Albuquerque Appointment Today

Got a bone density test. Will try to get the spinal x-rays this week although I really don't want to. Then, hopefully the bone specialist will tell me what all this means and give me options. The test results were mostly normal except for low Vitamin D (I'm upping my dose from 2000 I.U. a day to 3000) and high NTx which means I'm losing bone.

Spouse and grandson went to see the Mummy Imax film at the NM Natural History Museum while I was at the doctor's.

I walked 2.5 miles to the museum to meet them. I followed Martin Luther King which turned into Grand Avenue which turned into Marquette. I hung a right on 8th Street, crossed Lomas and then hung a left on Mountain Road. The Google Map directions were spot on. The Grand Avenue Overpass seems a big to-do about nothing except some railroad tracks underneath. Heavens - I at least expected a freeway underneath! This was a really boring part of downtown Albuquerque - City Hall, the police department, Keller and Keller's office (a personal injury lawyer who advertises a lot on TV).

We took grandson to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch. I really liked it. I made a great kitchen sink salad and loved it. I accompanied it with a baked potato and ate red grapes for dessert. Grandson was happy that we let him pick what he wanted to eat and dessert too! Spouse missed meat dishes.

When we got home, there was enough daylight to finish my exercise with a 2 mile walk on the ski hill bypass route. I wore my 10 pound IronWear weight vest to strengthen my bones.

I'm reading a great book by Mark Obmascik Halfway to Heaven: My White-Knuckled and Knuckle-headed Quest for the Rocky Mountain High. He has a good sense of humor like Dan White, author of The Cactus Eaters. The book is inspiring me to climb more mountains. It's about the middle-aged, out of shape author's climbing of Colorado 14ers. I love it so far!!

Yay - Christmas is Over for Another Year!!

It's too late for me to get into all the reasons why I'm happy that Christmas is finally over for another year but I'm glad that everything was open today and we got mail!!

The outside cover of Bob Dylan's new Christmas CD, Christmas in the Heart, shows a chaste, old-fashioned couple taking a two horse sleigh ride. Then you open the CD case and there is a picture worthy of the Esquire magazines my father read of a bosomy brunette Santa's helper. Then the back of the CD case depicts the three Wise Men trekking on camel back toward the Star of Bethlehem. I like the humorous juxtaposition!!

On my walk on Camp May Road yesterday (wonderful because the ski hill was closed and the Christmas Day traffic was light) I took 39 photos, trying to capture snowy scenes for desktop pictures. Two were of snow sparkles. In the photo's shadows, the sparkles showed up as small white splotches but the sparkles washed out completely in the sunny portions. Maybe it would work to sprinkle silver glitter on the snow and just take a photo of that.

The Christmas dinner with daughter's in-laws was good. I'm not sure if anyone really liked the tabooley and rice with raisins and walnuts but spouse said that son-in-law took a second serving so that's good enough for me! He liked it at least!

I finally officially gave up on reading W. D. Wetherell's book, Yellowstone Autumn. I got about halfway through but then decided that he was too self-indulgent in his examination of his belly button lint. There are definitely enjoyable parts of the book but he drags out too much his philosophizing on his 55th birthday, his solitary Yellowstone visit, his homesickness etc.. I liked the book so much at the beginning but then he lost me. It's like he forced himself to write a book of a certain length about the experience of spending 3 weeks in Yellowstone alone for his 55th birthday but it could have easily done it in half the length and been made more interesting. I know I'm not giving any good examples to back up my judgment about this book but, then again, this isn't a book review. I'm disappointed I didn't finish it but wanted to move on to more interesting books like Karen Berger's account of her hike along the Pacific Crest Trail.

On a Tear In the Kitchen Today

I made tabooley and a rice dish to take over to Christmas dinner tomorrow. The intent is twofold - to have something to eat that's vegan and to have enough to share with others if they're interested. For my own consumption at home, I also made guacamole and date balls.

Tabooley (all sorts of variant spellings): Washed and trimmed four bunches curly parsley, 2 bunches spearmint, 4 bunches green onions and 6 tomatoes. Made dressing of equal parts lemon juice, water and tahini but also added olive oil and juiced extra lemons for zing. Seasoning was black pepper. People can add salt at the table. I chopped all the veggies in the food processor and mixed everything together with bulgur that I had softened the day before. It tastes yummy!

Rice with Raisins and Walnuts: Cooked brown rice yesterday and packed it loosely in Mason jars. Today I sauteed 3 chopped red onions and 4 minced cloves garlic in olive oil with a lid on to soften them. Then I took the lid off and added raisins and chopped walnuts and sauteed some more. I put in the rice and seasonings and mixed everything up. Seasonings were a little cinnamon, a little garam masala, black pepper and lime juice. It tastes pretty good IMHO!

Guacamole: Very simple - one jar of prepared salsa, juice of one lime, two mashed avocados, minced garlic, chopped onion.

Date Balls: Pitted medjool dates and softened them in the microwave. Put in food processor the dates, a trail mix from Natural Grocers (pistachio nuts, cashews, cocoa nibs, goji berries, gold raisins), walnuts and vanilla extract and ground it until it formed lumps. It's a coarse consistency. I roll it into a ball and pop it into my mouth - very delicious!!

Today's walk was two out-and-backs on the ski hill bypass route. Too many cars but I wanted something quick so I could come back home and get cracking in the kitchen. Spouse came home early from work and thought it wise to hide out in the public library whilst I monopolized the kitchen. This is the beginning of his Christmas vacation.

I took pictures of the snowy woods along the bypass. I haven't uploaded them to the computer yet. I want some snowy desktop photos!

Peace on Earth. Goodwill toward all.

Snowing Tonight!

Walked to first chain turnout on Camp May Road (does anyone use those chain turnouts anymore??). Mused again on bright light highlighting snow and dead grass at Memorial Corner.

As I stepped from behind bush on FR2998 (answering a call of nature on the way down), I saw a small car pulled onto the snow and ice covered forest road. A female jogger stepped out, trying to decide if she wanted to run on ice rutted FR2998. She thought I had walked on it but I confessed that I had only stopped to use a bush and was glad she was a female! I advised against running on it but don't know what she decided.

Picked up grandson at Activity Center around 2:30pm. We walked behind the AC to Ashley Pond to feed them bread heels (spouse believes these are inedible and has spent a lifetime tossing them - I freeze them) to the ducks. The ducks were out in the middle of Ashley Pond, penned in by ice but I did see an appreciative raven eyeing the bread crumbs. It looked like it was already snowing on Pajarito Mountain. Grandson wasn't much interested in throwing bread to ducks but was intensely interested in throwing stones onto the ice to see if he could break it.

We then went to the library where he scored an Internet computer and played games on the Bionicles website. The kids are only allowed a half hour on the computer but I think he got more because there was something goofy about how that particular computer tracked time. I checked one time and it said 8 minutes. Five minutes later when I checked again, it said 9 minutes. I eventually had to haul him off because another child was waiting to use it. The central machine that tracks how much time each kid has wasn't working either.

Then we went to the medical center to get his allergy shot. We were early, his Mom wasn't off work yet, so I got to sit with him in the doctor's office while he held an ice cube on his arm to numb it for the shot. He wanted me to hold the ice cube and freeze my fingers but I declined and told him he'd manage which he did. His Mom came and then had to sit in the doctor's office with him for 1/2 hour to make sure he had no reaction to the shot.

Swine flu vaccine shots are available to everyone now. I would like to try to get one.

I asked my doctor's office if my test results were in but nothing yet.

I haven't heard yet if the WI have anything planned for tomorrow. It's snowing tonight so perhaps they'll just stay home. Did they take me off the list (so eager!) because I didn't show up for the hike and birthday celebration in Santa Fe? Or do they not hike the Wednesday before Christmas? I couldn't go anyway because tomorrow, if roads are driveable, I'm going to take grandson to the movies after the holiday party at the Activity Center.

Confession: Daughter brought over some Christmas cookies, fudge and brittle that she made for spouse. I normally don't eat cookies and candy. However, in the interest of protecting the extensive (and expensive) dental work of spouse (ha, ha!!), I ate the brittle! I figure it can't kill me since I don't make a steady diet of it. It was good but a bit scary for older teeth!!

Random

Yesterday, we went to Walmart and Sunflower Market in Santa Fe. I bought some antibiotic ointment and hydrocortisone cream for the rash on my chin. I wonder if the hypoallergenic, pierced earrings that I started wearing every day could cause a chin rash? Seems they would cause a rash near my ears if anything.

Met a Syrian guy in Sunflower. He saw me looking at the tabouli and Lebanese salads and advised me that I could make it more cheaply and better at home. He's right. I was looking for something to eat in the car on the way home. I ended up buying brown rice spicy tunacado sushi which was yummy and I can't make that at home! I'd like to hire that guy as my cook. He was buying ingredients to make stuffed koosa (squash). That's a time consuming dish.

Today, spouse and I went to the library where I loaded up on books and to Smith's where I bought some ingredients to make salads with a Middle Eastern motif. Then we walked 4 miles round-trip on the sewer treatment plant road. Road conditions were perfect.

We're invited to Perry's Grandma's for Christmas dinner. I'll bring over the salads as our contribution and for my dinner.

Tonight's dinner is swordfish steak, lobster tails, baked potato, salad and a cooked vegetable concoction of squash, onions, garlic, parsley, red chile and corn relish.

I'm discovering that even though I dearly love my MSR Denali Classic snowshoes, the bindings are less than kind to my right foot. I notice soreness in my right foot after the recent days of snowshoeing. I'll try wearing the bindings more loosely to see if that helps. I may have to buy different snowshoes if I expect to keep snowshoeing. My original foot problem ( a grab bag of posterior tibial tendon dysfunction and plantar fasciitis) began the day after a snowshoe on Martin Luther King Day.

LANB Christmas Dinner at Senior Center

Spouse and I made our official debut today into Old Fartdom! We attended the 1:00pm seatingof the Christmas dinner put on by Los Alamos National Bank at the Betty Ehart Senior Center.

The dinner was prime rib, baked potato, huge biscuit, asparagus and some kind of cheesecake. Spouse traded asparagus for my prime rib and I readily handed over the white flour biscuit. In addition to the the asparagus spears, I ate the baked potato with broccoli that I had brought from home and what was leftover of my breakfast smoothie (apple, persimmon, frozen blackberries, herbal tea and soy milk). (I had a tuna fish sandwich in a small cooler but wasn't brave enough to take it out as it stunk of raw onions. As soon as we returned home, I demolished that!) I took my piece of pie home to freeze for grandson when he comes over next week.

