Ruminating About Yesterday's Hike

One day, I have to try again to get to Bonita Point, aka Loco Triangle.  There must be a better way to get there.  I know people who have hiked up Quemazon Canyon which is below the point.  Maybe if I walked up Los Alamos Canyon from the Reservoir, I'd see a way up.

I feel sure that the Bonita Point was beyond and below the aspen forest that turned us around.  I need to go to Pajarito Mountain and study the area again with my binoculars.  It would be good to go before the aspens drop their leaves so I can pinpoint where we turned around in relation to the point.

Yesterday, I wanted to follow the treeline further down toward Cañada Bonita Canyon to see if I could see the point to the east but my friend wanted to start back.  She was so nice to agree to go with me that I didn't press the issue.  There are not many women in their late 70's that could have gone on that explore like she did.  For that matter, not many people of any age would want to blunder about where we did!!  Fortunately, neither of us fell whilst cavorting amongst all the downed wood.


We both thought the scattering of old tree stumps we saw were odd in such an isolated area where few people venture.  The felled trees were left laying beside the stumps. In some cases, the tree trunks were cut into sections.

Two of the bear scats we saw were light colored with lots of seeds.  One was dark with little visible roughage.

I walked 2 roundtrips on the Canyon Rim Trail this afternoon.  Saw 2 bicyclists, 11 walkers and 2 dogs.  People walking the trail in the afternoon are less interested in greeting one another.  I listened to a tape of  Prairie Home Companion.  Purple vetch is still blooming.

Dropped off at PEEC a paper grocery sack stuffed full of plastic produce bags.  The high school kids plan to make something with the plastic bags.

I Should Be

I should be doing the laundry, I should be vacuuming the carpet, I should be replacing the carpet in the kitchen with linoleum, I should be ripping out the 20 year old wall to wall carpet and refinishing the wood floors underneath, I should be weeding the yard, I should be buying groceries, I should be scrubbing the toilet, I should be dusting the cobwebs in the kitchen, I should be raking the fallen leaves, I should be buying a more energy efficient refrigerator, I should be shopping for a new gas oven before our 20 year old one explodes, I should be calling the furnace man to give our gas furnace a clean bill of health, I should be going through all my possessions and getting rid of stuff I no longer need or use, I should be buying a new shed to replace the present one which functions as a Comfort Inn for mice, I should be replacing our wooden fence which is dying one slat at a time, I should be watering the water-devouring spruce in our front yard, I should be using cloth bags for my groceries instead of plastic, I should be using CFL light bulbs instead of incandescent, I should be shopping locally instead of at Walmart, I should be joining clubs and volunteering more around town, I should be spending less time on the computer ...

This list could go on and on but you get the idea.  You probably have a list twice as long of your own.  All the things I should be doing hang over my head on a daily basis.  Some of them I do because I have no choice - have to eat, have to occasionally clean, have to do laundry, but the others, I do gradually or when forced to by circumstances.  The majority of this list is related to the upkeep of the house and grounds (aka, gopher playground!)  Our 50 year old home needs a good remodeling but I'd rather sell the house at a bargain and let someone else remodel it.  Living in a house in the midst of a major remodel doesn't sound fun. My answer is to go on a hike unless necessity arises which mandates paying attention to this hovel, er...house.