Desert Tango

I’ve been photographing a ton of mountain bike racing lately, which is great because I spend a lot of my own personal time logging miles and miles of sweet singletrack here in western New Mexico and beyond. This past race, the Dawn Til Dusk 12 Hour Endurance Race, takes place right here in Gallup. I cranked out a race report for the Mountain Flyer Magazine website and shot some stuff for the event organizers. I was really happy with the images that I came away with on this assignment and a lot of that came from knowing the course like the back of my hand.

Yikes! It’s been almost a month since I last posted something. No worries, I’ve got a few things in the works in the coming weeks. For now, I wanted to post this photo from the Tour of the White Mountains mountain bike race I shot this fall in Show Low, Ariz.  It ran as a double-truck in Mountain Flyer Magazine this month. I first blogged about this event here, so this is sort of the second half of that post.

Early October took me to Show Low, Arizona to photograph the Tour of the White Mountains for Mountain Flyer magazine and their website. The race, which is put on by Epic Rides (who also do the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo and The Whiskey Off Road races), was set in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona. Three courses, a 15, 35 and 65 mile route make for a diverse group of racers.

I’m making it a goal next season of photographing more mountain bike races. I missed two of Gallup’s best races this year due to weather and a prior commitment, and this race got the juices flowing. In fact, you’ll probably see me at the Old Pueblo and Whiskey races mentioned above in February and April of 2010.

If you would like to read the race report and see a couple of more photos, check it out here. Also, note that I’m withholding from posting a few images that will appear in the next print issue of Mountain Flyer.

As much as I try to keep up with my goal one blog post per week, sometimes it’s almost impossible. September ended up being a really busy month for me shooting a wedding in Iowa and a mountain bike race in Show Low, Ariz. Both went really well and will be subject of future blog posts.

Meanwhile, on a leisurely Sunday afternoon, several friends and I made a trip deep in the heart of the Zuni Mountain’s to ride the smooth flowy red rocks and beautiful Cottonwood Canyon. The aspens were in full color and the oak trees were reaching their peak as well, so it made for a fantastic fall ride. Along the way I was able to make a few nice photos of our afternoon adventure.

Cottonwood Canyon is one of the lesser know rides in the Zuni Mountains. It’s also one of the harder trails to access due to it’s slightly remote location, but it is also one of the prettiest places to ride in western New Mexico, regardless of the time of year. Lush stands of cottonwood, pine and aspen blanket the canyon as well as some interesting plants that are hard to find anywhere else in the desert. During a ride earlier this year, we found a vine of wild hops.

The remoteness also contributes to it’s ruggedness. It’s not necessarily an easy ride, especially when you consider that at the end you are faced with the notorious Six Mile Climb, aptly named and another fantastic but unknown ride here in the Zuni’s.

It’s hard sometimes to shoot and bike. It requires that you scout locations as you’re riding and be ahead of everyone else to set up and shoot as they come past. Then you have to catch up and pass them to do it again. But this particular day proved to be perfect for that; leisurely and relaxing.

For information about the Cottonwood Canyon and other trails in the area, visit the Gallup Trails 2010 web page here.

Last weekend, a few friends and I went to Moab, Utah for some mountain biking fun. I’m always reluctant to bring my camera on the trail, especially in a place like Moab, but on Sunday I mustered up the courage to stuff it in my Camelbak for our ride on the Slickrock Trail. In addition to the big drops and technical climbs, the wind turned out to be a big challenge as well. Standing on top of one the slickrock domes the wind actually moved our bikes at one point. So, while the camera did say in the pack for post of the ride, I did find a sweet overview with the Colorado River in the background.

As spring starts slowly creeping in,  the last couple of weeks have found me hitting the trail on my mountain bike. Here’s a few images from the last season, all photographed here in the Gallup, New Mexico area. The first and third images are from Dawn Til Dusk, a 12 hour race that takes place on our Third Mesa Trail in April. The other two images are in the Zuni Mountains, one from the sweet Red Rock trail and the other during Bike n’ Jam last fall, also a local event. Also, the first image, along with another, was published in the Santa Fe-based mountain bike magazine, Mountain Flyer.