The Valle Caldera National Preserve, formerly known as the Baca Ranch, is an 89,000 acre, 140 square mile parcel of land situated in the middle of the Jemez (hey-mez) Mountains west of Santa Fe, New Mexico. It has been a working ranch since the 1800s.

Until recently access to the area has been limited to a select few -- those being pay-for-hunt clients or friends of the Dunigans who owned the ranch. In 2000 the ranch was purchased by the federal government and in 2002 placed in trust.

The caldera, 12 miles in diameter, formed from two huge volcanic eruptions about 1.5 million years ago where enormous amounts of magma flowed out and the volcano collapsed in on itself forming large grassy valleys ringed by small mountain peaks. The highest point on the Preserve is the towering, 11,000-foot Redondo Peak. It is a truly gorgeous area with herds of elk and deer. Upon occasion you can stumble across a bear, coyote, turkey or bobcat.

One of the Trust's mandates is to find ways to responsibly get the general public access to this pristine area and to find ways to make money doing so.

In the fall of 2008, Southwest Region rider and trail advocate Deirdre Monroe was at a Los Alamos gas station and noticed a Preserve vehicle. She went up to the driver and offered a copy of a magazine on recent work at the Caja trails and her endurance ride there, and struck up a brief conversation on endurance events. The driver went back to the office and began talking to the recreation folks including the Trust's recreation coordinator, Rob Dixon.

By January of 2009 Southwest Region Director Roger Taylor and the Preserve staffers decided to try an experiment and put on an endurance ride. Roger asked me if I would be interested in being ride manager. I said that absolutely, positively, yes, I would be honored to put on a ride in such a wonderful location.

The winter weather at 9,000 feet elevation is challenging, so we weren't able to do any "in the field" planning. The Preserve provided us with two maps which we used to lay out and plan the trails on paper. We weren't able to get in to the Preserve until the end of April when the snow melted enough to get around.

The ride was scheduled to take place just two months later, on June 20, and all we had were two maps with ideas written on them. With the help of numerous volunteers and numerous days of playing hooky from work, we plotted, rode and put the 35- and 55-mile courses together.

Originally the loops were plotted on Preserve roads, but the final layout also incorporated logging roads that got the riders in the back country as much as possible. We could have done the whole thing on logging roads, but we didn't have time since the routes had to be approved by the Preserve's Archeological Committee two weeks prior to the ride.

Just before the ride, the only real logistical problem we encountered involved water. The day before the ride Roger and my son were putting out tanks and found the water source we had planned on was not reliable. Talking to the ranch foreman, Roger found out the only source for water was a 50-mile round trip from base camp. Oh well, we dealt with it.

Another mishap was that three rigs had a problem getting up the base camp road and tore off their septic lines.

And of course we had an inch of rain the morning of the ride. Go figure! It hadn't rained the whole week prior.

But with lots of help -- especially from my wife Debbie, we did it! The Valles Caldera 30/55 went from paper to ride in two months. I understand everyone had fun. Next year we're hoping to put on a multi-day ride if the Preserve will have us back.