Red River, NM Weekend

Neal

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 15, 2016
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502
Location
Albuquerque, NM
Spent the weekend camping outside Red River and hit a couple of trails while we were there. All of the trails are within the Carson National Forest and are subject to USFS rules (which, more often than not these days means NO FUN ALLOWED), but we still had some good rides. The scenery was fantastic and the trails were in some spots actually more challenging than I thought they would be. Lots of mining ruins and old cabins tucked back in the trees. All in all, a fun weekend and we wrapped it up by buying an '89 XJ in Angel Fire for my daughter to wrench on. She wants to build it into a trail runner like we used to have before I bought the LJ. Something for everyone.

Columbine campground had all we needed to set up for the weekend. We are pretty basic campers, just the Jeep, the tent, some minimal camp amenities, my wife and Poco The Four Wheelin' Chiweenee.
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The first day we tried out FR 485 along Pioneer Creek. It is an easy, out-and-back trail with a few sections that are rather steep and rocky, and several easy stream crossings. It is about 8 miles long, starting at the Red River Ski Area and heading up a canyon. It rained off and on all day, and the trail soon began to turn into a shallow stream. I didn't even use 4WD for most of the trail, except for one spot right at the top where there was an exposed drainage pipe that had a washed out spot below it. I did use 4 low on the way down, using 2nd gear and just riding the compression down the hill. Good first day.

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Obligatory poser shot.
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On the second day we hit the Goose Lake trail, another out-and-back run, 13 miles each direction. This trail was steeper and rockier, with several miles of shelf road and few turnouts until you reached the upper part of the trail. It was also much drier than the day before, with one notable exception, and had even more in the way of old cabins and mines. The lake at the end of the trail was spectacular. On to the photos...

The Red River itself is the gatekeeper for this trail, and was running fairly deep for this time of the year. The big challenge is not to lose your nerve and just keep going at a steady rate, pushing a small bow wave in front of you. Oh, and for those who are interested, I lengthened all my breather tubes years ago and have them running to the top of the firewall, so I won't be drowning anything important. Actually, I didn't even ship any water inside the tub on either crossing. Ducks gonna hafta move...
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After that, everything else was a piece of cake.
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Goose Lake
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Why in the world do people drive 13 miles straight up a mountain just so they can throw their trash into the lake? Burn them with Fire!... um, I mean ban them, yeah, that's what I meant...
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Final poser shot.
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Spent the weekend camping outside Red River and hit a couple of trails while we were there. All of the trails are within the Carson National Forest and are subject to USFS rules (which, more often than not these days means NO FUN ALLOWED), but we still had some good rides. The scenery was fantastic and the trails were in some spots actually more challenging than I thought they would be. Lots of mining ruins and old cabins tucked back in the trees. All in all, a fun weekend and we wrapped it up by buying an '89 XJ in Angel Fire for my daughter to wrench on. She wants to build it into a trail runner like we used to have before I bought the LJ. Something for everyone.

Columbine campground had all we needed to set up for the weekend. We are pretty basic campers, just the Jeep, the tent, some minimal camp amenities, my wife and Poco The Four Wheelin' Chiweenee.
View attachment 110754

The first day we tried out FR 485 along Pioneer Creek. It is an easy, out-and-back trail with a few sections that are rather steep and rocky, and several easy stream crossings. It is about 8 miles long, starting at the Red River Ski Area and heading up a canyon. It rained off and on all day, and the trail soon began to turn into a shallow stream. I didn't even use 4WD for most of the trail, except for one spot right at the top where there was an exposed drainage pipe that had a washed out spot below it. I did use 4 low on the way down, using 2nd gear and just riding the compression down the hill. Good first day.

View attachment 110757

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Obligatory poser shot.
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On the second day we hit the Goose Lake trail, another out-and-back run, 13 miles each direction. This trail was steeper and rockier, with several miles of shelf road and few turnouts until you reached the upper part of the trail. It was also much drier than the day before, with one notable exception, and had even more in the way of old cabins and mines. The lake at the end of the trail was spectacular. On to the photos...

The Red River itself is the gatekeeper for this trail, and was running fairly deep for this time of the year. The big challenge is not to lose your nerve and just keep going at a steady rate, pushing a small bow wave in front of you. Oh, and for those who are interested, I lengthened all my breather tubes years ago and have them running to the top of the firewall, so I won't be drowning anything important. Actually, I didn't even ship any water inside the tub on either crossing. Ducks gonna hafta move...
View attachment 110763

After that, everything else was a piece of cake.
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Goose Lake
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Why in the world do people drive 13 miles straight up a mountain just so they can throw their trash into the lake? Burn them with Fire!... um, I mean ban them, yeah, that's what I meant...
View attachment 110781

Final poser shot.
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Awesome scenery and some great photos. I hope a Chiweenie is a four legged family member.
 
Goose lakes is an fun one! Great pictures. Unfortunately the Red River area is becoming taken over by the side by sides. On the Greenie peak trail there last year we noticed loads of cans and trash along the whole trail. Unfortunate.
 
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Goose lakes is an fun one! Great pictures. Unfortunately the Red River area is becoming taken over by the side by sides. On the Greenie peak trail there last year we noticed loads of cans and trash along the whole trail. Unfortunate.

Yeah, the quads and SxS's were all taking the trail too fast. There are too many blind corners for that kind of idiocy to turn out well. Sooner or later there will be a smash, and they will have no one to blame but themselves (but they'll find a way to blame everyone else...). They were also going off trail and cutting up the forest floor. I can easily see the Forest Service shutting down more trails due to bad behavior by OHV drivers. On the other hand, I have seen too many Jeep and truck drivers acting the same way, so I guess it isn't the machine, it's the operator. As for the trash, my wife and I filled up a large garbage bag with empty water bottles and energy drink cans found along the trails in two days of driving. Not cool.