I thought sure I'd wake up to snow today but it was sunny and around 40 degrees. We hiked with the White Rock Senior Center group on the Perimeter Trail South, off West Jemez Road, that starts at the Pajarito Canyon Trailhead. The group surprised me and went all the way to FR181. I think they only did it because they kept thinking they could loop back and didn't have to go back the way they came. It was a small group. One regular hiker didn't come because his hip was bothering him and several others opted to eat Thanksgiving dinner at the Betty Ehart Senior Center.
I talked some with Dagne about genealogy research. She had tried it once but hit a wall of misinformation in censuses. I told her about the Latter Day Saint's Family History Centers in Los Alamos and White Rock. Dagne's Mom is 99 years old and married to an 85 year old man. I told Dagne that he's what keeps her Mom going!
I'm very tired today and was yesterday too. Yesterday, I had to wake up at 6am for the Dorothy hike and today at 7am for the senior hike. I didn't sleep well last night because my legs started cramping.
My foot did OK on the hike but I'm not sure about the Keen midcut hiking boots. So far, they are more comfortable than the Vasque's.
Thoughts on yesterday: The point of taking the forest ranger's up to the north rim of the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) was so Dorothy could lobby them not to close off certain logging access roads under their Travel Management Plan. She and Ed are hoping that in the future, a deal could be struck between the VCNP management and the USFS to allow people to look into the world-class beautiful Valles Caldera from the north rim, through some official "holes in the fence". People could drive in on the forest service logging roads and legally hike across the VCNP fence at several selected viewpoints.
Truthfully, I'll get little use out of these proposed north rim viewpoints but it may, as Dorothy and Ed believe, create a lot of goodwill for the VCNP in northern New Mexico. The forest rangers admitted that the north rim area off FR144 only gets light use. Dorothy and Ed are both amazing people to do all the legwork and research to promote the north rim viewpoints proposal.
I should have waited until the rangers weren't present to tell Ed that I thought some of the maze of roads were superfluous and it wouldn't hurt to close some, leaving only main trunk open for access to the viewpoints. In fairness to myself, though, I never saw the attachments he sent me that included a map and his comments on the Travel Management Plan because TextEdit opened them up as blank pages. I wish that PC's and Mac's could communicate better!
Some info on the rangers: Sandy formerly worked in Oregon as a ranger. He started out in firefighting. He's been in northern New Mexico for 6 years now. He really likes the mix of 3 cultures here - Indian, Hispanic and Anglo. Annie is a mother of two. She lives on a ranch in Pecos and commutes everyday to Española which is a long way to drive. She's been with the Española Ranger District since 1999 and before that worked for the BLM in Taos and the Tesuque Ranger District in Santa Fe.