Last month while on vacation in New Mexico I was fortunate enough to activate Sierra De Don Fernando, W5N/SS-024. If you were hiking to this summit you would start from Garcia Park which would be quite a lovely three mile round trip outing.
Now if you are a mountain biker then the money option is getting out on the South Boundary Trail which basically goes from Angel Fire to Taos New Mexico on high country ridgelines. This trail is designated as both an IMBA Epic and a US National Recreation Trail. The trail is 20.5 miles long with most of it in the 9-10,000+ft range and trending downhill. The last three miles is the most technical dropping about 1,700 feet over that mileage.
The summit is an easy pedal up summit (About as easy as riding at 10,000 feet gets) off a short spur trail from the South Boundary trail.
There is a shuttle service that runs out of Taos which is what I did. The day started off amazing and sunny, but as is often the case in August, monsoonal weather can brew in a hurry by midday. The weather got kinda sketchy by this Southern Californian Weather Weenie’s standard so the activation was quick. The bulk of the weather was moving mostly north and the trail moves west to east so I was lucky enough
