Category: Photos

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GPS, Mountains, MTBing, Outing, Photos

La Cumbre to Huayapam – Cabeza de Baca & La Reina Trails

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What better way to spend a Sunday in mid-January than to enjoy a terrific downhill ride from the mountain trails at La Cumbre to the little town of Huayapam on the outskirts of Oaxaca city? While friends in Colorado are aching for spring and the chance to get their mountain bikes out of cold storage, it is warm and sunny in Oaxaca — perfect weather for a ride!

Today’s outing requires a shuttle to drop off riders and bikes in the high country of La Cumbre. The bike ride can commence at the entrance to the forest preserve on Highway 175, if you like, or at the point where a mainly-singletrack trail intersects the road that leads to the ecotourism camp (which is what the map below shows). 

Breaking the ride into segments, the outing goes like this:

0.0 to 2.3 mi – Road from entrance station to start of trail  /  817′ up & 50′ down over distance of 2.3 miles

2.3 to 4.1 mi – Cabeza de Baca Trail through the forest  /  710 ft up & 163 ft down /  mostly singletrack that winds for 1.8 delightful miles

4.1 to 7.1 mi – Logging road winding gradually uphill to high point of 10512 ft  /  954′ up & 244′ down  /  clock another 3.0 miles for this segment

7.1 to 14.7 mi – La Reina Trail  /  Screamer descent on rough service road with loose scrabble ends at church in Huayapam /  4895′ down & just 56′ up in the course of fast 7.6 miles

14.7to 20.1 mi – Gradual downhill to center of town in Oaxaca  /  698′ down & 150′ up  /  paved highway and city streets add another 5.4 miles to finish the ride

The stats for the whole adventure: 20.1 miles (32.3 km) with 2687 feet (819 meters) of climbing and 6050 feet (1844 meters) of downhill. The entrance station at La Cumbre sits at an elevation of 9288 feet (2831 meters); the high point on the ride tops out at 10512 feet (3204 meters); the church in Huayapam is at 5680 feet (1731 meters); the Zocalo at the center of Oaxaca city sits at 5124 feet (1562 meters).

 

Countryside, Foothills, Mountains, MTBing, Photos, Trail Work

Trail Maintenance

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The San Felipe trail network needs occasional maintenance. Once or twice a year the brush along the trails needs to be trimmed back – especially the shrubs and trees sporting thorns and needles! Steps also must be taken to minimize erosion. Drainage channels can be created in strategic spots to keep rainwater from washing out the trail. In places the trail needs to be rebuilt, either to moderate the gradient or to change the side slope so that water coming down the mountainside in a rain storm can flow across the trail rather than being captured by it and then creating nasty gullies that eat away at the trail itself. Finally, there are places where culverts need to be placed under the trail and/or rock barriers put in place to keep flowing water from eating away the very mountainside. All the work is done by volunteer labor following the suggestions found in “Trail Solutions: IMBA’s Guide to Building Sweet Singletrack.”

MTBing, Outing, Photos

¡Feliz Navidad de Colorado, mis amigos!

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Hello, friends in Oaxaca!  I hope your holidays are going well.  My friend Carlos Silverberg (of www.MountainBikeOaxaca.com fame) teased me the other day via email saying he was headed out with a tour on the EcoTrail…the best downhill trail I know of in Oaxaca.  Although it’s a bit colder here in Colorado, United States, than in Oaxaca, I too was thinking of getting out on the bike.  Work and weather have gotten in the way of that for too many weeks here.  So, while Carlos and crew were out burning up some brake pads, I was out enjoying a delightful 60F December day on South Table Mountain.  Thinking of Oaxaca and many of you while on the trail, I thought I’d throw up some pictures…and a comparison elevation graph for my ride and the last time I did the EcoTrail with Carlos.

 

I’m looking forward to seeing you in January in OAX, friends!

Countryside, Foothills, Mountains, MTBing, Photos, Uncategorized

New Bicycle Signs On Highway

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Highway 175 that leads from Oaxaca city into the Sierra Norte mountains seems to be a fairly popular weekend ride for roadies and mountain bikers. The climb to La Cumbre Ixtepeji is brutal, whether accomplished entirely on the paved highway or by detouring on the dirt road through Tierra Colorada. The highway is steep, curvy and has no shoulder at all. It also has heavy vehicular traffic — all of which makes it a dangerous place for a bike. In recent weeks (December 2013) a number of new signs have been erected along the route cautioning motorists of bike riders and reminding them to share the roadway. This, and the newly-completed bike path to Tule, indicates the state government of Oaxaca looks favorably on the biking community.

Countryside, GPS, MTBing, Photos, Trail Info

Bike Trail to Tule

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Oaxaca recently completed another section of the “Rails to Trails” project converting the old railroad line running from Oaxaca city to the town of Tule into a dedicated bicycle path. The latest addition takes bike riders to a point in Tule just a few blocks from the parish church where the famous gigantic cedar tree towers over the landscape. The newest segment is nicely paved and features solar-powered street lamps to light the path at night. While a portion of the new bike path shares the right-of-way with a four-lane road, the major part is well away from vehicular traffic. Unfortunately, the bike trail starts well away from the center of Oaxaca and may be difficult for some to locate – the bike path starts at the intersection of Ferrocarril and Norte Cinco.