I've never ridden the Tail of the Dragon, that fabled road in North Carolina that has 318 curves in 11 miles, but I rode somewhere today that just might give the Dragon a run for its money.
I'm talking about New Mexico 152, running from near Central over to Hillsboro. See the map to get an idea of where I'm talking about.
I was coming up from Amado, AZ, and I caught I-10 a little east of Tucson and followed it to Lordsburg, NM. At Lordsburg I got off on NM 90 to Silver City, caught U.S. 180 for just a few miles, and then turned off onto 152, which runs up over Emory Pass and down to I-25 on the other side, which I will follow back to Denver tomorrow. I'm in Albuquerque tonight.
I gassed up in Lordsburg and asked the guy at the counter if I would have any problems with Emory Pass. It's 8,178 feet and I was concerned about possible snow. He told me snow would not be a problem this late in the year but said it was very curvy. He waved his hand in the air to indicate an insanely twisting road. Sounded like fun.
He has been on this road. He knew what he was talking about. I have never in my life ridden a motorcycle on a more twisty road. And unlike the dragon, this one goes on for about 45 miles.
It started out winding through some hills and then was down in a canyon. It climbed from there up over the pass and down the very steep eastern slope. You know, of course, that "steep" means lots and lots of curves.
But it wasn't just the eastern slope. The whole thing was incredible. And like the Dragon, you really have to take it slow or it would be very easy to go over the edge. The curves are marked 10 mph, 15 mph, 20 mph, on up to a maximum of 35 mph, and I didn't take a single one more than 10 mph over the posted speed.
So this was supposed to be a shortcut but it didn't turn out that way. At the speeds I was held to it took a pretty good while to navigate this road. That's OK. It was the best road I've been on on this trip.
Comments