There was a live band. They only played one Christmas song, though, at the very end of the dinner. I guess it doesn't matter since I don't remember what it was although I sang along with it. The song I remember was Black Velvet. I really liked that one.

We sat at a table with 3 other hikers and a married couple - both 85 - who recently were moved to Los Alamos by their children.

LANB gave every guest a 2010 weekly datebook calendar as we exited the dining room. The bank puts on the free dinner every year and gives everyone a gift.

I did my four miles on Camp May Road. I didn't start until 3:30pm. There was so much downhill traffic that I wonder if Pajarito Mountain Ski Area has opened for the season. There was some uphill traffic as well and I wondered if the late starters were going up to see the sunset or for a very late afternoon cross country ski or snowshoe.

My GPS accurately measured the distance up Camp May Road. I had begun to lose faith in it when it seemed to mis-measure the distance on Dome Road the other day.

There is one area that I call Memorial Corner where I admired the the contrast of the dried, blond grass against the very white snow. As I walked downhill, I tried to verbalize in my mind what attracted my eyes to that scene but didn't succeed to my satisfaction. Was it the way the late afternoon light highlighted the grass from the south (wheatgrass planted after the Cerro Grande fire)? Was it the particular way the grass was grouped across the snow or the tilt of the hillside? On the way down I saw other blond grass on white snow but it didn't impact my eyes as much.

Pomegranate Party

Had a lovely snowshoe today on FR181 from the twin water tanks. When I started, I felt like pounding up the trail to work out some of my frustrations, due to cabin fever from the past few days of not getting out on the trail, but the up part quickly subdued me!

I enjoy breaking trail, though, if it's not too deep. My MSR Denali snowshoes are short and thus don't have much flotation so I flounder in deep snow. This was utterly perfect snow with a beautifully sunny day and blue skies. I was entranced by shadows cast on the snow by grass, pine needles and cones.

It was nice to have time today after the snowshoe to shop at Smith's. I bought olives, hummous, eggplant spread, frozen oj concentrate, bananas, green onions and pomegranates. After supper, I mushed my face in a pomegranate, greedily gulping crimson seeds - yum!

Frozen Steppes

It took me two hours (counting 3 bathroom stops - couldn't believe the library was open!) to walk 3 miles. It's not a pedestrian world out there. The sidewalks are piled high with snow, gusty winds blow more snow around, frostbite is a real possibility and non-icy spots are in short supply. Surprisingly, I saw more than a handful of people out walking, including one man walking his energetic, snow-loving dog!

I will skip the group snowshoe tomorrow at Cañada Bonita. Last year when I went, it was very windy as soon as we hit the meadow. I had enough wind tonight. Besides, I have to get up early Thursday and Friday so tomorrow is another slothful day of sleeping in!

Evil

That's how I'm feeling now. I'm looking longingly at the Rio Grande beach photo on my desktop. I like bare ground and I don't like to shovel snow.

Spouse and did some snow clearing. Spouse swept off the cars and moved them to a side road. He cleared most of the driveway and the front porch area. The shovel he used, though, is the one for pushing light snow. This was no light snow. That shovel leaves a crust of snow everywhere which will turn to ice. We need to buy another scoop shovel because that's the best for a large snow dump.

I cleared the back porch and a path to the dish antenna. Then, out front, I finished the driveway on the other side of my car which was labor intensive because the shovelfuls of snow needed to be carried to the side-yard fence and flung over. My philosophy of snow removal is more Germanic than my spouse's. I enjoy the exercise of hauling the heavy shovelfuls of snow.

I always shovel clear a path for the mailman between houses and scrape down the front porch area. Can't have the postman breaking his/her neck.

On the sidewalk, I decided a one-shovel-wide-path was good enough. This is mainly because removing what the county snow plow put all alongside the sidewalk is more than even my Germanic roots allow me to endure!

The trash and recycle bins needed sweeping off and loosening from their snowy stranglehold. It was very satisfying to scrape the ice off the outside thermometer. Now we can see the temperature - 27 degrees. Maybe it was better to leave it obstructed? Ah, it's not that bad.

The next two days will be very cold which means we'll be living with the ice and snow for a while. As Mother Nature permits, I'll hack at the ice.

I wish we could clear our driveway like our neighbor across the street, a single woman who always scrapes her driveway clean clear down to the pavement. I notice, though, that today she only scraped clean a single car space for her boyfriend's car! She accomplished that this morning during the hellacious winds which probably explains the scaled back effort!

The evil part is that I'm going to go out to exercise soon - just walking around the downtown area - and I'm afraid of falling. I get evil if I can't exercise.

Even More Snow

Last night, after my walk, I broomed the snow off both cars and this morning, they each had as much more snow as before I swept them.

Lab was cancelled so I got to sleep in. I woke at 9am. Finished breakfast-lunch about an hour ago. (Let's just say that I don't approach it in a straight-line manner - I do other things in the process which extends everything. Actually, I was doing a lot of stalling in hopes that the hellacious winds would die down. They finally have.)

I have to go out soon to help with the snow shoveling. Spouse is anxious and isn't waiting for me to finish on the computer so he's headed out now to toss snow into the street which the county doesn't want us to do - in fact, business owners who plowed snow into the streets today were ordered to put it back on their property - the county is serious about this. I can't wait until grandson is older and stronger and hungrier to earn money!

My car sits in repose again today in the driveway. Maybe tomorrow I'll get out. Thursday, I have to drive to Albuquerque for a doctor appointment so no choice there.

My walk will probably be in the downtown area late this afternoon before everything refreezes.

Lots of Snow

In defense of my slothfulness of sleeping in so late this morning, I went to bed around midnight but couldn't go to sleep immediately.

After doing two loads of laundry, spending too much time on the computer and not finishing breakfast-lunch until almost 2:30pm, I finally went out to the library around 4pm. The whole process of going to the library, spending some time there picking out books and walking back got me home after 6pm.

After a brief pit stop, I finished my 4 miles by walking to the Los Alamos Airport and back. I wish the airplane mechanic didn't have to burn his stinky, black smoke-belching coal fire to warm his mechanic shed. It's really yucky when you breathe it in!

The English librarian said that where she comes from, San Antonio, TX, it only snows about every 10 years. She also misses her garage. I sympathize with her because I too would like a garage and I'm getting less and less enchanted by snow shoveling. Also, I fear slipping on ice a lot more now in the winters. Getting soft in me old age, I am!

I didn't finish supper until a little before 8:30pm. Ah, the wages of a slothful lifestyle are so harsh! No, really, I'd better get up at a decent time tomorrow to help spouse with the snow shoveling and digging out the cars.

Where's a really good place to live where it only snows every ten years??

Hmmm...

Sleeping until 10:15 am is a bit excessive but I suppose my body needed the sleep.  So much for getting an early start and going out for a walk before the snow comes!  I'll be lucky to get done with breakfast-lunch before noon!

Rockettes turned out to be pretty boring so we didn't watch them.

Left side back of my neck was so sore last night but feels great this morning.  My neck tends to get sore on the left side in the evening but feels fine in the morning.

Forgot to mention that on yesterday evening's walk, I tripped and fell.  I was walking on the Mesa Trail on the strip of dirt away from the canyon-edge to avoid the snow (and possible ice) on the asphalted path.  It's hard to describe what  I tripped on but there are display panels like on a fit trail and I tripped on the edging around one of the displays.  I went down fast - no question of staying upright -  and caught myself on my left hip and arms, maybe grazing my knees.  It was a very soft landing.  I was lucky!

Blah

Tonight, I still have to read some newspapers, do my lower leg exercises, finish the last few pages of Walking Nature Home (by Susan J. Tweit - a great book that I enjoyed a lot), do my stretches, and check my email. I did my 4 miles at dusk on the Mesa Trail and back and forth to the airport. With 5 shirts and a jacket, I was toasty warm!

Today was such an ordinary day compared to yesterday's 7 mile adventure - down the Blue Dot to the Rio Grande, south on the River Trail, up the Red Dot, 1/2 mile on Piedra Loop to a short connector trail starting at La Senda Road and back on the White Rock Rim Trail. I drove home in the dark. Not easy when you're blinded by headlights of oncoming cars. I'd like to do all the rest of the hikes down to and along the Rio one day. We'll see how much snow comes in with the predicted winter storm.

I did go worship today at the altar of Walmart and Vitamin Cottage - always enjoyable. I love to buy healthy foods at Vitamin Cottage.

I bought a case of Charmin Basic toilet paper at Walmart - it's the only Charmin that doesn't clog our toilet. I bought ammonia with the intention of stripping the very slippery laundry room floor (still a hazard from waxing it lo so many years ago). If I could strip the wax, I wouldn't need the obnoxious throw rugs which are now themselves becoming slippery as they lose their non-slip backing. I remember, though, the last time I used straight ammonia for stripping floor wax (more than 30 years ago when we were starving students living in the mobile home in Gainesville, Florida) I damaged my lungs so much that I got bad bronchitis for many a winter. I'm re-thinking the ammonia idea and will check Metzger's Hardware tomorrow for non-ammonia floor stripping products.

I also bought a Black and Decker blender. It's made in China. The instruction manual says variously don't run it for more than 2 minutes and don't run it for more than 1 1/2 minutes. Lord only knows which time is correct. Then it says in one place use Pulse for 5 seconds, says 10 second somewhere else and 2 minutes in another place. Bologna - 5 seconds sounds about right!

I will cancel the Thursday appointment to have the chimney sweep look at the woodburning stove. Since I wiped it down with plain water, it makes no smells. I can take care of replacing the kaowool blanket and broken brick by replacing them myself or have the chimney sweep do it next summer. I'm going to call Big Jo's Hardware (don't you just love hardware stores??) to see if they stock the stove parts since they are a Quadra Fire dealer.

Christmas lights are on in the big living room, spouse is happily laying on the couch enjoying the fire and Cold Case. At 9pm, he'll turn on the Rockettes Christmas special on PBS. Life is good.

Burnt Mesa Eagle Traps

Went to the Eagle Traps with two friends today. One led the hike and did an excellent job finding all 3 eagle traps. It was a beautiful day. Not quite warm enough for Indian Summer but definitely dominated by high pressure that kept it clear and cloudless.

