Ridenfool

Rode a ten-mile loop at Taos Valley Overlook Trails and enjoyed it. Those who can't find the charm in trails that aren't technical can avoid this one. The rest of us can look forward for long gradual descents, great views of a canyon with the Rio Grande at the bottom, and all you would expect from desert riding. There are two trailheads, one at the end of NM110, and the other further South on NM68, which is where I rode from today. I've been out there riding ten or fifteen years ago when it was just jeep trails the locals used for picnics and parties. I enjoyed the riding then and now, with REAL(TM) singletrack, I like it even more. Come get a double-helping in Taos, where you can ride mountains or desert, then retire in the outdoor air conditioned comfort of the town to enjoy libations, food, and lodging if desired. We stayed at the Taos Inn, a great location if traveling with non-riders as it is in the middle of the shopping area and has really nice rooms for good value.

I fell off the map. Started spending quality time riding the moto. Though, I am in Taos as I write (with a couple of blue toes from a rock strike on today's MTB ride) and will be headed to Pagosa Springs on Monday for a few days at a friend of the missus' home, which is located in the middle of a trail system there. Haven't been out to RHR in months, mostly due to the heat, and other projects, as well as any spare time being spent tearing up unpaved roads on the Triumph Tiger 800XC. BTW, at this moment it is below 70F outside and will be 50F when I wake up tomorrow. For reference, on the dash temp at highway speed in the van I saw 113 at one point and never less than 104F while crossing West Texas to get here.

The Saloon rubble has been cleared. Original bathrooms/showers appear to still be standing. The dividing wall between them and the rest of the Saloon is gone. Looking forward to seeing what happens next.

The trails are still there ... it is only the iconic Saloon structure that went bye-bye.

FWIW, The Saloon was a viable business model with plenty of local and MTB patrons to keep the burgers and beer flowing, back when it was operating under experienced management working the plan. What led to the demise was a succession of untenable contracts based on blue sky schemes with lessees lacking adequate business acumen to maintain the existing momentum. The next one after Diane didn't even want the MTB part of the business as part of their plan to make it a dedicated music venue, which is why Boomer's Bicycles stepped in securing a separate contract just to keep the trails open for us. When their grandiose plans for an epic music destination did not bear fruit the axe finally fell and the burgers and beer stopped flowing. The following lessee had even less ambition, experience, or resources and did little more than collect the rider's money, live in a trailer beside the saloon, and talk big talk about all they were going to do, and never did. It wasn't so much that the Saloon failed, as it was that nobody after Diane left ever really embraced running the place with the whole recipe in play taking advantage of locals, riders, events, camping and all that goes with that as it had always worked. As for the future, the slab has/had(?) studs when it was poured. The kind in all the places that would support erecting a conventional metal building. Despite this, it was originally constructed from trees sourced on property. As far as I know it ought to be reasonably straight forward to do something with it once the cleanup is done. I'd suspect that at the very least the restrooms/showers and the pay station would be covered again. I very much miss that Saloon, and the diverse community that once thrived there. But, yeah, I would not expect the site ever becoming a commercial venue where folks could gather for refreshment and camaraderie after a ride, and as a destination for locals, motorcyclists, and all others who used to frequent the place unless there were someone with vision and amazing negotiating skills able to pull a rabbit out of a hat.

Heck, tharz plenty of raw materials left over. They could prop it all back up in a week or so. 😉

What remained of the Saloon, which has been used as a pavilion and enclosed the bathroom and showers since the walls were removed and operation as Cafe/Saloon ceased, was taken down by the storm front moving through. Driving by it looked like a heap of rubble, I'll get some pics at the next opportunity. At a glance I suspect the bathrooms and infrastructure may be mostly okay under there, but the roof and its supports were blown toward the fence line behind the structure. Hopefully the facilities for hot water and such can be salvaged after cleanup.

Not all tankless water heaters are created equal. Consider the SioGreen. I have these in the house and in my van. It heats the water using Quartz Infrared that does not result in the deposits found in many other water heaters. Particularly other electric water heaters. These are electric rather than gas, so may not be a good fit for all applications. https://www.siogreenusa.com/ Good pricing on Amazon.

The armor glass was developed for the Tesla Semi. It seems that broken windshields are an ongoing issue for over the road truckers. The pickup benefits from that development. I think for now I'll hold out for the Flux Capacitor and Mr. Fusion optional upgrades.

Watching the reveal was pretty cool. They hit the door with a sledge hammer with no dents after using it on a standard pickup door. The Stainless Steel is the same alloy they will use on Starship. The glass is pretty tough too. Though after demonstrating this on an example panel the demo backfired a little when they threw a steel ball at the window on the vehicle and cracked it. To the Armor Glass' credit it didn't go through the glass, and that was still impressive, considering the force being applied. Like other Tesla vehicles it seems well thought out and full of interesting features, like a built-in auto-retracting bed cover, loading ramp that extends from within the tailgate, 110 and 220 v outlets, seats six comfortably, oh, and it is bulletproof. I want one, but I'm a little weird like that.

Tesla's Cybertruck https://www.tesla.com/cybertruck

Would it offer any benefit if they reorganized racing classes to be determined by height/weight/strength (power/weight ratio)? Strength could be measured by a system providing data while they compete, to correlate and prevent sand-bagging during lab testing. This would put the he-she in a class competing against men and women of the same strength, and, eliminate male/female classification altogether. Thus, removing the advantages an over active gender-bending imagination give people like, ahem, Rachel.

Good crowd. It was fun to get some strange, ... trail! The singletrack was in surprisingly good shape after the deluge.

FYI - Weather station at Circle C shows ~2.75 inches of rain since Thursday. Hopefully drainage and wind will do some good today. Looking forward to seeing Trail Reports by this evening. An update in this thread would be helpful and appreciated by those who don't FB.

Hypopathetically speaking, what effect would, say, just randomly picking a number here, an inch and a half of rain, let's say on, only theoretically speaking of course, Thursday night, have on the event?