There were 26 people. Upper Water Canyon was lush and lovely. An amazing amount of work has gone into clearing it after the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire. There are even log bridges. The raspberries were thick - I can imagine bears down in the canyon enjoying a sweet snack. A savory snack could then be provided by a passing hiker! The cutleaf coneflower (pretty sure) was spectacular - huge masses of cheery yellow that were nearly as tall as me in places.
When we got to American Springs Road (FR181), the group continued east on the road to the left turn off (the one that goes up a tributary to Water Canyon and eventually to Cerro Grande). From there, we picked up the Fireline Trail and took that over to FR2997 and that back to FR181 and then down to the water tanks off NM501 and back to Water Canyon.
I really admire anyone who takes on the task of leading a group this big and can sympathize with our LL leader not wanting the group to get any bigger. Kathy, the leader, did stop and wait for everyone at crucial junctions but Renate, in the slow group, fell and had to be attended to (she was OK) which caused the slow group to get way behind. When Kathy found this out via a cell phone call to the lagging group, she made a point to wait for everyone at the meadow where FR181 makes the big right turn to go south. It seemed, though, after that, that the fast group (me too!) galloped ahead toward the lunch spot Kathy was hoping for, and, in the meantime, the slow group made the executive decision to stop for lunch.
We all wondered what had become of the slow group. Kathy called them again and discovered that they had stopped for lunch and didn't really know how to get back to the cars so she had to change her plans slightly because, wisely, she didn't want to split up the group so we had lunch and afterwards, when the caboose group joined us, we all went down FR181 together.
It rained a few drops and thundered weakly at lunch but no bad weather developed.
A big German shepherd, Jake, a fine-looking dog, was on the hike. He carried his own water and a few pieces of litter that his owner, Mahlon, picked up to put in Jake's saddlebags.