Category: Foothills

Countryside, Foothills, MTBing

Good Intentions Gone Awry

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Today (Sunday, 11 September 2016) the Nitos group sponsored a ride in the countryside to a presa in the hills east of San Bartolo Coyotepec. It seemed this outing would be a good subject for a new post here at OaxacaMTB.org.  Apparently, the gods of fate felt otherwise.  First of all, my GPS unit failed to map the route. Secondly, because of early morning rain I did not take my camera with me, and so shot no photos of the trip. And lastly, we are having problems with this web site displaying properly right now.

Suffice it to say that the 24 people who took part in the outing (14 fellows and 10 women) had an enjoyable time. The group left the plaza in front of Santo Domingo shortly after 8 am and returned at 2 pm. The leisurely ride took two hours each way, and the group lounged around the presa for two hours, enjoying a picnic lunch and celebrating Salim’s birthday. A few of the more adventurous even went for a swim in the lake.

Sorry there is no map and no photos of the day’s adventure!

Countryside, Foothills, MTBing

Additional San Felipe Trail Maps

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In doing trail maintenance work last week, we realized that a couple of short trails around the police firing range just off the Libramiento were not mapped on this web site. Oops! An obvious oversight on our part.

So here are the missing maps:

1.  FIRING RANGE LOOP  —  The loop trail that follows the old jeep road around the top of the hill where there was once a quarry and where the police firing range is now located. This is a very easy trail. It is just .5 miles (.8 km) around and practically flat, with only 28 feet (8.5 meters) of elevation gain and loss

2.  SHORT CUT TRAIL  —  This trail is the shortest and fastest way down for those who don’t want to ride the “Toro, Toro” trail or take the paved Libramiento. This trail takes off from the Firing Range Loop (above) and runs just .4 mile (.64 km) from the top to the junction with the Libramiento. It is rather steep, with an average downhill gradient of 17.3%. The trail drops 367 feet (112 meters) from start to finish.

 

 

Countryside, Foothills, Mountains, MTBing, Trail Work

Doing Maintenance on the San Felipe Trails

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It has been a while since we’ve gotten a crew together to do serious “pick and shovel” maintenance on the bike trails in the hills above San Felipe del Agua, and some of the trails have erosion damage that requires attention. On this Wednesday in early August Larry, Alex, Rafa, Andrés and Phil tackled one of the shorter, more needy trails. This being the rainy season, 1.7 inches of rain had fallen in the past four days. This was a good thing, as it softened up the soil and made it easier to dig new drainage channels to move water off the trail and into the woods. The crew finished their work in three hours time. They hope to return in coming weeks to do similar work on other of the many nearby trails.

Countryside, Foothills, MTBing, Photos, Ride Routes

Bike & swim day

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The Biciosos club (https://www.facebook.com/Biciosos-99855150398/timeline/) sponsored a Sunday ride in keeping with the hot weather we’ve had in Oaxaca in recent weeks. First of all, the ride was scheduled for just after sunrise to take advantage of cooler temperatures. And the outing included a stop at a local balneario (swimming pool) in the early afternoon.

The loop ride began and ended at the Plaza Bella shopping mall near the village of Atzompa. The 17 riders in the group pedaled west to San Pedro Ixtlahuaca, then turned south and rode through rolling hill country to Cuilapam. From there the route continued south on dirt roads through farm country, with a brief stop at a small reservoir before winding up in Zaachila, where we stopped for a late breakfast and then spent a couple of enjoyable hours splashing around at the balneario. Afterwards the group returned to Plaza Bella to conclude the day’s outing.

The route covered 31.2 miles (50.2 kms), with an elevation gain and loss of 2030 feet (618.7 meters) through the rolling countryside. The high point was 5482 feet (1671 meters) in the hills south of San Pedro Ixtlahuaca; the low point was 4980 feet (1518 meters) in Zaachila.

 

Countryside, Foothills, GPS, MTBing, Outing, Photos, Ride Routes

Western Etla Valley Foothills

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Sunday, March 13th was a day of clear skies and warm temperatures.  D.,  C., C., P., and E. met up on the highway out Etla way to explore some of the network of paths, trails and dirt roads on the western side of the Etla valley in the scrub-brush covered foothills that sit between the toll highway to Puebla / Mexico City and the pine-covered mountains.