After a restful sleep with the appropriate amount of breeze, we took our time with the requisite chores.

The nearby creek.

There was a young couple (how funny to say that!) who were also tent camping and I asked about their trip. They are going to Long Beach from Florida and are following the “Let’s Get There ASAP” plan, the way I’ve always driven. They want a full two weeks in California; apparently being in the golden state is a tasty carrot.

Late morning I left to ride the Winsor Trail, a highly recommended area favorite. Mme Awesome had calls to make, and, at 10500′, service was strong, so she stayed. Our plan was to rendezvous at the well frequented Tune Up Cafe.

The ride was as good as the gushing literature would have one believe. First of all, unlike the Downieville [Mostly] Downhill, this little bit over 9 mile Winsor Trail route is all downhill. Alas I took a slightly different route, including the trip into town, which did bring my climbing a bit more than the so called 8′ the MTB Project site touts.

I had two surprises. The first was how tough the ride was on my grip and R inner thigh. Also, oddly enough given I am no speed demon, I caught up and actually left behind a group of 4 bikers because they sure wanted to stop often and ?? Maybe they were hung over or who knows.

To summarize, the rock gardens were all completely fun and rideable, the fallen trees left on the trail were small enough they could be bunny hopped or had ride arounds if not, and smooth sections were terrific fun. The couple of hikers along the way were friendly to boot. It was a great 1.25 hour ride, not counting the grueling climb and eventual descent into Santa Fe. As a bonus, my in town route took me past the very nice Santa Fe town square.

After a meeting of minds over lunch, we headed to ride some more of the La Tierra trails from a different trailhead, taking care to reride Hustle and Flow. The new route made plain that the biking apps are not up to date and major work has been put into adding deftly crafted trails. The Frijoles Trailhead offers better trails right away than from Calabasas Trailhead.

Post ride we considered our options. Due to the wind, the wonderful high elevation site where we slept last night was not on the menu. We chose to continue on to the previously identified campsite close to Chimayo. And then the gate was locked! Like WTF. This unfortunate turn of events led to a fortunate realization: I could drop off Mme Awesome at Ojo Caliente, go on to setup camp which was 11 minutes away, and return at closing to drive us back to the site.

This spot is rich in options. I pulled in after the sun was down and the reds and oranges were fading to black and white and so had to think fast. Soon I’m off to get Mme Awesome.

In honor of today’s post title.

Apparently I’ve just had my work anniversary. Yeah I never updated LinkedIn.com and my “network” gets alerted to these things. I’m happy to receive the correspondence and plan on keeping as-is.

We had a big fight over who is the luckiest.

This post has thus completed the requisite Facts categorization process.