The trick to finding the eagle traps is to start walking south from the large Indian ruin on the right toward Boundary peak and a tall, majestic ponderosa. The Indian ruin is shortly after you come up out of a gambel oak-filled swale. Ignore the first Indian ruin after the swale that you'll see on your left.

When you get to the edge of Burnt Mesa, you can either stick close to the edge or walk the crown of the mesa. You'll see Escobas Mesa on your right and a canyon on your left that starts out shallow but deepens. There is a deeper canyon between Burnt and Escobas Mesas.

On the way over to the edge of Burnt Mesa, we saw 2 skinny looking coyotes - not close up but from a distance. They walked away and at a right angle to our line of travel.

I had put waypoints in for the eagle traps and tried a go-to for the first one but that wasn't helpful because the arrow pointed away from the mesa edge. Maybe I input a number wrong. It didn't matter, though, because the leader spotted the first eagle trap. It was where the cliffs end and then you can easily walk down onto the shelf below the mesa's ridgeline. It's right before there is a small uphill and at a point where a trodden trail appears. The other two eagle traps weren't far after that. We went up the hill and followed the mesa a little further where it got rocky and was close to but not at the end.

The first eagle trap is shallow compared to the two near the end. Those two would require a ladder or rope to get out of.

That morning, the two friends had told me that the 4T's hiking group would also be going to the eagle traps but starting a half hour after us. When we three got there first, we sat in the sun and enjoyed the view. Then, one of us with very sharp hearing could hear hikers's voices far off. As they got closer, I gave a pathetic yodel to hail the leader but they didn't hear me. There were nine of them. Six of their number had gone all the way out on the main Burnt Mesa Trail. They passed around baked treats and chatted for a while but didn't have lunch.

We all started back together but we three hung behind. We saw the leader took off from the 4T's group to go down the main Burnt Mesa Trail. I walked all the way back with my two friends, said goodbye and then took off on the main trail again to meet the leader as she came back. On the way there, I saw a group of 4 deer browsing. At first they looked right at me and I stood still to watch them. But then, I saw their eyes were riveted by something coming behind me so I looked back and sure enough, there was a female jogger flying down the trail!

I met the leader at about the 2 mile point and we walked back together. I showed her the old CCC dam off the trail. I wanted to show that to the other two friends but one of them has a hip problem and it would have been hard for her. Her limit is about 6 miles before her hip starts talking to her. She's a very good hiker otherwise.

Afterwards, I sat in my car and ate a light lunch, enjoying the autumn orange grasslands made even deeper orange by the low hanging afternoon sun.

Sawyer Mesa to Ponderosa Campground

Did this 9 mile hike today with 7 other hikers. We got to the Bandelier boundary amazingly fast but I was one of the slower ones because when I got to the lunch stop, I only had time to eat a muffin that a friend gave to me. I got a lot of miles out of that muffin though!

Craig Martin's Los Alamos Trails says the trail that continues from Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) into Bandelier National Monument, jumping off from Sawyer Mesa FR 187, is faint but it isn't anymore. It's well cairned and has had some work done on it to make it easy to follow. The trail is called the Alamo Springs Trail 114.

I was unable to find it just now in the list of SFNF trails and the sitewide search function for their website wasn't working right. Searching Bandelier's website turned up no information either.

I felt like storming up out of Frijoles Canyon today because I wanted to go my own speed. I did but then I came back and walked with the last hiker.

Going down Upper Crossing, we met a lone woman hiker who had gone all the way to Stone Lions that morning from Ponderosa Campground. She looked like a very fit hiker.

I had to hurry back to town after the hike to drop off and pick up materials at the library, return a borrowed Ortho book about flooring options to Finishing Touch, pack up my supper at home and take it over to daughter's so she could go into work around 3pm to finish up some tasks.

Grandson had a relapse. At 3am this morning, his 101 degree fever came back. Daughter took him to doctor's office today and they prescribed antibiotics because of his croupy cough. His oxygenation was good so no chest x-ray was needed. Swine flu is going around and he can't seem to shake the fever but otherwise seems in great spirits! We'll reschedule the Rancho de Chimayo lunch for next weekend.

I left daughter's after 6pm and on the way home, I dropped off some items at Casa Mesita for daughter and am now finishing up two loads of laundry and running the dishwasher - busy day!

Mini Explore Off North Bayo Bench Trail

I went to the North Bayo Bench Trail because I wanted to check afterwards if grandson had bounced back home from school with a fever. He's getting over the flu.

The mini explore was a trail off the main trail that led me up to Barranca Road near the intersection with El Rayo. I've always wondered where that side path off the North Bayo Bench Trail led to!

I continued on past that side trail explore to Barranca Crossing, took that up to Barranca Road and down into Rendija Canyon. I took the Rendija Canyon Trail back to the Guaje Pines Cemetery where I picked up the Dot Grant Trail back to my vehicle. Craig Martin's Los Alamos Trails says that loop is 4.5 miles.

On my walk, I thought about the wonderful, varied trails that we enjoy here. I'm hoping that the national lab (we really do glow in the dark!) and the fire destroyed mountains keep away any large influx of people from moving here and crowding the trails! At one time I truly entertained the idea of moving to CO but their trails are much more crowded than ours so I'll stay here and appreciate what I have here.

When I drove by daughter's, no one was there so apparently grandson made it through his first day back to school this week.

Busy Morning

Spouse returned from business trip at just past midnight last night. He bought San Francisco sourdough bread - a loaf for him and one for daughter and family. The bread is good but whole grain is more my style.

I slept until 8:30am and then hit the ground rolling, tackling 3 loads of laundry. At least it wasn't as cold this morning. I'm afraid to do laundry on really cold days because the laundry drain has backed up before when it's really cold. The former owners of this housee who made an unheated laundry room were nuts! There is a wall unit space heater in there which I turned on as a precaution.

I turned a frozen bag of vegetable trimmings that I had been collecting into vegetable broth. I'm using the broth to reconstitute bulgur which I'll turn into a bulgur pilaf tonight.

Next door neighbor's daughter needed to borrow eggs. Her husband is making a birthday cake with and for their oldest daughter. We gave them a check to buy their 3 kids a present. I'm glad to hear that when they buy their house, it will be close to where daughter and family live.

Spouse is at the movies - Where the Wild Things Are - with grandson. Grandson no longer needs booster seat - yay!!

While I was making veggie broth, steam somehow shorted out a switch on the back of the oven. I got a mild shock when I flipped the switch to attempt to turn off the timed oven indicator light but the light still seems to be dimly on. The gas oven is almost 19 years old and we really need to buy a new one (for more reasons than the shorted switch). When the burners are first turned on, we are treated to a whiff of gas. We'll look for a new one next soon.

The idea that I would get out on the trail this weekend seems laughable now. I'll walk my 4 miles this evening with all the Halloweeners that will be out and about. Tomorrow, we go shopping in Española after spouse meets daughter and family for pancake breakfast. Maybe, just maybe, spouse and I will get a walk in tomorrow afternoon.

In view of my limited outdoor activities today, I'm so grateful for yesterday's life affirming, lung huffing, heart pounding, uphill workout on the Quemazon Trail!

I've emailed hiking pal to suggest that because of the time change, we start at 8am this Monday on ambitious hike to Rio.

A Change in the Weather

Today I felt like a road walk so I went up Camp May Road to the first chain turnout. I studied the Quemazon Trail across Los Alamos Canyon as I walked up and wondered if anyone was on that trail. When I got across from the general area of the fire-destroyed Knapp Trail that climbs out of Los Alamos Canyon to the Quemazon Trail, I studied it also and wondered if anyone would ever try to rehabilitate the destroyed trail. The burnt hillside it went up is now a formidable obstacle course of oak and locust thickets and heavy downed timber. It's not something that anyone can count on the bicycling community to bring back because according to Craig Martin the trail was so steep and erosion such a problem that bicyclists were advised not to use it. As I recall the trail, I always felt in danger of falling off it so steep it was in places and with such a scrabbly tread.

I felt like a road walk for several reasons. The weather is changing - a snowstorm is coming in to the mountains tonight and tomorrow - and also because I needed to get back early to watch our grandson tonight while daughter finishes cleaning up the apartment they've moved out of. Last night grandson enjoyed watching a library DVD about traveling with kids in the Big Island of Hawaii. A couple and their 3 and 5 year old sons produce and star in it. It's a whole series and I checked out all of the ones the library has in its collection. The really entrancing thing about it is the kids seem surprisingly adept on-camera providing spot narration of the tourist attractions the family visits.

The road walk was pleasant. The ski hill cafe is closes and since skiing season has not started yet, traffic was sparse. At Memorial Corner, the winds did not disappoint. I wonder if they are coming from both the low area beneath the heights of Pajarito Mountain and also the Santo Domingo basin. I can clearly see all the way to Albuquerque from that area so it could be a confluence of winds.

On the curve below the Ocean, nasty Siberian elm trees are hanging over the guardrail forcing walkers further into the road's travel lane. I broke some of the offending limbs to prune them back.

I'm listening to a CD from the library - Diana Ross and the Supremes - The Definitive Collection. I like it!

This morning on Terry Gross's Fresh Air, Bob Dylan's Christmas CD was reviewed. All proceeds from it go to charity which is charitable of Bob! His voice is raspier than ever but I think the songs would probably grow on me. I've loved Bob Dylan's music from back when I was in high school. Listening to him as a teenager made me feel like such a rebel!

I'm stewing Black Mission Figs right now. I buy them dried and then decide that they not moist enough. Stewing should solve that! The stemless Turkish figs are much sweeter and moister.

Inside Jobs

We went on the Bayo Canyon Bench Trail hike this morning with the WRSC group. They also went a tiny distance on the Gonzales Road which intersects the bench trail. No one could understand why we could hear gunfire that sounded so close on the Gonzales Road since the Sportsmen's Club was a mesa and canyon north of us.

Afterwards, picked up Vornado space heater at daughter's to exchange in SF tomorrow and stopped at senior center (to exchange magazines) and library (to browse non-return shelves) and then was inside the rest of the day.

Ate lunch, did two loads laundry, fixed massive vegetable soup (froze some), toasted and ground seeds - fennel, coriander, mustard. I've always read that toasting spices brings out their fragrance and flavor. They taste good. Made amaranth to go with the vegetable soup. Tonight's supper was the soup with amaranth and pinto beans. It was delicious!

Haven't heard from car dealer about loose bumper. I'll call next week to check on what's happening.

