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.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
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!
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!
Saturday, July 11, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, July 10, 2009
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.
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.
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