It was 19 years since I’ve had my last tetanus shot. Once we got home, I checked my vaccination records. The next morning we had to drive back to Albuquerque and fly back to Portland. Later, we grabbed some quick dinner at Bosque Brewing. The longest stretch without reliable water access between my water drops was about 43mi long. Ella, Garth, and Pete had all done the northern loop in counter-clockwise direction first.īecause the natural water resources as well as the cow troughs on the route are highly unreliable, I had made water drops in 10 strategy locations along the route. Both loops are approximately 150mi, so the Mesilla Plaza would be my half-way point. I would then return to the Mesilla Plaza and head out in clockwise direction to complete the northern loop.
The logistics were further complicated because of Thanksgiving-related reduced store hours and store closures.įor logistical reasons, I decided to complete the southern loop in counter-clockwise direction first. I finished 6min past my predicted arrival time. Perhaps for the first time, my predictions were somehow accurate. The Monumental Loop simplified: a trail runner’s perspective. I followed the 300 mile (red) runner route as Ella, Garth, and Peter did. The FKT runner route (shown in red in the map below), as established and completed by Ella Raff, Garth Reader, and Peter Livingstone, is a 300 mile variant of the original 350 mile bike route. The original 355 mile route has been renamed “The DangerBird.” It remains an option for riders and runners. The new route is only 255 miles long, cuts out some sandy and rocky sections, but still visits all four units of the Organ Mountain-Desert Peaks National Monument and passes by seven wilderness areas. In March 2021, in an effort to increase rider accessibility, an updated bike loop, the Monumental Loop 2.0 (shown in yellow in the map below), was introduced. Spearheaded by Matt Mason, with collaboration from Jack Kirby, Dan Carter, and other Las Cruces bikepackers, the original 350 mile Monumental Loop route was first published in 2017 as a “full tour” of the Organ Mountain-Desert Peaks National Monument. The movieĬoming sometime this century, hopefully… The route I didn’t even eat the turkey sticks I had packed.
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