Tomorrow is SF trip and eating out at La Plazuela. Sunday, I drop spouse off early in SF, then eat breakfast at Whole Foods and come back home.

I enjoyed yesterday seeing the inner workings of Los Alamos Canyon where it splits off into Quemazon Canyon. I would like to know that country better - both the vertical as well as horizontal topographic aspects. We live in an amazing place!

Ancho Rapids Hike

I haven't done this hike for years and I'm really glad I found some people willing to do it - one of the WI hikers and her long-time friend. The WI hiker was scouting it to put on her Tuesday group's schedule. They were both good company and good hikers. We had a lot of fun talking and laughing. We all feel lucky to live in northern NM.

On the way out to the turnoff for Ancho Rapids, we were treated to the sight of a tarantula scurrying along the Powerline Road. I rarely see tarantulas so that was exciting!

It's a tough hike - 1000' elevation gain and loss to the Rio Grande and back. It's steep and therefore not a hike you'd want to do in summer unless you're training for Death Valley! I've gone with the LL group in springtime and it's really pretty then. There is a spring that runs year-around and its banks are edged by watercress. This time of year is lovely too because of the autumn colors - red gambel oak and bright yellow cottonwood. I saw small animal tracks in some mud along the creek.

Ancho Rapids was a refreshing sight and I enjoyed closing my eyes to listen to the rapids. The banks of the Rio are lined by basalt boulders blackened by desert varnish and worn very smooth over the aeons. We enjoyed lunch on the riverbank, listening to the rush of the rapids and warmed by the boulders we sat on.

Dilated Pupils

Both spouse and I got eye exams today in Santa Fe. My retina checked out perfectly.

I did 3 miles on the Route. I didn't do 4 miles because I couldn't see well. My pupils were still dilated and I protected them with from the late afternoon sunlight by several layers - clip-on sunglasses, prescription sunglasses and the disposable sunglasses that the eye doctor gives out. The world was blurry and colorless. It made me feel empathetic to people who have eye problems that, while they are not blind, greatly impair their eyesight. The world's visual beauty is so diminished if it's all a muted blur. Plus, it's a hazard trying to walk on uneven ground when you can't see clearly. Be grateful for good eyesight!

Feeling Better and MVD Overcome!

Today was the WI hike on the Bland-Frijoles Trail 113. There were only 12 of us and no Santa Fe people came along. We parked and started walking about 3 miles in on the north side of Dome Road, FR289, from its intersection with FR36.

Some pre-hike excitement was afforded me when my ride started driving away just as I had opened the back door and was attempting to get into the vehicle but fortunately I was able to step away from the moving car and wasn't hurt. The other passengers warned the driver and she stopped. She thought I was already in the car. I wasn't hurt and didn't dwell on it but it gave me some elevated heart rate when it happened and I was standing still!

Everyone enjoyed photographing the brilliant yellow aspens. The skies were bright New Mexico blue with occasional white clouds floating here and there. It was the quintessential autumn day in northern New Mexico that makes you want to just melt into the landscape and never leave!

We had lunch at the base of Rabbit Hill but didn't go up it. Instead, after lunch, we walked on a ridge between Capulin and Alamo Canyon which gave us good views into Alamo Canyon and of Pajarito Mountain and Cerro Grande. I saw lots of brilliant red barberry bushes on the ridge - very pretty!

On the way back, some of us bushwhacked straight up the ridge but I took the trail and got a ride back to my car with different hikers. It had nothing to do with the earlier mishap but I could see that the hikers who were going off-trail were going to take much longer to get back and I had to meet our daughter at 3:30pm at the Motor Vehicle Division - this time with the notarized gift affidavit in hand - to give her our old car. I got back in plenty of time and the wait was much shorter today and the transaction was successfully done - yippee!!

Today, my muscles felt fine and so did my knee. In the last two weeks, I finished the last two 50,000IU Vitamin D2 capsules and I theorize that they caused the unusual sluggishness.

Frustrating Day Except for "Partying" Coyotes

In the middle of last night, there was a very loud thunderstorm that included one particularly close, booming thunderclap. I don't think a thunderstorm was even predicted and, anyway, what's it doing thunderstorming in October like it's the middle of summer? It should be snowing!

Woke via alarm clock by 8am because I had to get moving to meet daughter at motor vehicle office to give her spouse's old car. After breakfast, went out to insurance company to pick up spouse's proof of insurance for his new car, donated our 22 year old stereo receiver to Casa Mesita Thrift Shop, visited senior center and library and then went to the the Route to exercise.

I parked at the Ocean and started walking from there. I walked all the various logging roads south of Camp May Road and turned around at the bottom of Guardrail Hill. It was one of those days like last Monday when I felt sluggish. My left knee objected to any uphill and my leg muscles were lethargic. It was distressing.

I got back home with about one hour to have lunch before I had to meet daughter at 3:30pm at the motor vehicle office. Then, after we waited an hour, it was our turn. The clerk asked where the bill of sale was and I said it was a gift. He then went to get us a gift affidavit and said to bring it back notarized. I had totally forgotten from when we gave our other car to our son-in-law about the gift affidavit business - grrrrr! I felt like such a nincompoop and so sorry that I had wasted daughter's time. She is so busy now with school, work and moving.

The bright spot of the day was seeing on my walk the beautiful, young aspens with brilliant yellow leaves and hearing coyotes that seemed to be having a joyous time exercising their vocal cords! I didn't see them and don't know how many there were but what an amazing sound it was. I stood and listened until the final yip and then there was complete silence. When I got back to my car, they did it one more time.

Explore for Next Week's Valle Canyon-Pajarito Mountain Hike

I went up Zero Road East from the Pajarito Mountain Ski Area Lodge to the top of the Lone Spruce Lift to check out a hike I'll do with a group next week starting from Valle Canyon and going up to Pajarito Mountain along the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) fence line. This group doesn't want to trespass on VCNP property which is why we will skirt along the VCNP fence. That will work out good because the climb up Pajarito Mountain is shallower the further east you go. Going on the VCNP property forces you to go more west up a steeper ridge.

From the road on the south side of Pajarito Mountain, I went downhill a short distance to a meadow above Pajarito Canyon to take a few waypoints to plot on TOPO! so I could understand the lay of the land. Landmarks are Pajarito Canyon, the tower between Lone Spruce Lift and Aspen Lift (incidentally, TOPO! shows that the Pajarito Canyon Trail, which was destroyed in 2000 by the Cerro Grande Fire, ended in the vicinity of the hill which that tower sits on. I need to study the waypoints I plotted further so I have a good idea of how to go up from Valle Canyon and pop out at the right place on the backside of Pajarito Mountain.

Going back uphill in the meadow, I blundered across a faint trail that went along the edge of Pajarito Canyon over to the picnic deck at the top of Lone Spruce Lift. If we can blunder upon that again, that would be a nice way to go back to Zero Road East.

Aspens haven't started turning yet on Pajarito Mountain but down below there is a good display starting on the hillside south of Pajarito Canyon. Disappointingly, many of the small aspens on Pajarito Mountain won't change color this year as some disease or pest has turned the leaves brown and full of holes.

At the corner going downhill where Zero Road East makes a sharp hairpin turn to the east, I went down the Dogpatch bike trail to check it out as a possible shortcut back to the Lodge. It worked well except for one nastily steep downhill section. I saw a grouse on this section. Grouse look like small chickens and don't look anything like wild turkeys with their long, bobbing necks. Based on my experience today, I wouldn't mind just taking Zero Road East all the way back to the Lodge but I will defer to others who may know better shortcuts than the Dogpatch Bike Trail. If there is any precipitation, though, the jeep trail would be the safest.

The other major jeep road up Pajarito Mountain, the one on the left just uphill from the Townsite Lift, would put us too far to the east. Going down Zero Road East to the Lodge will work out nicely.

Mitchell Trail

The Los Alamos YMCA is giving a series of hikes to showcase Los Alamos County Open Space Trails and the trail work that the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) did this summer.

The first one was last Friday to Deer Trap Mesa. A hiker on today's hike, who used to hike with the Lemon Lot group, said that last week, she was the only member of the public attending and the rest were all with the Y or the YCC.

I had gotten up early too many days last week and used last Friday to try to sleep later. I was going to do the same thing today but in the middle of the night, I set my alarm. I felt so tired last night (because of flu shot Monday?) that I went to bed around 10pm and actually fell asleep.

There were nine of us on the hike and I think that once again, the public was outnumbered by the people putting on the hike but we all enjoyed it. We walked on the Mitchell Trail to the bottom of where it starts switch backing up to Guaje Ridge. I continued on up to Guaje Ridge but everyone else went back. I wasn't carrying a backpack or water so the 1500' elevation gain was easy. I was plenty hydrated from breakfast. I reported back to the county open space director on two fallen trees and an incipient drainage problem. He asked me to report anything I saw.

Scraggly Little Skunk

I got started going up the the Route around 2:30pm. Thunder was rumbling and there was overcast but nothing developed.

Dispatched a fallen snag near Paintball Road. At first, I turned it into a teeter totter - the top of the snag had broken off and fallen against the bottom - but I was easily able to rectify the situation although I left the heavier end pointed up although it seemed stable.

Near FR2998, I encountered a scraggly little skunk. It was so small, I barely noticed it in time as it stood on the dirt road with its tail upraised. I skirted widely past it as it all the while swiveled around to keep it's tail aimed at me. At a good distance, I stopped and looked back at that skinny jot of a skunk and mused on how, out in the open like it was, it had more to worry about from a predator than from me. It looked so underfed that I felt sorry for it.

When I got back to the Ocean, the sun came out and the whole landscape glistened in the long, golden rays of afternoon.

A Walk on the Wild Ridge

On Thursday's hike up Cerro Grande, I got the idea that I wanted to go up Rabbit Mountain so I did today.

I started around 10:40am and got back to the car around 2:50pm. According to my GPS, I walked a grand total of 5.45 miles. I saw no one else on the Rabbit Ridge Road or on top of Rabbit Ridge. The weather held fantastically - no thunderstorms or threat of them for the whole trek.

A few aspens are already showing the beginnings of the fall color change. Shrubs and forbs are already turning yellow and red. Autumn is the most beautiful time of year! There is such a feeling and anticipation of change in the air. It enlivens me and even somewhat saddens me. The sadness comes from knowing that nothing is permanent, including me. The enlivenment is from the joy of seeing another autumn and the beauty of the transformed landscape.

