After Dorothy trip, went to FR181 (American Springs Road). I walked my 4 miles but didn't see a single soul. I heard some shots as I got to where the road swings east. I didn't get shot so I was happy about that. It was cloudy and cool. I couldn't see the top of Pajarito Mountain for the low clouds or maybe snow flurries hanging over it.
Foot was OK. It likes even terrain. On the Dorothy trip, I had to be really careful not to turn my right foot on it's side in the grassy hummocks on Garita Ridge/Hunter's Point. I was comparatively speedy on FR181.
The Dorothy trip was interesting but we hardly walked at all - less than 3/4 miles. The two Española District Rangers, Sandy and Annie were very kind people. They took the time from their very busy work schedules to go to the north rim of the Valles Caldera National Preserve to look at several caldera viewpoints. I'm going to make this a short blog and not even try to get into all the ramifications of this trip.
Dorothy, Greg and I had a brief discussion at the end of the trip. Greg asked Dorothy to give another rim trail talk at Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC) and she agreed that would be good. I suggested that we should expand the rim trail effort and especially find someone to write a grant proposal to fund some of Dorothy's rim trail proposals (not my idea - the rangers suggested that to us as one way to get the rim trail going) and I mentioned Dave Menucci's name again, saying that I knew that Dorothy could do a lot if she had the time but she very busy.
We really didn't stop for lunch because we had to get the two rangers back. I passed out LaraBars to those who wanted them. Greg, who drove us in his Jeep Cherokee, seemed to really like the LaraBars. When I got home, I got 4 more of them (and the article in the Rio Grande Sierran on Marty) and dropped them off for him and Karen.