Hot 'n' Spicy

Before moving to Alaska nine years ago, I was fortunate enough to live and work in Santa Fe, N.M., for nearly five years. The light is beautiful, the food is incredible and the mountain biking is some of the best on the planet. If you're sufficiently acclimated to ride at 6,000 feet and higher—sometimes much higher, as in 10,000 to 12,000 feet—I strongly recommend taking your bike on a high-desert vacation. Ride up Aspen Vista to Tesuque Peak and then drop down through the ski area before descending the Windsor Trail. I don't care who ya are, that's The Shit. And I won't even mention the secret stashes of singletrack scattered across mountains all the way to Taos.

Santa Fe is also a mecca for people who want to live on tofu and save the planet. Personally, I'll take a big-ass breakfast burrito with extra sausage and green chile, thank you very much. But the crew at Chain-Breaker Collective seem to have a good idea. Val Kilmer, Oprah and other celebs might live just over the hill, but there are plenty of folks in town who need a cheap ride.

If you're here, you must be interested in bike-related blogs, so you should take a peek at these listings to find more crap to read. Not that you should leave Bicycles and Icicles. Just take a look later after you've had your fill here. Captivating, isn't it? I tell ya, man, I'm just like Snoop Dogg: I keep comin' up with funky-ass shit nearly every single day. And that's the last rap reference you'll see here until The Gourds record another cover as great as "Gin and Juice." In the meantime, I vow to keep this a rap-free zone.