On top of Rabbit Ridge, I heard a breaking branch and saw two elk bolting downhill - hard for me to see through the trees whether cow or bull. Later, I heard a bull elk bugle - a shrill sound, almost mechanical-like. These wild occurences didn't scare me; in fact, I enjoyed them.

I did get scared, though, when I heard what sounded like soft footsteps and then a sound like the stomach makes when it has hunger pains. It could have been a bird because nothing jumped out at me. I was in an area near one of the felsenmeers that's hemmed in by bushes - this made me nervous!

I kept a steady pace, taking water and bathroom breaks and peeks at the GPS at the felsenmeers. The backside meadows on Rabbit Ridge are very golden and there are views to the south of St. Peter's Dome, Cerro Picacho, Cerro Boletas and Cochiti Lake.

On the way to Rabbit Mountain, I counted 4 felsenmeers and one bump that didn't appear to have a felsenmeer.

I didn't linger on top of Rabbit Mountain's extensive felsenmeer. I had decided not to retrace my steps along Rabbit Ridge and I was going to go down through the woods right beside and east of Rabbit Mountain but as I stopped at the top, poised to start down, I heard this awful roaring ruckus down below. It sounded like an angry bear! I really don't know what it was but it was not an elk bugling.

Instead, I walked a little further on the ridge down to the grassy saddle at the base of the high hill just east of Rabbit Mountain. The woods below looked open and I saw patches of sunlight. I didn't hear any distressing sounds so I started down.

I used my compass the guide me mostly north back to NM4 where my car was parked. I picked my way down to the west side of the next felsenmeer over from Rabbit Mountain and crossed it where it was narrower.

Eventually I hit a long-abandoned logging road and then was able to follow old logging roads, past series of stumps and meadows, to Rabbit Ridge Road. Deal was, though, that I thought it was another road that turns off from Rabbit Ridge Road so I turned right but when I started going uphill, I pulled out my GPS and saw my mistake. As I went downhill to the intersection with the Coyote Call Trail, I surprised a turkey in the road and as it ran away, head bobbing, I saw there were about 6 altogether. I wonder - where do turkeys go in the winter? They don't look strong enough to over-winter and I don't think they fly.

I didn't have my Coker lunch until I was on the Coyote Call Trail and almost back to the final meadow above Valle Grande. I didn't want to attract whatever was bellowing in those woods. ; D

Thinking back on the hike, I'm happy I did it and proud that I made it to the top of Rabbit Mountain but, even though I was appreciating the beauty of the ridge and the views as I walked along, I didn't linger because since I was alone, I felt the need to keep moving along.

I would have liked to have done this hike with someone but no one was available. But, I did, after all, get in two group hikes this week so I should be happy!

Stopped by daughter's this evening to see her adorable new kitty that she adopted from the animal shelter. Grandson was busy on the computer designing a Lego jet plane with a swiveling gun turret on top. There were an empty Swizzlers and Reese's Peanut Butter Cup wrappers next to the computer. He had a cola drink that he was swigging from. He now goes to the Activity Center one day a week and as a treat, gets some money to spend.

Daughter was baking a cake for get-together tomorrow with in-laws. The cake overflowed and she made jokes about how it was out to get her. Aidan enjoyed licking the icing off the mixer beaters! I remember doing that as a kid except there were 5 of us that had to share! We loved it when our Mom made cream puffs and we were allowed to gobble up the soft dough inside the puff pastry before she stuffed it with pudding.

Whole Body Exercise and a Note on the White Rock Rim Trail

I've figured out a new way to keep in shape: Go out in the woods and rip NM locusts out of the ground. I have sore muscles that indicate this is a good, whole body exercise. Something about the combination of bending over and pulling up as hard as you can is what does it!

Maybe I could go in the backyard and pickup cinder blocks? They are a little bulky though and I'd probably drop one on my toes. Another idea is to lay a piece of clothesline under some heavy weights and pull up. The weights would have to be really heavy or this might have unintended consequences like the weight flying up into my face. If all else fails, there are some good, whole body weightlifting moves that involve bending over and pulling up like Deadlifts.

Walked with spouse on White Rock Rim Trail today. Went to bench overlooking Pajarito Canyon and turned around but on the way back, took short side trip down to bench trail below the White Rock Rim Trail. Saw lots of coyote scat, including a bright red pile. Prickly pear is fruiting now which that explains the technicolor. Maybe the trail could be called Coyote Gordo because the wild canines using it are certainly well-fed!

I only followed the trail to where it goes past piles of huge basalt boulders and than the trail tread crosses directly on top of torturously rough basalt. I've followed it further in the past to where it looks like there could be a way down to the next bench level above the Rio Grande.

On the way back to where spouse waited, I noticed an area with willows and denser shrubbery that looked almost oasis-like compared to the sparse vegetation around. On top, I noted a corresponding area directly above the lusher area that also had willows and less arid-looking vegetation than the usual piñons and junipers. I couldn't really see any water but there has to be a spring that's making those willows thrive.

I've Been Working on the the Route

All the live long day! I've been working on the the Route just to pass the time away!

Yesterday and today, I put in hours pulling out NM locust by the roots and sawing off what I couldn't pull it out. Those plants are tough!

Picture me bending over, holding the trunk of the prickly locust with one hand and furiously hacking at it with my tiny saw, all the while worrying a mountain lion will pounce. Chances of that are probably pretty slim, especially since today's work was within sight of a paved road but it pays to be aware! ; D I much preferred the ones I could yank out of the ground but, boy, it was back-breaking work even then because some of them required heavy-duty pulling and always with both hands!

My wonderful work gloves from Walmart have holes in the left-hand fingers so I got lots of thorns that will work themselves out over the next week (that is, the microscopic ones I couldn't see well enough to dig out). In the meantime, my fingertips are sore! I threw out the Walmart gloves and have an unused pair that Los Alamos County gave away Earth Day 2008 for picking up trash.

Yesterday, I picked up a large Bed, Bath and Beyond bag full of trash from a beer party at a road near the Ocean. Today's trash was minor but the locusts were much more numerous. Anyway, this ought to hold it until next fall when I'll pillage the locusts again. There are still loads more but they aren't growing in the middle of the trail or overlapping the sides.

It was so strangely quiet up there today. It was cloudy which was great because it kept the temps down. Maybe clouds muffle the sound. I didn't get started until a little after 1pm and didn't get back to the car until a little after 5pm. No rain at all today even though it looked like it could rain a lot. I only walked two miles total because I only had half of the four mile roundtrip Route to clean up. I more than made up the mileage earlier in the week! Besides, it was pretty strenuous tangling with those locusts!

The Route Yesterday and Alamo Canyon Rim Today

Went up the Route in the woods south of Camp May Road yesterday. Several times it looked like there would be a terrific thunderstorm but I got off scot free each time. Could see it was raining to the south.

Saw that someone has attached orange and yellow flagging with clothespins and it follows part of the Route. The orange flagging says that it's for a search and rescue dog training aid and please don't disturb. It comes in from Shotgun Shell parking and Paintball and goes a little ways past where the white RV parks off of Paintball Road. Felt lonely at beginning but fine at end.

Today was spouse's Friday off. We went to Bandelier to walk to the rim of Alamo Canyon. GPS says it was 7 miles total. Went up Frijolito and down Long Trail. Beautiful day - sunny but not too hot with some breezes. Regaled spouse with tales of the heyday of the LL gang going over to Stone Lions, in and out of Alamo Canyon, and how our leader would "salt" the trail with candy to sweeten the climb out of Alamo Canyon. We'd all take a long rest stop before the 3 mile trek back to park headquarters.

Saw one other hiker as we crested the top of the Frijolito Trail. Saw a small bear hightailing it away from us near Corral Hill.

WI Hike: Townsite Lift to Rim Run

A lot of people showed up. Someone counted 26. I started out talking with a woman I hike with but then I decided to go for the elevated heart rate and went up Evershine Ridge at a steady pace, saying hi here and there.

I wasn't the fastest. Someone's ex-hubby visiting from California was faster but he eventually stopped to see which way the rest of the group was going. A hiker had earlier told me the plan was to go up so I continued but then stopped to talk with an older hiker who was behind me. She recently fell off her bike and the pedal jammed the back of her hamstring. She was doing OK on the way up (obviously, because she was the nearest one behind me and no one was ahead of us!) I walked with her up the bicycle trail to the back of the mountain where all the retention pond construction for the snow-making project is occurring.

We waited at the Jules Sunier memorial picnic deck and soon her husband and a hiker who had her hip replaced in January joined us. They were ready for lunch but I wasn't hungry yet so I followed a short, steep trail above the picnic deck to the Yeamans Memorial Bench on the south side of Pajarito Mountain.

To my delight and surprise, I found that someone has cut the top 3 strands of barbed wire on a corner section of the Valles Caldera National Preserve fence near the bench. I carefully moved the barbed wire strands aside and put a big rock on the two bottom strands, stepped over, took some photos and then went back down to encourage the group to come up for the views. They seemed bent on eating at the picnic tables so I went back up again and sat on a rock on the VCNP side and enjoyed the views.

I decided not to go back down to rejoin them but just continued on over to Rim Run. At the Mother Lift, I saw a group of 3 hikers who asked if the peak was ahead. I delightedly told them about the views and the cut VCNP fence.

I went down Rim Run and around Columbine Corner and down Milt's Meadow which led to a bike trail and eventually down to Gene's Choice which goes back to the ski lodge.

As I was beginning my lunch on the move, eating LaraBars as I walked, I was hailed by a group of 4 of the WI hikers and I joined them for the walk back to the Townsite Lift. One hiker's dog was very excited by my LaraBars but calmed down right away after making a play for one. He's a good dog!

Near Spruce Lift, we took a bicycle trail and a jeep road over to the Townsite Lift and were joined by other WI hikers coming down. The hiker with the injured hamstring said at lunch that she would go down I Don't Care ski run with her husband. I hope she did well. She was worried how her leg would behave on the downhill.

When I left, not everyone was down the mountain yet. People were waiting for them but I took off. I have to admit that it's more fun hiking with one or a couple of people than such a large group. They are all nice people but their abilities differ greatly. One woman is now using oxygen.

Autumn in August

What a beautiful Autumn day it is today, August 25 - cool, 74 degrees in the house and in the 60's outside. I decided this was perfect weather to go up the Quemazon Trail. Since that trail was toasted in 2000 by the Cerro Grande fire, it has become a cool weather hike.

