 |
| |
This is a very scenic summit
with great far views on surrounding dessert
mesas, that are usually reserved for the
armies of drillers and well service workers,
that roam this area in hundreds of dusty
pickup trucks. There are what seems like
hundreds of intersections, none of them
signed, some dead end quickly at gas wells,
some dead end after a long distance at gas
wells. A few remaining ones go through. Best
to remain flexible as far as route planning is
concerned on a first ride. The area of the
summit point is labeled as Delgadito Mesa on
maps, while the mesa on the northern end of
CR520 is Manzanares Mesa. There is definitely
some sand on these roads, but not nearly as
much as on the roads along and west side of
Largo Wash, where to profile starts.
In spite of going down stream,
from Five Mile Bridge the road actually does
climb on the average. The sandy portions are
before the junction with Jesus Canuyon. This is
a T junction. So you really have to make a
conscious choice to go into the wrong direction,
if you want to get lost. The profile turns left
here. This lower part of Jesus Canyon may be the
most scenic part along the entire route, due to
all the rock outcrops and in my case colorful
trees. Before this road has a chance to dead
end, a steep climb takes off on the right,
apparently engaging in a plethera of ultra steep
switchbacks to climb up into the mesa. But
actually - after walking the first couple, and
being rewarded with a great view for it, the
road becomes fairly ordinary as far as climbing
is concerned. The main challenge are all the
unsigned well head turnoffs. But there are other
ways to skin this mesa. According to the map
there are minor variations to the profiled route
possible to get to the top.
From North.
(described downwards) This summit ridge
really trends east-west, and so the road
retraces its distance towards the west. The
junction with US64 is actually quite a bit
further away than I first suspected. But in the
end, the many changing views make me glad it is.
The road surface is relatively fast again, with
a a patch of sand thrown in now and then, to
keep unclipping practice going. When the wide
sand road finally meets US64 at its exact summit
point between Blanco
and Navajo City CR520 has lost about
800ft.. The profile continues on US64
direction east, to illustrate the day loop
below. But decending on the west side would have
been a shorter loop.
Dayride with this point as
highest summit:
PARTIALLY PAVED /. UNPAVED ( < US64 Blanco - Navajo City | FR239 Lobo Canyon s(u) > ) CR520 Delgadito Mesa s(u) : 5 Mile Bridge > CR4450 south > up Jesus Canyon > up steep unsigned road on right > various unsigned roads as shown on map > CR520 Delgadito Mesa > US64 Blanco - Navajo City(shp) > US64 east > Navajo Dam > Navajo Dam Rd west > NM511 west > US64 west > CR4450 south back to starting point: 55.7mies with 3620ft of climbing in 5:45hrs (garmin etrex32x m6:24.10.14) |
A good unpaved road
in the far view ahead and above, finally serves
as confidence booster, to assure that we are
going places, and not back. The road we
are on now makes a well used appearance,
as it climbs one last step onto the top of
the mesa, covered in dwarf forest. This road
runs on a ridge with great views in two
directions, and overlooking more wells than one
can shake a stick at. It is difficult to tell
exactly where the summit is, and I used the map
to figure this out.|
|
advertisement |
|
|
advertisement |