This is great place to ride for three reasons 1) ridable pretty much all year (it’s a bad-ass night ride as well) 2) not too many people and 3) close to town (beer). The Dale Ball trail network is as good as it gets for near-town riding for any city. You can park in the lot at the corner of Cerro Gordo and Upper Canyon Rd. Be careful parking here at the end of the day because they close the gate at 7:00 and might lock your car in. In the past, some low-life dude that locks the gate has been hanging out here in the evening offering to let people ride some of the trails in the SF County watershed property (totally illegal to even hike there) – you’d probably need to slip him a joint or something and then you’d most likely end up in jail. This is also the area where a squatter had lived for many years in some crazy house made of cardboard and Schlitz cans. He was only recently booted out of there. The guy was even getting mail delivered to the mailbox he set up on Upper Canyon.The Dale Ball trails do not start at the parking lot – the middle section actually starts north on Cerro Gordo about a hundred yards down on the right (near a chain-link gate). For south Dale Ball, ride up Upper Canyon about 100 feet, it’s on the right. There are mounted trail maps at practically every trail junction so it’s pretty
hard to get lost.John Wilcox, Dave Frank and I rode the middle and north sections on 4/23/06. Awesome day. We kept to the outside perimeter starting with the east side, crossed Hyde Park Road, did North Dale Ball (counterclockwise) and then headed back down the fast west side and eventually back the Cerro Gordo, riding the dirt road back to the cars. That was about 1.5 hours with several stops thrown in. If you’re drinkin’ beer en route give yourself an extra hour. The trails are in perfect shape but unfortunately they removed the old car that was in the arroyo just as you hit Cerro Gordo – it used to be fun to ride over since it was half-sunk in the sand. It sucks because that’s one of the dreamy images that comes to mind when I think of New Mexico – rusted out old cars and appliances dotting the landscape – and that was the perfect end to the ride. Keep an eye out on the dirt road back to the parking lot since I was chased down and nearly mauled by psychotic pit bull on this stretch. If you wear a heart rate monitor and have always wondered what your
max heart rate is – this fucking mad dog will help you figure it out.For this ride it’s recommended that you park your car downtown at the bar ride to the trailhead do a nice 2-3 hour ride and slide back into town for a cold Blue Moon and a Stuffed Poblano on the patio at Del Charro (corner of West Alameda and Washington).
Post ride beer 4/23/06: Breckenridge Oatmeal Stout
