The Las Conchas Peak hike went well Monday. David wasn't impressed with the route up. All along he had wanted to go up from Peralta Road up a pass. I must admit that watching everyone pick their way up the rocky south side of Las Conchas and burying themselves in the shrubs to do it, made me realize that David was right but I wasn't familiar with any other way.
Everyone seemed to like the views from on top but the caldera views were probably somewhat disappointing to Dorothy. I had forgotten how blocked toward Redondo the top of Las Conchas is. The best views of Redondo were from the next peak to the south - Hermit Thrush Peak.
After lunch, David wanted to go down a different way and no one protested! He went down from the northeast corner of the mountain and it was a very good way down - not too steep. He built some small rock cairns as we went down and we built another brush cairn when we intersected the Peralta-Paliza Trail.
When we got back to the Peralta-Paliza Trail, Dorothy suggested that we shortcut the trail by going downhill to another section of the trail and we all agreed. However, Dorothy wasn't paying complete attention because we kept asking her to identify this and that flower so we ended up going down to Peralta Road. Basically, I think that Faye and David both wanted to go down the shortest way and they would head off and we all mindlessly followed. I marked where we came out on the road with a stone cairn. I'd like to try to go to Las Conchas again from that point and going up the way we came down on this past Monday. I think that David and Faye are excellent mountaineers.
Annette walked back with me to my car parked at the bottom of Peralta Road. We walked out through Corral Canyon but cut up the hill, before NM4, to go east along an old road that went alongside the private property. The road intersected the Peralta Road fairly close to my car and we walked back on the road.
Today I mailed off the Roadrunner Sports shoes for a refund. I also mailed 3" of our toaster oven plug to get a new one under warranty as it had began working only intermittently. It was only 7 months old and a Black and Decker model.
I walked in the woods alongside Camp May Road for the first time in a long time. It was in surprisingly good condition as far as trash. I had decided anyway that I'd be ignoring trash except on a yearly basis. Someone knocked down a few of the rock cairns in the area near Paint Ball Road. I had forgotten how hard it is to pull myself up Guardrail Hill! I'm out of practice!!
Tomorrow I hike with the WI. They'll go to the East Fork Area but the one further west with the pit toilets, I think. Annette emailed me where they are going but if I want to get on the email list, I have to ask Ginny Bell.