Buckhorn

Buckhorn starts at a 3 way intersection with Outie. Heading to the east at this intersection, Buckhorn starts with a slight descent through fast, winding singletrack. The descent bottoms out and it starts to climb slightly.

After about .2 of a miles you'll cross a jeep road that crosses the trail perpendicularly. After the jeep road the trail climbs more with slightly more vigor. Bending to the right you side hill from Right to Left on a quick descent. A hard left takes you further downhill followed by a hard right.

From this right hand turn you climb again to a knoll which is thick with scrub oak. Turning left the trail drops more and you find yourself on a Jeep track at high speed. After a short bit the trail meanders off the Jeep track to the left. Climbing slightly your speed tampers before picking up again. Be ready for a hard right hander that sneaks up on you.

From here the trail picks up speed in earnest and has a handful of sharp turns as it's looses elevation fast. You'll find yourself paralleling a barbwire fence on your left. Turning right off the fence line you hit an old Jeep track where you pick up speed once more. The track will bottom out and climb to a cattle guard. Once through the cattle guard the trail turns slightly to the right and side hills Right to Left as it's drops once more.

At this point, you're getting close to both the Buckhorn Traverse and the major Lower Buckhorn Reroute portion of the trail. This 1.6 mile reroute was built in 2016 to replace a steep and rutted utility corridor which also passed through private land. Now fully on BLM land, the trail rides really well both up and down, with grades that you can stomp up, grade reversals you can air out on the way down, and tight turns and some steep bits to keep your game face on. You'll mostly flow through sage meadows and pinion juniper terrain between Buckhorn Traverse and the Rio Grande Trail.