Mike's Bike Blog

On the way to Colorado we came across the Capulin Volcano National Monument in New Mexico. The road to the top was closed and it was a windy and cold day, we got there around 4:30 pm. The road to the top is closed to bicycles from 8am to 4pm when it is open to cars. My bike clothes were packed away and I would have had to practically unpack the entire car to get to them that I wasn't able to ride up it.

We left Colorado for Texas on the 1st and we made our way into New Mexico and to the volcano again around 9:30 am. Initially the family just wanted to go up to the top and see the volcano, but due to the holiday the road was closed. This time I was better prepared and had my bike stuff right on top. I changed and got the bike ready to ascend up my first volcano.

As I started off my legs were a little tired from my trip up to Estes Park, but even worse was the churning in my stomach from breakfast. My first egg McMuffin in several years wasn't sitting well. Jennifer and the boys were walking up the road and I quickly passed them. Almost to the top I realized I didn't have a camera with me. I got to the top looked around and headed down.

The decent was a little scary, there were a few patches of ice on the backside of the volcano. I also made it a little more treacherous since I didn't have the rear break fully closed from when I took the rear tire off. This made breaking an issue, I stopped and closed the break to get a little more grip. I also need to change the break pads on the Fuji, they are quite worn and are in need of replacing. About a mile down the road I came to Jennifer and the boys still making their way up. I grabbed the camera from Jennifer and went back up to the top to take pictures.

From the visitor center to the top of the volcano it is 2.1 miles and the average grade is 5.7% with a max of 13.2%. The total climb is only 665 feet. It took me 17 minutes to get to the top averaging 7.4 mph. On the way down it took me 5 minutes to get down averaging 23 mph with a max of 39 mph. This was a great way to start 2009, it's not everyday I get to ride up an extinct volcano.