled to take her in for hot chocolate.

[Water Warrior 2]

Congrats on your first LD(long distance)ride. In time it seem like just a short hop down the road. Happy Hobo and I just finished a 5000 km(3100mile)ride and look forward to more of the same. The GZ will do it although we did meet a lot of riders who really believe bigger is always better without ever trying a smaller bike. The GZ 250 is not the ultimate touring bike but will do some amazing things for it's size.