November 2020 Gallup Journey Magazine

Get Out Get Healthy

By Coye Balok It’s easy, It’s like riding a bike. You don’t ever forget. Ever heard that one? If you haven’t ridden a bike in 20 years you may not fully believe it. It is more or less true. Biking hasbecome a big deal in our little town of Gallup. The two main types of bikes are road bikes and mountain bikes. Mountain bikes are for sure more abundant in our beautiful, rugged high desertclimate.

You might ask what the big deal is and how can a bike save someone’s life.

Bear with me as I lay this out.

Back in the early 2000’s a group of Gallup residents wanted more for our community and part of that vision was to build and maintain some dedicated trails that could be used in a multitude of ways, including mountain biking. Many people helped and more than I even know to name, so I won’t. The High Desert Trail system was established starting on the Gamerco side of town and running all the way to the Mentmore side of town, 20+ miles of maintained trails. Lots of work, organizing, permission, and dedication was used. We now have a great system of trails to walk, run, hike, or bike on right here in town. Later trails were developed in McGaffey in a similar style, but on a larger scale. Somewhere around 50+ miles exist in McGaffey for the benefit of our use. There are plans to add to these mountain trails.

26 November 2020