On the way up the trail, mountain lions were on my mind. I had read a study about older drivers and how they are aware of their limitations of attention and compensate. They gave the example of older drivers not always registering what's in their peripheral vision. I've seen myself succumb to this on the trail - I've gone past hikers and dogs by the side of the trail and never even saw them. I decided I would carefully study the sides of the trail ahead of me and not get ambushed by a mountain lion.

I did get ambushed by inattention anyway. When the upper Quemazon Nature Trail ( a branch off the Quemazon Trail) met up again with the main trail, I followed it instead of the main trail. I started to realize that I was going back toward the view of the Omega Bridge over Los Alamos Canyon and, in addition, it looked like I was approaching the edge of the mesa. Eventually it got through to me that I needed to retrace my steps back to the main trail (which I had been so sure was another way down rather than up!).

I met a hiker with a dog coming down the trail. I asked how far she had gone. She said to where the aspens were tall - not all the way to Pipeline Road. She said she's heard there was a lion on the trail but hadn't seen it. Her dog, which she had found abandoned by the side of the road, was very affectionate. He goes up to baby strollers and kisses the babies - sweet!

Even before meeting the hiker, I noticed that the young, post-Cerro Grande aspens were becoming thicker by the side of the trail. I missed the lower part of the trail where I could see views and predators. I wondered if this is why humans started out on the African savannah - they could see clearly who would eat them and weren't so apt to get ambushed. Although, now at home, I'm thinking that tall grass can just as effectively hide an animal as tall aspens!

I went up to my 4 mile RT turnaround point (except I think it's really closer to 5) and admired the view of Pajarito Mountain Ski Area's slopes. I heard some thunder but it never developed into anything except a couple of rain drops on the way down.

I love going down the Quemazon Trail - you have to hop and skip and jump over the rocky trail and it's fun - almost like running! Also, I did very well going up it. It's a good trail to get some elevated heart rate on.

First - Yesterday: Walnut Canyon Road

Got my usual early start - NOT - and since it looked like rain, decided to explore the Los Alamos County trails behind the Aquatic Center. Went over to the big Pueblo Canyon pedestrian bridge but along the way, was scared by bicyclist with too much testosterone.

I was ambling on a slight uphill portion that runs along the site of the former Olive Street Sewage Treatment Plant, looking for a faint trail that goes through the open, grassy meadow where the sewage plant used to be.

Suddenly I heard behind me this deep, unearthly whoop and I whipped around to see who was playing Monster in the Woods with me and saw a herd of wild bicyclists, 5 total, coming down a slight hill. They were far enough back that the man in front, old enough to know better, did not need to whoop at me like I was an animal he wanted to scare off the trail. I stepped aside and when he passed told him thank you for warning me but told him he had scared me. No comment. I guess he knows he's an a-hole! The other 4 came by and seemed somewhat embarrassed because each one thanked me.

I continued across the Pueblo Canyon Bridge to the North Pueblo Bench Trail and followed that east to Walnut Canyon Road and to the edge of the golf course. There's still a lot of roads and trails that I want to explore in there - the East Fork Trail and the Walnut Rim Trail.

It rained lightly on the way back but no thunder. It was such a beautiful day with clouds hanging low over the mountains.

I admit that I thought way too much on the way back about that rude and obnoxious bicyclist.

Misty Moist Morning

We've had several mornings like this in the last two weeks. I like it.

The Dorothy hike was canceled. We would have had to wade through chest high grass and step over sopping wet deadfall.

This weekend, I discovered under my bed a box of genealogy material that I had forgotten - estate packets, wills, military discharges, civil war pension records. They were records that were too long to fit in the other box of genealogy records that I took to Ohio and June - just tucked away under the bed and completely unheeded for years!

I need to make a list of all that's in the box and especially check that I extracted info from a great great grandmother's civil war pension application. Then I will ship the box off to the Ohio Genealogical Society to be added to their collection. This morning I called the library director to advise him of such and talk about someone being low key - no enthusiasm or interest at all. I just hope my donation doesn't all end up in the incinerator but I guess I should have more faith! My hope is that some future researcher will benefit from it and that my relatives in Ohio won't curse my name for donating, in addition to other records, death certificates of their loved ones.

The only reason I discovered the box is that I finally finished a composition book journal (it took two years!) and was tucking it in the journals' storage box under the bed. That's why I haven't written much in Oatswild lately.

Walked yesterday with spouse on FR181/American Springs Road. He actually talked some on the hike. Storm clouds were in the area and it poured in North Community, daughter told us later, but no rain fell on us.

Took daughter and son in law to Origami to celebrate daughter's birthday. I asked if they could make brown rice sushi rolls but it would have cost $3 extra for each roll which is extravagant. I ordered a whole bowl of brown rice for $3 - plus, got cucumber salad, seaweed salad, 12 pieces sashimi, miso soup and house salad. Didn't realize it came with miso soup and house salad. Bought some seaweed salad home because it was an enormous amount. Also had two asparagus tempura and two broccoli florets tempura. Ate quite a lot but enjoyed it all.

Nephew may be on his way here. According to Facebook posts, he's out west - was in Denver this weekend - but so far, he's not deigned to advise us exactly when he's stopping by here. Ah, to be young, footloose and fancy free again!

San Diego Canyon Overlook-Banco Bonito Road

LL gang had planned to do this hike but there is not a whole lot of shade on the Banco Bonito Road so they opted instead to wade the East Fork River a mile in from the El Blanco (?) parking, near the road to El Cajete.

Instead of walking the Banco Bonito Road out, which is dry, dusty and shadeless, I walked beneath the topographic eastern rim of San Diego Canyon. There were great views down into the canyon, south toward Jemez Springs and northwest toward La Cueva, and of stunning cliffs lining both sides of the canyon. I could clearly see the parking area for Spence Hot Springs but couldn't actually see the springs although I saw people walking in the woods to the springs way down below me. At one overlook, I found an old canvas chair placed to get the best views!

I followed a path, only as wide as a game trail in places, as close to the edge as I could stomach. There were some places that I'd rather not go back to as it would have been a steep way down if I slipped but I survived (probably not as scary as I make it sound!).

I somehow skipped a large portion of the rim when I followed alongside a deep drainage leading away from it and didn't go back to the edge right away. To get back to it, I followed a steep dirt road uphill and then had to go downhill to get back on the very edge.

I couldn't see Battleship Rock but I'm sure I was walking in places that are above the Battleship Rock area and that aren't too cliffy to get down.

When I had had my fill of the rim, I left it and headed downhill, running into a grown over logging road that had been hideously heaped with dirt berms and large tree stumps to close it. This road intersected the Banco Bonito Road which I followed back and it was every bit as hot as the LL gang feared. The reflective umbrella helped. However, where I was walking - in the forest and above the cliffs, I had shade and good breezes. No rain! I ended up wandering 6 miles. I ate lunch while walking. Didn't eat until 12:30pm - no hungry LL hikers whining for lunch at 11am!!

(Truth in advertising: Upon looking at a topo map, technically speaking, I was looking down into the canyon of San Antonio Creek because it's not until Battleship Rock that San Antonio Creek joins the East Fork of the Jemez and becomes San Diego Canyon. The Santa Fe National Forest does call where I parked and started my hike San Diego Canyon Overlook. It's in the Jemez National Recreation Area. Regardless of what you call it, it was dramatic to be up on those heights looking down!)

Rabbit Ridge Road

Didn't get early, alpine start. Got started at 12:25pm. Walked fast to first felsenmeer on top of Rabbit Ridge. It looked so inviting - sunshine, mountain spray bushes, smell of moist vegetation, squirrel scurrying under rocks. I so much wanted to stay and enjoy it but there was a crack of thunder and I turned tail and went down fast. Encountered light rain and heard thunder but thankfully I didn't have any lightning right overhead!

Legal Hike on Valles Caldera East Rim

This morning I walked up Pajarito Mountain on a jeep road to meet a group riding up on the Pajarito Mountain Ski Area's Aspen Lift. The ski area runs the lifts one weekend a month in the summer. The plan was to legally take a walk along the Valles Caldera east rim between Pajarito Mountain and Cerro Grande. Ordinarily, hikers are not allowed to hike this section of the east rim because the Valles Caldera National Preserve's visitor use and access is very restrictive and hiking in from the rim is not allowed.

The hikers I was meeting had all met earlier that morning at the Cerro Grande parking lot to leave cars but I wanted to walk up.

I ended up blindly walking all the way over to the Mother Lift because I never saw the Aspen Lift through the trees. I was walking on the Logging Road at the back of the mountain where the ski area has torn out a lot of conifers to make way for their snow-making effort and it was fairly distracting to work my way through that.

I eventually upon the hikers and there were a lot of them. Reputedly, there were 36 of us. I wonder if that counted the 4 month old baby that was carried the whole hike in a baby carrier on his father's chest!

After a group picture at the picnic deck downhill from Aspen Lift, we crossed the Valles Caldera National Preserve fence and walked steeply downhill to Valle Canyon pass through hummocky grass that hid plenty of tripping hazards. Fortunately, the father of the 4 month old was very sure-footed. People said that someone sprained her ankle on the hike but I didn't get the details.

From Valle Canyon pass, we crossed the meadow on a bulldozed route (pretty grown over now; the historic road in the pass wasn't damaged by the dozer) used in the fighting of the 2000 Cerro Grande fire. This got us near to a handline cut through the forest during the fire which follows a north-facing ridge to the top of Cerro Grande. We followed that up; someone led a fast group. I helped to make sure people could follow the route around the felsenmeer which some had balked at crossing even though it's very short and the quickest way to get on the ridge. I call the part of the handline past the felsenmeer the Elevator Shaft because it is very STEEP!!

Going up the Elevator Shaft, the local couple that organized the hike (wonderful people!!) stayed behind with some slower hikers including the sprained ankle woman and an older woman who was having some problems with controlling her legs and nausea - perhaps altitude sickness because she's only been in the mountains for 2 weeks, having lived in Columbus, NM before this. That woman, a Brit, was delightful but the hike, which doesn't really follow a trail until the top of Cerro Grande and is very, very rough, was just too much for her. She made it back to the cars OK but it was a very worrisome process. The quote I heard once from a seasoned hiker who leads people of varying abilities on 14er hikes in Colorado came to mind - bring 'em back alive - but just barely! This strategy was operative today!!

One LL hiker was there and a couple of WI hikers so it was worthwhile to send out the hike announcement en masse to the two groups.

