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.
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