Today I started on my hikes and explores list by doing the Bayo Canyon and Fireline Trails. I threw in going up the Kwage Mesa connector trail too so I'll cross that off the list as well. There are actually two Kwage Mesa connector trails off the Bayo Canyon Trail. The first one is a short, narrow, incised-in-tuff one and the second one you come upon, going east, is the longer one that ends up near the Brewer Arena. Together, round-trip, they accounted for no more than 1/2 mile.
The Fireline Trail starts from where the North Bayo Bench Trail passes by a vertical, green utility box - make a sharp left there. At first it looks like an old road but once you sort it out in all the deadfall, it turns into a trail that goes over to and intersects the Bayo Canyon Trail, only marked by the vandalized remains of a cast cement trail marker. It rolls in and out of drainages on the hillside below Kwage or North Mesa. I counted 8 massive ponderosas that had fallen across the trail. Spouse would have hated it as it was extra work to go in and out of all the shallow drainages. The hillside was green with oak.
The predominant flowers were perky sue and purple penstemon. The purple penstemon were especially lush in the number of blooms on a spike. I saw New Mexico locust and yucca in bloom. The Sangres had billowy clouds that had a pinkish tinge. I was protected from the wind until on the way back when I took the North Bayo Bench Trail back and was blasted by the wind.
The trial of the Asics Gel Nimbus is inconclusive. They started out very comfortable but ended up not so comfortable. I feel like Cinderella trying on the different slippers but instead they are honking huge size 14 men's athletic shoes!!
I started walking around noon and got back around 3pm. I only saw 2 people, both joggers. I found a child's lovey (beloved stuffed animal) on the trail and carried it back to prop it up on the trail sign.
I was so famished when I got home - did about 7.5 miles - that I threw down everything and had a can of tuna fish with diced raw onions and tomato paste plus grapes and dried mango. It tasted so good!!
Right now I have to go tend to my 4th load of laundry this week and start my cabbage and beans dish.
Tomorrow I meet the White Rock Senior Center (WRSC) group at the Alamo Boundary Trail and possibly go back to White Rock to the library, Jemez House Thrift Shop, and Smith's.
Saturday we watch grandson. Daughter has a sinus infection and will be getting new tires that day - hers are bald.
Sunday I go with spouse to Albuquerque where he'll catch a flight and I'll visit REI before heading home. Monday is a hike with Dorothy, a 77 year old friend who is writing a report on proposed trails around the whole Valles Caldera rim.
For now I'm not calling the roofers. June 7 there is a Home and Garden Show and maybe I can get some roofer ideas there. I'd like to go up Rabbit Mountain after the Home and Garden Show and see if I can catch up with the Sierra Club hikers. Maybe I could just head up the old logging roads directly to Rabbit Mountain - I came down that way once - and skip the Rabbit Ridge Road so I'll have a better chance of catching up with them. We'll see.