Twin T'Dubing to Twin Buttes on New Year's Eve Day

Dec 31, 2022

I rode to the end of the access trail we're parked along, to see if I could get across to the other side of the lake.  I made it quite a ways before I hit a gate labeled private property which caused me to stop here:

Chris Z. and I, on our respective Yamaha TW200 dual sports went riding on BLM land today.

The land is south of Highway 70 and accessible from a ranch gate off the highway.  The whole area is basically BLM land with some parcels marked off as State Trust Lands.  In New Mexico, you can apparently "lease" these lands for agricultural use and if you wish to camp within said lands; you must obtain the current lease owner.

We found several spots that would be suitable for camping.  Not much in terms of trees and basically flat all around (excellent fields of fire).

Being unsure of continuing on the main road (it goes into a marked state trust area); we decided to detour around it in order to reach rock formations in the distance which the map said were called Twin Buttes.  They kind of looked like small cinder cones to me.

Much riding later, over sometimes technical terrain (ruts, sand, loose gravel), we finally found our way to the higher of the two buttes.  Ironically, the way up the butte was roughly paved!

We got back to camp with no issues, this time taking the trail that we thought would have us going through some farm houses.  Turns out, the trail bypasses the houses so it was just a matter of going through some more gates.

Yagi developed starter relay issues soon after we returned to camp, fortunately waiting till then to do so.  It would have sucked to push start her on the big hill or in the sandy spots!  I've ordered a replacement relay from Amazon.

I drove Scarlett and Chris Z. rode his TW200 into town and we got five bundles of wood for the evening.  

Striking a heroic pose with the wood

procured with Scarlett, paid for by Chris Z.

"Thanks Chris!"

It was New Years Eve and we had us a pretty nice sunset for it.  

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

The campers next door set off fireworks for a bit.  Lucky for them, they were done by the time the local sheriff came by looking for them.

Marth flies home tomorrow.  Lori, Chris and I will move westwards into Arizona.  More to follow.