Today was my day to rack up the last easily accessible trail--Glorieta Canyon and Glorieta Baldy, just off I-25 about 10 miles north of Santa Fe--an apparently wonderful route up a canyon, through a ghost town, up to a high ridge and unobscured peak with an abandoned forest service fire lookout tower, and then back down another canyon for 2,700 feet of screaming downhill.
To access the trail, one must pass through the Glorieta Baptist Convention Center, a sizeable complex between the interstate and the canyons. Apparently all one has to do is stop at the gate and tell them you're goint to the canyon and all is cool.
However, upon my arrival today, the gate through the complex to the trailhead was closed. No bother, I'll just ride the extra mile through the complex. A little pavement warmup never hurt anybody. However again, the gate contained a sign saying the "Glorieta Baptist Center has closed for the season" and that all traffic, be it motorized, foot, equestrian, or bike was forbidden from crossing through the private property.
D@mm!
It looked like a small town, not somebody's private property. How bad would it be to let folks cross through? The sign said you could only enter as a resident of guest of a resident, so even though the convention facility was "closed," there were full-time residents on site, but nowhere in sight, and we had no way to contact them. It was more than a little disappointing to find that such a wonderful public resource could be so easily cut off.
Interestingly enough, I arrived just after three cars full of hikers who were from the local area and equally surprised to see the restriction. They spent some time discussing the merits of poaching and, in the end, two of them decided to go for it and the rest of the group departed, leaving one of the cars behind for their rogue friends.
