Hey all,
Had a weird and funny (in retrospect) experience while camping in White Sands. It is close to a missile test facility and airforce base. During a night where we had to free camp, we were awoken by large explosions in the middle of the night! Read the rest here:

https://pathlesspedaled.com/?p=1146

Best,
Russ
www.pathlesspedaled.com

Dont you just love the "wise" people behind the counter?

Really lovely pictures and a great story. I'll be out that way in a few months and wasn't planning on routing past White Sands. I am now.

How did your drive train like the white sand? I only made the mistake of laying my bike down on the beach once.

The second and third pictures you posted here are seriously amazing. The rest are pretty good too.

Russ, you should also post the downhill video- it was fantastic.

Great photos and story, I'm a bit confused though. You're not sure if it was fireworks or ballistic missles? I would like to think the difference would be unmistakable.

We are fairly sure in the end it was fireworks, though we never found the other campers the next morning to ask. You have to understand that we were cold, hungry and under some duress so in the moment it was hard to think clearly.