6/26-28/2009: "Bikepacking" Gallinas Canyon

Wyatt, Sabrina, Colter and I left Dimmitt bound for New Mexico around 8:30 Friday night. They had been requesting to take a camping trip on the bikes for some time, but the deal was we had to wait for Colter, our four year old, to be able to ride without training wheels. Additionally I had to find an area where we would be close enough to make it back to church Sunday night for a class Jen and I were leading, have an easy enough grade for the kids to be able to ride, have access to water and have minimal traffic. After considering all of these variables I decided to head to Gallinas Canyon in the Santa Fe National Forest.

We arrived in the forest close to 1:00 and tossed out the sleeping bags in a ponderosa forest. Around 6:30 I awoke to a beautiful orange sunrise. As I lay there looking up at the sky pondering the old proverb, "Red in the morning sailor take warning..." it began to rain. It had been a busy sleep deprived week, so I reacted by pulling the sleeping bag over my head and going back to sleep. Fortunately the rain was brief and the sleeping bags didn't get too wet.

The four of us headed down into the canyon after a pancake breakfast and parked the truck. We loaded all of our gear into the bike trailer and started out. The grade was mild (about 3%), but still enough that the kids had to work hard at times as we wound our way through the canyon. We took plenty of rest/water/play/water breaks which made the trip more enjoyable for the kids.



We stopped for lunch and played on some rocks by the creek for about 45 minutes before continuing up canyon.

The canyon has some private property scattered in it. Unfortunately these parcels tend to be on the most desirable land for camping.

Around 1:30 we made it up to Burro Flats, an area of small meadows near the end of the road. We had biked a little more than six miles and climbed around 1100 feet. We set up the tent in the meadow and spent the rest of the afternoon playing, resting and reading.

We fixed pizza for dinner and read the remaining twelve chapters in Louis Sachar's "Holes" before climbing into bed.

Sunday dawned to leaden skies and rain. We had planned to cook pancakes for breakfast again, but the more prudent (and less wet choice) seemed to be granola bars. We broke down camp and climbed back on the bikes. The wet dirt combined with high speeds on our way down did result in a few crashes, but no injuries. We arrived back at the truck wet and muddy, but the kids quickly asked "When do we get to do this again?".