The Socorro, NM website has several really neat looking mountain bike trails listed on their site. The site isn’t the most intuitive to navigate but it does work once you get used to it. I’ve been very interested in riding the “Barite Mine and Box Canyon” trail and I recently flew over it to get a good look from above.
The other day I drove down to Socorro and rode that trail! It is 17.4 miles and is listed as a skill level of 3 out of 5. I knew it would be close to a four hour ride so I loaded up on energy bars, bottle of water, and hydro-backpack full of water.
It starts out on a pretty nice gravel road and then turns up an arroyo on a primitive road. This section is quite sandy which is a major pain in the behind. I ended up walking most of it – maybe a half mile. From there it is a fairly steady climb for about three miles. The double-track is good in places to not-so-great with lots of fist size rocks and loose, shale type rock. Of course, these rocky sections seem to be predominately on short, steep climbs making them a bit more challenging.
The Barite Mines are pretty neat. I’m normally a bit of a chicken when it comes to holes in the ground. However; the new me throws caution into the wind so I walked into one shaft about twenty feet!! I know, a real dare-devil!!
Shortly after the Barite Mines, there is a steep and very rocky descent. I walked it. As always, the photo doesn’t do it justice.
I then arrived at the Box Canyon. Wow! This place is very cool! It’s also much better suited for a rock climber than a cyclist/mountain biker! A solo rider like me is in trouble. There are several spots where I had to lower my bike much farther than I could reach which made it very, very difficult. My bike took a beating… still not happy about that. I spent some time wishing that I had a length of rope – that would have made it a lot easier on my bike.
In a somewhat interesting fashion, the drops that I had to climb down were increasingly more difficult. By the time I got to the last one, I would have happily turned around and went back the way I came. However; it would have been impossible to backtrack UP what I climbed down. Of course, wearing shoes with cleats did not help as they can be slippery on the rock. I thought several times of taking my shoes off to gain a bit of traction but I am a tenderfoot so could imagine that resulting in other problems. In one spot, I had to hold onto my bike which was dangling underneath me while I had my back against one rock face and feet against another and kind of scooched down a little at a time. In another spot, I had to lower my bike into a two-foot deep puddle of water and then jump in myself. I imagined all kinds of scary things like the sand I was jumping into being ten feet deep and swallowing me whole. This is the spot that I would have normally turned around – the risk just wasn’t worth it. Ten miles from the nearest human and nobody knowing where I was – sounds like the making of a movie!! A quick downing is far better than taking a week to die so probably not much movie material here! Needless to say, I was moving FAST once I hit the water.
Speaking of water, it is very obvious that a huge amount of water washes thru this little canyon from time to time. If there were thunderstorms/showers in the area, this would NOT be a good place to be.
After Box Canyon, your following another arroyo for a bit. This one is super rocky. Stretches of it can be ridden but lots more walking. The thing that really caught my attention were the signs of how fast the water is moving when it sweeps thru here.
Finding the double-track out of this arroyo can be difficult. I made a good mental note of where it was when I flew over and was able to find it ok today. It leads back to the Barite Mines and is rather primitive. More of those large rocks and washes and more walking up the steep climbs.
Once back at the mines, it is a simple matter of retracing your path back down. Mostly downhill but a few short climbs along the way. And, of course, the sand section… ugh. The downhill ride is always a rush and makes the long climb well worth it! I even got airborne a couple times!
Alright, I’ll admit it – I wiped out so many times on this ride that I lost count – I think five. They were all tip-overs due to being unable to get out of my clipless pedals. I even took a “body mark” photo on the sand. However; several were in the rocks and that HURT! I can tell you that BOTH forearms/elbows and BOTH lower legs/knees are torn up a bit (not bloody or anything). I may have to start wearing elbow and knee pads. 🙂 My big nemesis on this ride was sand with the loose shale like rock on the steep climbs a close second. I experienced enough pain for my brain to figure out that it needed to look farther ahead and at least try to spot the sand/loose rock climb sections coming so I could un-clip, just in case.
As I write this, I am pretty sore. My leg muscles definitely got a work out but the falls also left their mark.
My tips for this trail are to bring a ten to twenty foot length of rope, some non-cleated shoes, and lots of liquid.
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