Sarah and I went to Santa Fe last week for a little vacation. This was Sarah's first time to the area. I was last in Santa Fe in October 2005 on my "New Mexico mountain bike assault". On that trip I was able to ride in Taos, Gallup, Albuqurque, and Sanat Fe.

This trip did not have the aggresive tone of 2005. We decided to go to one place and stay put. Santa Fe has a good dose of single track near town. The Dale Ball trail network is right on the edge of the city and has 15 - 20 miles of tight, narrow, and winding singletrack. The Dale Ball trails are only a 10 - 15 minute ride from the city depending on where you start and roll through the juniper foothills.

The Winsor trail network is a little further away, but can still be ridden from town. The Winsor, Chamisa, and Borrego trails bring you into a big network (50 mile +) of trails that extend from 7,000 feet to 12,000 feet of elevation. This network, in combination with the Dale Ball and Atalya mountain trails constitutes the "Santa Fe Big Friggin' Loop" race in July. Lots of climing on that one.

We arrived on Monday evening and had diner in town. We then camped outside of town for the remaining nights. Camping is within 7 miles of the city.

On Tuesday we decided to ride the Dale Ball trails. I was barely able to keep wup with Sara using my granny gear, but my legs felt slightly better than they had earlier in the month. It was hot but the trails were fun.

With about 10 minutes to go we descended this trail that crossed a dry creek bed. As Sarah was about to reach the bottom she caught her handle bar on a Juniper tree. She was whipped around and slammed into the tree. It looked and sounded as if she had broken her leg. She was impaled on the tree by a broken branch that sliced through her bike shorts. Her feet were about a foot above the ground in the air. I was able to get her down and she had a big gash from the juniper tree on the inside of her thigh. I posted a picture of her shorts on my buzz site pictures.

Sarah is a tough one. It is fun to see her improve mountain biking. She is a great athelete and very strong. She will be good. We headed back to the car and spent awhile in the Albertsons parking lot with some hydrogen peroxide and gauze pads.

One day of biking was enough for me. My normal approach would have been to ride all the trails in Santa Fe, but the knees won't let it. We decided to visit Bandelier National Monument the next day, and did a brief hike the day after that. We also encountered some cockroaches at a local restaurant and a close encounter with some gang types in Raton, New Mexico on the way back.

The knees felt better... maybe 20% of normal capacity.