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2nd Annual Tour of Socorro |
April 19-20, 2008 Socorro, NM, USA |
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Escondida Lake |
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|
2nd Annual Tour of Socorro |
April 19-20, 2008 Socorro, NM, USA |
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Escondida Lake |
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This is an enjoyable ride that we like to do before work in the morning. It's a slightly more circumspect route than Ride #1. Enjoy the unhurried farms in the Rio Grande Valley. In the winter there are often sand- hill cranes here. Crossing the Flood Diversion Canal only seems hard until you do it.
Take I-25 to exit 150, marked Socorro. At the traffic light, the offramp becomes California Street, the main strip in Socorro. Go straight on California Street until the fifth traffic light, marked Manzanares. Turn right onto Manzanares. You will see the plaza in front of you. The plaza is a one-way street, flowing counterclockwise. Park anywhere along the street, or in one of the side lots.
| Mileage | Surface | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 0.0 | PAVED | Plaza. Head northwest on School of Mines Road toward the New Mexico Tech Campus. |
| 0.8 | PAVED | Turn right onto Leroy Avenue. |
| 1.1 | DIRT | At the end of Leroy. get on the ditch bank road and go left (north). |
| 1.6 | DIRT | A short detour onto a paved street, then back to the ditch road, heading mainly north. |
| 2.5 | PAVED | Turn left (north) onto the next paved street. El Camino Real. Continue north even after there are no more houses and the pavement turns into a series of dirt tracks (continue to head mainly north) that eventually head to the Flood Diversion Channel. |
| 3.5 | DIRT | Flood Diversion Channel: ride down the cement side at an angle, as opposed to straight down (it's easier than it looks), and back up the other side. Go under I-25 |
| 4.0 | DIRT | Get off the road along the concrete channel after the I-25 bridge; turn left (north) onto the east bank of the irrigation ditch. |
| 5.6 | DIRT | Switch to the west bank. |
| 5.7 | PAVED | Turn right and follow the paved road east |
| 5.9 | PAVED | Escondida Lake is on the left, a popular fishing spot. |
| 6.0 | PAVED | Rio Grande Bridge. We will turn around here. To the east there are hundreds of miles of old roads to explore. |
| 6.1 | PAVED | A small detour to the right just past the lake road takes you to a fun steep descent on the left where "real men" test their pick-up trucks. |
| 6.2 | DIRT | Head south before crossing the RR tracks. |
| 7.7 | DIRT | Go up the little hill to your right and cross the bridge over the Flood Canal. Immediately head west on the high bank on the south side of the Flood Control Channel. |
| 8.1 | DIRT | Follow the irrigation ditch south on the left bank. |
| 8.8 | DIRT | Turn left, change ditches, and continue south on the left bank. |
| 10.6 | PAVED | Detour onto the frontage road and go left (south) to Otero Street. |
| 10.9 | PAVED | Go right (west) on Otero, under California Street, under the interstate, and accross at the light. |
| 11.3 | PAVED | San Miguel Mission. Turn left and continue to |
| 11.5 | PAVED | The Plaza. |