I enjoyed the hike, the beautiful views into the Valles Caldera National Preserve and all the colorful red, purple and yellow wildflowers that dotted the tall grass meadows. The nodding onion was especially appealing. The weather was just too perfect!! So lucky to live in the mountains!! I got back to my car at the ski area at 3:45pm. Because of my trot up the ski hill and also going back up the Cerro Grande route to check on progress of the last 3 people, I imagine my mileage was close to 7 miles.

Span the County Part II: Camp Hamilton Trail to Los Alamos Ranch School Trail

Spouse agreed to go on this one. It was billed as 7 miles long. We caught an Atomic City Transit bus at the Walkup Aquatic Center and were let off at the Camp Hamilton Trailhead below Eastgate, the industrial park on the main hill road. All these years I thought the pit dug in the tuff relatively near the trailhead was a game trap but it was actually for a pit toilet for the guard gate that used to be where the trailhead is now (and maybe also for the lab site that used to be there). Twenty people total.

Beautiful views to the east while going down the Camp Hamilton Trail but everyone was in such a hurry!! It was as fast as a Sierra Club hike.

After going down the Camp Hamilton Trail, we went cross country to the sewer treatment plant road to avoid San Ildefonso Pueblo land. Eventually we turned left onto the new Tent Rocks Trail that Craig Martin, Los Alamos county's open space coordinator, built with the help of volunteers.

It was very hot walking in mostly shadeless Pueblo Canyon. We sweated a whole lot. People finally asked to stop to allow a snack. It didn't look like a legitimate, leisurely lunch break to me so I waited to eat until after the hike.

Spouse did well but was tired by the time we got to the final uphill out of Acid Canyon on the Los Alamos Ranch School Trail. We got back before 1pm.

Home of the Hermit Thrush

Heard lots of hermit thrush song yesterday, Monday, on aspen dendroglyph expedition with Dorothy. Dribbles of rain and sounds of distant thunder occurred occasionally but mostly sunny.

We looked for aspen dendroglyphs in a drainage of Frijoles Canyon that's south of NM4 and Cerro Grande . Bandelier National Monument has drawn pictures of the dendroglyphs there but did not have UTM information for them.

Dorothy is doing this work for the Valles Caldera National Preserve because the drainage was once part of the historic Baca Location No. 1. The VCNP would like to survey and record the aspen art before the old trees deteriorate or are burned in prescribed fires.

We found the 1925 Ottie tree inscription. Dorothy says this was done by O. O. Grant who settled on the Pajarito Plateau in the 1920's where the present-day Guaje Pines cemetery is.

I scoured the woods for dendroglyphs while Dorothy did the gut work of actually photographing them and filling out the paperwork. I left home at 9am and returned at 5 pm. I don't know how many miles I walked searching for dendroglyphs (I'm sure not much although it did include some back and forth to Dorothy to hold up the whiteboard for each aspen's identifying photo) because my gps ran out of batteries.

I forgot to give her back the flagging tape. I'll return it later this week. She temporarily flagged them, with permission from Bandelier, until she completes her project. Dorothy will go back there to draw any dendroglyphs not drawn by Bandelier's team.

We parked east of the first parking area for Cerro Grande. It was hard hiking down to the drainage because of all the dreadfall (deadfall) even though the area we were working in, the upper Frijoles Canyon area south of NM4, was burned in a prescribed fire within the last couple of years. There are some parts of the forest that have opened up as a result of the prescribed fire and aspen saplings have taken hold. On the steepest slope, though, there is still quite a dog-hair forest.

Walking in the meadow was also a challenge because the grass (including Timothy and Parry's oatgrass) is quite tall and effectively hides rocks and sticks that present constant tripping hazards. The meadow has lots of white clover. Dorothy wondered if it was purposely planted.

On Sunday, I exchanged my Keen mid-cut Voyageurs at REI because the sole was separating. I wore the new ones yesterday and even though nominally they are the exact same size, in reality, they are a size too small. This was not comfortable. I will be returning them. You won't believe what a confusion it was and how long it took to return/exchange the shoes. They ended up charging me twice for the shoes and I had to go right back when I realized that. Now the irony is that I have to return the new ones because the size runs small!

Sunday was very busy with the Santa Fe shopping trip, lots of food prep in the evening and my evening walk. Sometimes there are just not enough hours in the day.

I need to one day take my car into the dealership to get some work done in preparation for a possible CO trip in August. One day I need to call a plumber to check out the hot water heater which sometimes lets small amounts of water out of the overflow pipe. I need to call a roofer to check the roof after the recent hellacious hailstorm in Los Alamos. Today, though, none of that will occur. I will drive to Santa Fe for routine medical tests. Sometimes I wish that there was an alternative to all these routine medical tests that doctor's push!!

Tomorrow I play hooky and go on a hike with a local group!

Smoky Here Today

I forgot to mention that on yesterday's walk on American Springs Road I could smell and see smoke rising from the San Miguel wildfire in Bandelier National Monument.

Today when I walked on the Camp May Road Route, the mountains were swathed in a thin layer of smoke. I think the wind this afternoon, although not particularly high, did a number on the wildfire, spreading the smoke around Los Alamos. The evening sun has an orangish glow to it.

The Route was in relatively good condition as far as trash around the parking areas. I managed, though, to spend 3 hours going up and down it because I kept bending over to toss sticks and rocks off the trail, maintained the cairns and rerouted a place or two that seemed confusing. All in all, it's a very rough path and not like a real trail at all. Besides, it hurts my right foot on the upper part that goes along a hillside.

The area off Paintball Road no longer has the white RV camping there. They left the campsite very clean.

When I started walking, clouds were piling up, some with dark bottoms, but it seems that the wind blew any moisture they held away and it stayed sunny and clear. It's 87 degrees in the house right now. I have a large box fan blowing on me while I sit at the computer.

Back from OH-PA Trip

Because I won't fly, we drove to OH-PA. Being next to big semi trucks, sometimes hauling double trailers, is not fun. We made it to Canton, OH in 2 1/2 days but took 3 1/2 days to drive back from Harrisburg, PA. We don't plan to drive back East again as it's too hard and takes up too much time. I still won't fly but I'll enjoy shorter driving trips in the Southwest.

Was fun walking with sister and brother in OH! They are both good walkers. Lots of fun to visit peppy 95 year old woman in Richville who lived across the street from us when we were growing up. Siblings and I visited our 88 year old aunt who doesn't feel so well lately and another aunt, with dementia, in her late 70's. In Harrisburg, spouse and I visited his 88 year old aunt. She has health problems too but seems more cheerful.

I made quinoa muffins with ground up pumpkin seeds this afternoon. Yesterday, I had accidentally added cayenne pepper to some roasted pumpkin seeds. The quinoa helped to dilute the hot pepper but the muffins are still hot but taste delicious to me. I meant to season the pumpkin seeds with chili powder - dum, de, dum, dum!!

At MPL's used book store today, I found Craig Martin's Los Alamos Area Mountain Bike Trails. I had recently taken it out of the library and then felt sorry I had sold my copy; how opportune to find a used copy! It provides the key to much of the hiking in the Jemez like the Peralta Road area. He didn't include everything in that book in his later Los Alamos Trails books. It was only $3 - I was happy to find it!

For first walk in the woods since returning home, I chose FR181/American Springs Road. Billowing storm clouds were overhead and thunder rumbled occasionally but it never rained even though it did in town as I discovered on the drive back home. The road is usually deserted but I saw wood gatherers and campers. Saw loads of yarrow and yellow clover. The yellow flowers of summer are coming on - black eyed Susan, golden eye, New Mexico Senecio, a yellow, wild aster. Veronica is rampantly growing in runoff from American Springs. Its blue flower has some similarity to forget-me-nots. Roses are now faded pink in color as summer wanes on. To make up for that, raspberries are ripening.

Span Los Alamos County Part I Hike

In celebration of Los Alamos County's 60th anniversary, two Span the County hikes are offered this summer. I took the first one today. We met at Sullivan Field at 8:45 am where we caught an Atomic City Transit bus to Pajarito Mountain Ski Area. A lot of bikers were up at the ski hill getting ready to ride the lift up and bike back down the jeep roads and bike trails. Looked like a fun day was in store! We all profusely thanked our bus driver as we unloaded. There were 20 people on the hike. We filled all the bus seats and 2 people were standing.

The hike was billed as a 10.5 mile hike, starting on the Cañada Bonita Trail (also called Guaje Canyon Trail 282), going out through Cañada Bonita Meadow, down Pipeline Road to the Quemazon Trail and back to our cars at Sullivan Field. There is more uphill than one may imagine going down Pipeline Road but I was grateful for the uphill sections because all downhill is too hard on the knees!

Lots of couples on the hike - 6 at least.  Walked for a while with a man who used to hike with the LL hiking group. He's doing wonderfully - hiking strongly after his hip replacement. Another hiker was a real powerhouse, talking passionately about how the real story behind Cerro Grande should be told. Plus, he was a fount of information about flora that we saw. Saw someone from my photography class that I took in the spring. He told me about Mormonism. He converted to it in the 70's. Enjoyed talking with a couple about all our collective animal sightings we could think of. Talked with another couple - had hiked with the wife to Hilton Cabin in the Preserve several years back. Enjoyed our leader's very wry sense of humor! Was in awe of his wife who was patiently picking up trash here and there.

The weather was perfect - cooler up higher but never got too hot even down lower. I enjoyed looking south across Quemazon Canyon at the green ridges between Pipeline Road and Pajarito Mountain. All of us agreed that we live in a beautiful area and are very, very lucky! It was loads of fun talking with all the different people who all have this in common - they appreciate the outdoors!

Span the County Part II takes place on July 18. It starts at the Roundabout, goes down into Bayo Canyon and then over into Pueblo Canyon, coming out on the Hamilton Trail below the Industrial Park. That will be a very hot hike this time of year!

I'm doing laundry now. The last loads before the trip back east. A neighbor is mowing the lawn. All the windows are open, 81 degrees inside, so the sound of the lawnmower is loud. Our backyard is weeds and we don't even own a lawnmower!

Starving - will eat spaghetti with aduki beans as the protein, roast broccoli (as soon as I roast it!) and fruit for dessert!

Valle Canyon: A Bear and Forget-Me-Nots

Went up Valle Canyon today to check Clothespin tree for Dorothy. She wants to figure out if it's a limber pine or white pine and needs fresh needles and cones to do that. No luck today. The tree looks like it has absolutely not a single cone on it. The lowest branch is about 24' from the ground and the branch hangs down about 18' from the ground.

