Santa Fe - Land of Al Fresco Dining

Oh glorious Santa Fe. Every time we go I love it. We probably have a very different experience than most travelers, but it is worth consideration. Usually we have two main goals; 1. see our dear friend Franky and 2. Ride.


This time we experienced the new and the old. The first day we rode Chimisa to Sidewinder, which was a pretty big climb, but kick ass technical decent and something we haven't done before. I was happy to have my geared bike.

Day two, Franky had to work so we were off to Pajarito with TJ. This was quite the treat and reignited Jeff's desire for a DH rig. However, our current bikes seemed to work just fine. The runs were short and technical. There weren't many places where the rider could let go of the breaks for fear of an approaching stunt or crashing into the trees. I crashed on a fairly flat section of single track on my second run.... nothing too bad except digging my head and face into the ground, sticking my leg through my frame, and bruising the palm of my hand pretty bad. I was happy to have my full face and it didn't hold me back from hanging with the crew the rest of the day. I was pretty happy with my riding and with each run I went faster and tried something new.

The next day we were treated to a relaxing morning including eating breakfast at a neighborhood cafe and reading. However, the afternoon included a really kick ass ride, Ravens Ridge and Rio En Medio. In fact we didn't even have to ride it as a loop this time. We shuttled it. Gosh, it is my favorite trail! It is like William's on massive drugs.




Santa Fe does have many non-biking features that we enjoy. Franky is a great friend and he lives in Santa Fe. I also enjoy the al fresco dining that Santa Fe has to offer. In fact I will now call Santa Fe "The Land of al Fresco Dining." I never realized that patio dining was normally prevalent in temperate climates or places that simply had the space. I really enjoy C.Springs for that reason, but MAN Santa Fe offers way more. It seems as though almost every place we went had a patio of some kind.


** I wrote this about a month ago and never posted it. I am so sad to share that two of the rides mentioned above have been devastated by forest fires. From what I hear most of the riding in Santa Fe is closed due to the risk of more fires.