By Sarah Councell

There comes a moment in every bikepacker’s career, often whilst lugging one’s cargo-laden bike up a very steep hill, when a realization dawns: “Hey, I might have a lot more fun on this route as a day trip, instead of lugging all this camping gear around…”

I know, it’s a sad, sad moment, but in my experience, it was soon followed by joy and fun days in the saddle.

The CDT is shaping up that way for me. I realized I didn’t need to view the CDT as a linear path from Point A to Point B, but could go out for a couple days, set up a base camp, and travel light on my full suspension bike. The quest for the CDT basecamp adventures has taken me to the far north and south sections of the trail in New Mexico, offering amazing, accessible terrain, good camping, and super fun single track trail. Here are some of my favorite biking day trips on the CDT.

The Big Burro Mountains, southern New Mexico: CDT north and south of Burro and Jack’s Peak

Ancestral lands visited: Chiricahua Apache

Camping: Good camping right at the Jack’s Peak trailhead. No amenities, but plenty of space. 

Resources: MTB project website has GPS data (GPX files) of these trails and some other options in the area you can download.

The Burros have been on my radar for a while as a remote place worth exploring. Sitting southwest of the Gila Mountains, the Burros meet the CDT north of Lordsburg. It seemed like the Jack’s Peak area would be a good place to basecamp and explore the CDT to the north and south. Scott Morris’s depiction from the first CDT through-ride says the trails get better further north towards Silver City, so we decided to start north and assess how good it really was. The camping ended up being great and the riding was sweet. 

On day one, we drove about 20 minutes to the base of the Deadman Canyon trail, north of our Jack’s Peak camp. We parked at the base of the Deadman Canyon trail and biked the Forest Road uphill about 3 miles until we joined the CDT. Then, the trail followed the contours of steep hills, dipped creatively in and out of drainages, and wandered through scrub oak and juniper, then ponderosa forests. We even came across a CDT trail worker who had adopted that section of trail and thanked them for their work! We followed the trail until the top of its final descent to the pavement, then instead of backtracking all the way to the truck, we followed the CDT further south to the slopes of Burro and Jack’s Peak. 

Riding on the flanks of the bigger mountains, under canopies of ponderosa pines, we quickly felt like we were in higher mountains. It was thrilling to be up in the very mountains we had been gazing at all day: green peaks against a clear blue New Mexico sky. We finished on the Deadman Canyon Trail, which departed from the CDT just north of Burro and Jack’s Peak, and had a fast, fun descent back to the truck. Despite the cold and windy day, we had a ton of fun riding the natural berms, technical features, and downhill finish of this very rideable section of the CDT. 

On day two, we rode south towards Lordsburg. We departed right from our camp at the Jack’s Peak trailhead and quickly left the mountainous terrain of the day before for the open desert. We started in a shady grove next to a large wash, with several canyons extending up towards Jack’s Peak. As we traveled south, expansive views, cool canyons, and bear grass forests complemented the fun, flowy trails. We ran into another CDT volunteer worker, busy taming the encroaching bear grass and making the trail user friendly.

We decided to turn around at Route 90, and the trail was just as fun heading back up toward Jack’s Peak trailhead. Both days that we traveled the CDT as an out-and-back, the out was just as fun as the back. We found plenty of natural rollers and berms on this section as well, making for a fun, playful ride.

The Hopewell Lake area, northern New Mexico: CDT north and south of Hopewell Lake

Ancestral lands visited: Intersection of Jicarilla Apache, Pueblos and Ute ancestral lands

Camping:  If you prefer to camp at an established Forest Service campground, the Hopewell Lake campground is great; there is also dispersed camping aplenty on Forest Service (FS) roads north and south of the lake.

Resources: MTB project has GPX of these trails you can download.

Needing to stay near home in New Mexico this summer due to the pandemic was a great excuse to hit the CDT up north. Rumor had it that trail crews had been reworking some sections up there. I was psyched to see their work and help them break in the new trails (wink). I set my eyes on another great two-day base camping trip: the CDT north and south of Hopewell Lake. 

My friend Susan and I connected for some CDT downhilling on day one. There are tons of FS roads in the area to help riders create their own interesting day loops. 

Our ride south on the CDT quickly took us to the top of a huge hill overlooking the terrain to the south, giving us a glimpse of the adventures to come. The hill was super fun: switchbacks on a smooth trail took us down to the creek for a quick crossing, then up into the aspens. It’s always dangerous to ride downhill first when the riding is this good.

We rode up and over to the next creek, the much bigger Rio Vallecitos where we dismounted for an exciting creek crossing. After balancing on slippery rocks and huge downed ponderosa pines in slick bike shoes (but with a light bike, yay!), we saddled up for more downhill, including a super technical section in Bonita Canyon. We decided to return north shortly after that, retracing the Bonita technical section, then peeling off onto great and more gentle riding on FS roads.

I ran into some Southwest Youth Corps trail workers north of Hopewell on day two. The trails were in great shape! Although the elevation gain was only slightly less, mile-for-mile, than the day before, this ride was a lot more rolling than yesterday’s. It started in the trees on a long FS road climb, but soon opened up, with the trail popping in and out of forests and large open meadows. By mid-day I found myself at the top of a long downhill to the Rio San Antonio. This seemed like a good turn around, but not until I hike-a-biked up the Olguin Mesa. Pushing my bike all the way up this climb was worth it for a great lunch spot with views into Colorado.

Coming back upon Hopewell Lake from the north was so scenic: the oxbows then the lake, the long green grasses dancing in the wind, the meadows folding into aspen groves on a warm summer eve. My time on the CDT was a way to recharge and get to see these less travelled parts of New Mexico. 

This piece is an excerpt from Sarah’s blog. To read more about Sarah’s bike trips on the CDT read the full blog here and visit her website.

Sarah Councell loves exploring the mountains and canyons of the greater Rockies, by foot, mountain bike, or pack-raft.  In 2016, she and her partner Dan rode their bikes from Albuquerque to Canmore on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Trail.

All photos by Dan Shorb and Sarah Councell.