Husband wanted to hike with BESC hiking group which entailed my getting up at 6 am to be at the meeting place by 8 am. That early time is not ideal but it certainly gets us on and off the trail before a thunderstorm. (Although...it's looked like rain all afternoon but no moisture has yet been pulled out of the clouds.)
The hiking leader wanted to take us on a special trail in the Santa Fe National Forest that was made in honor of her deceased husband; but the trail now has a more prosaic name - Trail 121 because the forest service decided it was a no no to name the trail after her husband.
Husband and I drove by ourselves into the Jemez Mountains to the trailhead, about 13 miles from the Back Gate in Los Alamos. We didn't offer anyone a ride because they may have wanted to get back earlier and probably wouldn't have wanted to walk 4 miles like I do.
We got to the trailhead first and then watched as the hiking leader's Subaru whizzed past. The trailhead parking lot is small and comes up suddenly.
There were 5 people in her car. I knew 3 of them already and the other two were new to me. Women outnumbered men.
At first the trail is really distinct and we easily followed it but quickly ended up in a meadow with no obvious trail so we moseyed through the meadow, over to walk along the grazing fence, going as far as the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) boundary fence.
People commented on the fence signs which say that access is only with a valid permit. After the hike, the hiking leader planned to drive a 2 mile, bumpy road into the Preserve's Valle Grande Visitor Center to ask what in the world the signs mean when they are posted at the free VCNP trails - Valle Grande and Coyote Call. Last week, the group had turned away from walking the Valle Grande free trail because of these blasted signs!
I've started out on Trail 121 with another hiking group but they take off over a ridge and follow a path down into the popular Las Conchas-East Fork Trail area. That is a longer hike then the stroll we did today which was only a little over a mile.
Back at the cars, one of the hikers worried that she wouldn't get back to LA by 11 am. In addition to going to the visitor center, the hiking leader than wanted to hike some on the Coyote Call Trail to make up for the short hike. I'm not sure what transpired because husband and I went to the Corral Canyon Trail so I could finish my daily 4 miles.
Husband breathes really hard while hiking uphill at high altitude (around 8,300' but we live at 7,200') and other than his heavy breathing, not much talking goes on unless I do it. He stopped after about a mile in but I continued on to the intersection of FR282, Armijo Road (goes down into Peralta Canyon) and Peralta Road which is also called FR280.
I practiced what I would say if I ran into Elmer Armijo out tooling around on his ATV - "Hola, Elmer Armijo, mi amigo!!" I wonder if Elmer bought a house in Sierra de los Pinos and moved from Peña Blanca? His family has some beautiful acreage in Peralta Canyon.
Husband had agreed to walk back on the Calzada Trail but he wasn't impressed by my incompetent attempts to FIND the trail. The connector trail to it from Corral Canyon is overgrown. My first attempt shortly took me right back to Corral Canyon.
I was going to forget about it but being right there, on the ground so to speak, I really wanted to backtrack to try to figure out how to get on the Calzada Trail. As I poked around in the woods - a mess of downed trees - husband made the mistake of saying irritatedly to save it for another day. That only made me want to find it more, while I was there and the weather was holding beautifully.
After briefly checking the area, I did find the Calzada Trail sign and bid adieu to husband who continued back on the trail that brung him! (Seeing the overgrowth, I was having my suspicions that he wouldn't like the Calzada Trail - especially since he hadn't worn his hiking boots.)
Only problem was that it turned out that I was following the UPPER Calzada Trail which goes the opposite direction of where I WANTED to go. Because of all the vegetation growth, I somehow missed the LOWER Calzada Trail coming in.
For a while, though, I thought the trail was just following an uphill switchback and would eventually, sensibly, turn around and go in the RIGHT direction! When I finally admitted that I was only kidding myself, I didn't really care and just wanted so badly to continue following the Calzada Trail the WRONG WAY but I turned around. After some false starts, I eventually stumbled upon the lower trail by heading downhill toward Corral Canyon. I don't walk the trail often enough to remember its tricks!
I continued back uneventfully to where husband was gesticulating to me from the fenceline - he probably thought I was lost! - after waiting in the car for 20 minutes.
I know a woman, very busy, who may want to walk the Calzada Trail with me one day because now I HAVE to go back. Wonder if I could talk her into Las Conchas Canyon and Las Conchas Peak too?? ; D
Notable:
A small, gray bird, with white stripes on its tail feathers, that feigned a broken wing for my benefit in the middle of the trail to protect her progeny.
Butterflies, fritallaries, with lots of black speckles on their orange wings - feeding on sneezeweed flowers - chasing each other off as though the bumper crop of sneezeweed in Corral Canyon wasn't enough for all of them! Or, were they doing a mating dance?? ; D