Right at the beginning of the Valle Canyon trail are loads of tall forget-me-nots. There is something so endearing about that tiny flower - the blue petals are made so much more intense of a blue by the yellow center.

About 1/2 to 1 mile from the VCNP boundary fence, in a wide section of the canyon, I spotted a brownish-blondish bear on the other side of the stream from me. It looked larger than a cub but was not a huge bear. It had probably heard/seen/smelt me before I spotted it. It was peacefully poised above the stream like it was ready to run uphill. In a medium strength voice, I whooped twice at it and opened my golf-sized umbrella. It did scramble to the next ledge above the stream when I walked past across from where it was. On the way back down, I said "Hey, bear!" a lot!

I wanted so much to go up the VCNP fenceline to Pajarito Mountain (anything to avoid encountering the bear again!) but I didn't bring lunch or enough water, plus, a car shuttle at Pajarito Mountain Ski Area would have been nice. Maybe the WI extracurricular group would want to do that in July or August.

I probably started around 10:30-10:45am and was done and on the road by 1:09pm. The VCNP boundary fence was lonely without the WI hikers! The weather was perfect!

I went to the library afterwards and while I was in the used bookstore, I felt something crawling under my pants. A black beetle had lodged itself in my underwear. The black beetles are everywhere this summer. I took it outside and released it. The tick I found crawling on my leg at home got less humane treatment - burial by flush.

Doing three loads of laundry this afternoon.

FR181 - Always and Forever

I've been plagued by a bum right knee since last Friday. It bothered me then on a hike from the ski hill to Pipeline Road. I started on Kwage Mesa Saturday but couldn't continue more than one half mile because it felt like my knee cap stiffened and became extremely painful. I slowly walked back, doing my best imitation of Tim Conway 's "slow old man"! The problem was triggered by any downhill. A friend said she had the same problem year's back while hiking down Wheeler Peak. She called it downhill knee.

Sunday night, I couldn't walk more than a mile pain-free but could walk 2 miles pain-free on Monday night - just on the flat, back and forth to the airport. Today, because I badly want to go on the Valle Canyon hike tomorrow, I went to FR181/American Springs Road. Amazingly, I was able to walk four miles without pain, even downhill. I used two poles to strategically off load my weight onto the poles on the downhill, I didn't walk fast and, on the advice of my friend, carried a big ACE bandage, just in case. I didn't need it.

Tomorrow, it's supposed to rain. I want to carry my big golf umbrella as well as use both ski poles. On FR181, I found a bungee cord which I've now used to strap my umbrella to the walking stick. I will be prepared!

FR181 tidbits: The NM locust and wild rose lend such a spicy aroma to the road. Some of the rose bushes are so loaded with flowers that I just stopped in my tracks and drank in their beauty. I see that there will be plenty of raspberries along the road this summer. I hope I can devour some. I stopped to look at a party spot - lots of trash strewn around and, oddly, a box full of unopened, formerly frozen, Sysco Fruits of the Forest pies. Must have been some party! Was passed by an open jeep with 3 men/boys and a toddler, fast asleep in his car seat. Saw them having fun splashing through puddles. Luckily, I wasn't near enough to get a mud bath! Picked a plant that might be the Veronica which my friend says grows near American Springs. It got so wilted, it may be impossible to revive and identify it. Also picked a small myrtle spurge plant to throw away - it's an invasive.

Was wonderful to be able to walk without pain. I resolved to walk that road into my 100's! ; D

Los Alamos County Hiking Trails Behind Walkup Aquatic Center

Read Accuweather and prediction was high chance of rain and thunderstorms after noon. Ha, ha - it's held a steady state of overcast and cooler but no rain all day. Guess I shouldn't believe Accuweather.

Woke at 9am after not being able to get to sleep until after 1am. Didn't feel like anything epic today so I went to trails behind the Larry R. Walkup Aquatic Center. They hit the spot for close to home and rolling trails on which to do jogging intervals.

Afterwards, hung out at library looking for hiking books. I'm realizing that I should have never gotten rid of my earlier editions of various hiking books because they are invaluable for finding out about trails that are no longer maintained like the Alamo Springs Trail 114 which drops down into Bandelier National Monument from the Sawyer Mesa Road. Hang onto your hiking books - all editions!!

Off to retrieve a huge load of laundry from the washing machine and plunk it into the dryer!

Pajarito Mountain Ski Area Summerfest 2009

Enjoyable day with spouse, daughter, son-in-law at Pajarito Mountain Ski Area Summerfest. We got there around 10:30 am. I immediately headed up the jeep trail walk that winds to the back of the mountain, passing by Lone Spruce and Townsite Lifts. It's the first two miles of the hike called "Pajarito Mountain Ski Area Trails" in Craig Martin's Los Alamos Trails. Cold wind on backside of mountain. Good views of Cerro Grande. On the way down, I met family at picnic table near top of Lone Spruce. Richard, a hiker with the WRSC group had hooked up with them down at the bottom on the Aspen Lift so we all walked down together.

They all bought their lunch at the ski area lodge and also paid $5 each for the beer garden. They had fun sampling the various beers and in addition, their ticket entitled them to a full glass of beer and to keep the glass. I was the designated driver. I brought my lunch from home - curried brussel sprouts with white kidney beans or cannellini.

A band, the Nomads, was playing good music like Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues. The electric guitar playing was really fine! Daughter wanted to dance and so did I! Weather was great. The lift will run again tomorrow but I'll probably just do jogging intervals. I did enjoy, though, being up on the ski hill. I should go more often. What an asset to the community it is! People were having a good time up there!

Pajarito Trail to Guaje Canyon to Rendija Road and Back To Pajarito Trail

Hike was 9 miles. A real happening was occurring at parking lot in the morning. All these cars pulled up and hikers got out. They were from NASA and mapping in the area along with geologist, Kirt Kempter. They were there yesterday too in the thunderstorm.

Started at 8:20 am from Pajarito Trail 286 trailhead, climbed to Guaje Mountain saddle and then down into Guaje Canyon. Going downstream through Guaje Narrows was easy - some stream crossings but very doable. Cliffs of the Narrows are quite striking towering overhead. Where Guaje Canyon intersects FR416, saw 5 or 6 butterflies close together, could have been mating monarchs. Also saw very large penstemons that in two colors - magenta and lavender.

We continued on Guaje Canyon Road, FR442, to its intersection with Rendija Canyon Road, FR57, which we took west, past the Los Alamos Sportsmen's Club and back to Pajarito Trail trailhead. Got back to trailhead around 1:30 pm. Mappers were gone.

Saw lots of hoodoos in Rendija Canyon and a memorial cross for Terry Putt who was killed down there a few years back in a rollover accident involving teenagers and maybe alcohol. Rained a few drops on the way back which was good because it got pretty hot on the uphill on Rendija Canyon Road.

Indeterminate what next week's hike will be. WI's will do Obsidian Ridge next Wednesday and Valle Canyon the Wednesday after. Could do a long hike as part of the WI hike.

Other hikes to do in today's area are to follow Guaje Canyon Road all the way to NM502 at Totavi and have someone pick us up or do part of hike we did today but at FR416, go up to mesa top north of Guaje Canyon and follow numerous forest roads back to the Pajarito Trail. This would involve a lot of uphill, including hauling ourselves out of Guaje Canyon to the Guaje Mountain saddle. I'd only want to do that one if it's cool next week. However, the downhill one to Totavi could be done even if it's hot.

The Velveteen Jogger Does the White Rock Rim Trail on Memorial Day 2009

Dorothy called around 8 am this morning to cancel the hike to Cañada Bonita to check out some big trees. She has too much work to do - a Friend's report to get out and preparing for tomorrow's meeting with the congressional aides. She'll be gone to Iowa for her granddaughter's high school graduation next Monday.

Spouse not interested in hiking because of discomfort around his appendectomy incisions that he experienced on yesterday's hike on the Upper Crossing Trail, going out to the rim of Frijoles Canyon.

Storm clouds were hanging over Pajarito Mountain around 10 am so I headed down to White Rock (sometimes known as Hot Rock) to the White Rock Rim Trail, accessed from the Blue Dot trailhead.

I was nearly speechless when up pops Dale, a local park service ranger, as I'm fiddling with adjusting the waist belt on my fanny pack. He said he was going for a short run and had to work today. I never saw him again. In his running shorts and T shirt, he looks like such a youth!

Saw some men flying their radio controlled aircraft. Everyone has their own fun way of spending Memorial Day. Saw various joggers enjoying the rim trail and hikers going for the downhill delights of the Blue Dot into White Rock Canyon.

Saw a lots of yellow prickly pear blossoms. Admired a line of flowers at the side of the trail composed of purple penstemons, yellow perky sues and red Indian paintbrush.

I call myself the Velveteen jogger because, just like the Velveteen bunny, I'm not a real jogger. Others could (and did) go out and back in the time it took me to make the roundtrip. Regardless, I enjoy so much that, by faithfully doing my leg exercises, I'm able to do jogging intervals.

I stopped and saluted as two fighter jets went overhead, a Memorial Day tradition. I blessed all the people that have served our country.

Dome Road FR289

Wanted something easy, flat and nearby. Parked at ice rink and started walking toward locked gate road in Los Alamos Canyon but lab employees told me I couldn't walk on it and there was a no trespassing sign so I gave up. I just now emailed the lab asking why the public can't walk on that road now because the public has been walking on it for a while now. I didn't notice the no trespassing sign before this and maybe it's new.

Drove up to Dome Road FR 289 and parked off NM4 across from Cerro Grande parking lot. I did jogging intervals out to Graduation Flats and back.

I carried my golf umbrella and had to use it twice but no hail, thunder or lightning - my kind of rain!

Mists hung over Rabbit Ridge, Scooter Peak and Cerro Grande - very pretty!

Admired iris clumps and golden banner (golden pea). Golden banner reminds me of Easter. With my near-sighted eyes, the round portion of the blossoms on the flower spike look like tiny, yellow Easter eggs or even like yellow, marshmallow chicks.

Drivers go very fast on Dome Road. Only saw two but they could slow down when they pass a pedestrian! Also, one of them didn't move over at all but took the middle of the road, going through some small puddles. I got way over as soon as I heard any vehicle coming. I invented a new word that will be parental-control friendly to describe such drivers: anal-orifices!

Lawyer joke: Why bury a lawyer six feet under? Because deep down, they're nice!