Countryside, Foothills, GPS, MTBing, Photos

Nitos Ride In Tlalixtac Territory – Los Molinos Trail

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Members of the Nitos Ciclistas En Movimiento took to the hill country in the territory belonging to the village of Tlalixtac for this Sunday’s ride. The Oaxaca Valley had received over 5 inches (32 cm) of rain in the previous five days, so the ground was saturated, streams were running strong, humidity was high and there was plenty of mud along the way. It was a fun outing, nevertheless; and the 26 people who took part had a great time!

After getting clear of the city, the group took mostly back roads on the way to the foothills and then followed a country trail that wound upwards running parallel to Highway 175, but on the far side of a gurgling stream. After pedaling for about three hours the group stopped for lunch in the woods before splashing across the creek and sailing back to Oaxaca on the shoulder of the highway.

The round trip covered 16.2 miles (26.1 km) with an elevation gain and loss of 1007 feet (307 meters). There were just a few technical challenges along the way in the form of some rock gardens. However, there were many muddy spots and a number of places where water was running down the trail, so the going was slow at times.

Mountains, MTBing, Outing, Photos, Ride Routes

Nitos Ride To Guacamaya

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Nitos Ciclistas en Movimiento sponsored an all-day ride from Oaxaca city to the mountain village of Guacamaya on Sunday, 18 May 2014. This was a challenging 43.3 mile (69.7 km) round-trip excursion that required pedaling steadily uphill a total of 4171 feet (1271.3 meters) in the 9.8 miles (15.77 km) from the turnoff on Highway 190 to Guacamaya – and mostly on a gravel road. Thankfully, the trip organizers had two sag vehicles accompany the group of 34 riders, so a number of people got a very welcome lift on the final leg of the ride into Guacamaya. The group departed the Church of San Agustin shortly after 8 am and the first party to get back to Oaxaca did so about 5 pm.

Go to www.facebook.com/NitosCiclistasEnMovimiento to learn more about this club.

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

Nitos Ride to Tlacolula

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There are several bike clubs in Oaxaca, one of which is called “Nitos Ciclistas En Movimiento.” (www.facebook.com/groups/Nitos.CiclistasEnMovimiento) This group sponsors a ride every Sunday morning at 8:00 am starting from the church of St. Agustin, located at the intersection of Armento y Lopez and Guerrero streets in downtown Oaxaca city.

The ride on this second Sunday in May was a pleasant 42 mile round trip excursion on back roads to the Sunday market in Tlacolula, where participants stopped for lunch. Oaxaca had received over an inch of rain the night before, so there were lots of puddles along the route and some of the farm roads were pretty muddy – nobody came home with clean riding gear! Still, it was a fun outing and the fifteen participants had a good time, despite a succession of flat tires and one bike’s free wheel getting stripped.

The map below does not accurately reflect today’s ride, which followed a somewhat different route. (The map is for the “Tlacolula Loop” listed on the “Rides” page of this web site.) However, it serves to give the direction of today’s outing and reflects about the same overall mileage.

GPS, Mountains, MTBing, Photos

Mountain Misadventure

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In theory it should not be difficult to ride from La Cumbre to La Neveria. This could be an out & back excursion or the first leg of a truly epic day in the saddle that would continue on from La Neveria to Benito Juarez, then down the mountainside to Teotitlan del Valle and on to Oaxaca – a trek that would cover over 60 miles and see the rider drop something over 7500 feet in elevation. But theory and practice seem to be out of alignment. The first time I tried this a few years back with a friend, we got totally turned around in the forest and wound up – after timber bashing for several hours through steep, heavily wooded terrain – in Latuvi. Oops! Must have taken a wrong turn somewhere!

On this first Sunday in May I corralled another group of friends and we set out with somewhat better instructions. Things went smoothly for the first fourteen miles, but then we found ourselves in a maze of logging roads which went every which way. We picked a road that, while little traveled, seemed to head in the right direction. Unfortunately, after a few miles the road petered out, becoming just a footpath through the woods and eventually disappearing altogether. That was aggravating, as we knew we were close to our destination. However, we felt it would be foolhardy to push on and so reluctantly retraced our steps to La Cumbre.

The map below indicates our course, including a false turn that would have taken us to – you guessed it! – Latuvi if we had persisted. Altogether we covered 28.4 miles (45.7 km) and had the pleasure of gaining and losing 4481 feet (1365.8 meters) in elevation going out and back.

If it is true that “the third time’s the charm,” perhaps we’ll find our way to La Neveria on our next attempt.

Foothills, GPS, MTBing, Photos, Racing

Easter Race at San Pablo Etla

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I actually saw a live bunny rabbit hopping down the trail on today’s Easter Sunday mountain bike race at San Pablo Etla. I did not find any colored eggs hiding in the brush along the route, however. What I did find – happily so! – was the digital camera that bounced out of my fanny pack as I was riding back to the finish line after taking photos of the race. Elsewise there would be no pics to go with this post, and I would be one very unhappy camper!

Today’s race was on the same 3.2 mile (5.0 km) race circuit as last year, but to give the venture a different spin the riders rode the course in the opposite direction – going clockwise today. The start/finish line was in a slightly different location on the loop, as well.

You can see photos of the race last year by going to the “Race” page and scrolling down to the “San Pablo Etla” entry.