Four of the WI hikers walked up the Quemazon Trail to Pipeline Road today. We started at the ungodly (for me) hour of 8 am but I was so eager to go on a group hike after a long layoff that I got with the program! I think the forest is still closed but there were no signs or barriers so up we went. During the Las Conchas fire, a bulldozer went up the Quemazon Trail to Pipeline Road, I suppose to put out hot spots because we saw a few, minor burnt areas.
The bulldozer widened the trail, churned up the dust and tuff and tore out some aspens and ponderosas that had grown since the Cerro Grande fire. Volunteers already had a work party Monday to close off a side road the bulldozer made. The trail has new water bars to keep it from becoming a water course but the trail will definitely need more TLC.
The turn off to the trail to Cave of the Winds was obliterated by thick ponderosa logs tossed across the entrance. We didn't see the trail on the way up but on the way down, one hiker spotted it. We hastily rebuilt the cairns that mark where to turn off because the bulldozer tore them out.
We could see clear views of the damage on the eastern side of Pajarito Ski Area - there's an area of toasted trees in the area of Evershine ski run. We couldn't see a complete view of Rim Run and Camp May but could see a blackened area, probably above Camp May. The new snowshoe trail along Cañada Bonita Canyon is blackened. Los Alamos Canyon, Cañada Bonita Canyon and Quemazon Canyon each had some blackened trees in their upper reaches.
Saw some purple gayfeather along the Quemazon Trail.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Camp May Road Now Open
I don't know when Camp May Road opened but it was open today when I walked the first two miles up it. A LANL guard said you could go drive up to the ski hill. It's logical to open it now because how else will volunteers be able to rehabilitate the ski hill. I'm glad it's open!
Monday, July 25, 2011
Nasty Thunderstorm But Good Rain
I was driving away from the senior center parking lot this afternoon when I spotted a handsome young man and took him home with me (after checking with his Dad first!) - our grandson! It was a happy coincidence for me that I was there as he was walking to his Dad's office from the AC. He was carrying a bag of popped microwave popcorn to share with his Dad - sweet!
At our house, I brought out the licorice vines and Tootsie Roll Pops that his aunt had bought for him and he enjoyed those along with some milk and a cantaloupe wedge.
First thing he asked when he walked in was where was the Grand Canyon jigsaw puzzle he had bought me! I assured him I still had it (I do) but had put it away in the closet. It's a 500 piece puzzle that he and his aunt started during his visit but I have no desire to complete it! I offered to pay him for it and then donate it to the senior center where people like to do jigsaw puzzles but he refused.
He said his Dad brought him an X Box 360, whatever that is! He was regaling me by naming all the different Pokemons. There are quite a few and some of them can make eggs or some such. I can't say that I really understand that yet!
I hiked the Hike of Death (so named by my sister during a hot hike on it), the White Rock Canyon Rim Trail this afternoon. I went from the Blue Dot trailhead to Sherwood and back whilst beset by rain (unfurled my bumbershoot) and thunder and lightning for the first two miles. I screamed out loud during some of the thunder. It was dumb of me to walk in that but I kept thinking I was going to walk from underneath it but it must have been going my way.
The mud got really thick on my shoes. I saw a coyote and shook my bumbershoot at it so it would keep moving - it did. The Rio looked beautiful in the rain!
At our house, I brought out the licorice vines and Tootsie Roll Pops that his aunt had bought for him and he enjoyed those along with some milk and a cantaloupe wedge.
First thing he asked when he walked in was where was the Grand Canyon jigsaw puzzle he had bought me! I assured him I still had it (I do) but had put it away in the closet. It's a 500 piece puzzle that he and his aunt started during his visit but I have no desire to complete it! I offered to pay him for it and then donate it to the senior center where people like to do jigsaw puzzles but he refused.
He said his Dad brought him an X Box 360, whatever that is! He was regaling me by naming all the different Pokemons. There are quite a few and some of them can make eggs or some such. I can't say that I really understand that yet!
I hiked the Hike of Death (so named by my sister during a hot hike on it), the White Rock Canyon Rim Trail this afternoon. I went from the Blue Dot trailhead to Sherwood and back whilst beset by rain (unfurled my bumbershoot) and thunder and lightning for the first two miles. I screamed out loud during some of the thunder. It was dumb of me to walk in that but I kept thinking I was going to walk from underneath it but it must have been going my way.
The mud got really thick on my shoes. I saw a coyote and shook my bumbershoot at it so it would keep moving - it did. The Rio looked beautiful in the rain!
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Becoming a Regular Scofflaw
Today, I walked yet again up the first two miles of Camp May Road. Once again, I saw a single doe just east of FR2998. Could be the same one. I thought I heard her give a bark when she saw me but saw no other deer. On the way down the major curve below the Ocean, I saw a bigger doe who wasted no time in bounding away!
From Camp May Road, Quemazon Trail and Pipeline Road appear unburnt. I'll be glad when the forest trails reopen but so far this fickle monsoon only teases with a few drops of rain.
Looking into Los Alamos Canyon, I'm not seeing the burnt areas. Perhaps the 2,100 acres of the LA Canyon watershed that burnt in the Las Conchas fire are much further up and probably encompass the burned areas on Pajarito Mountain and the Cañada Bonita area.
Pajarito Mountain will be organizing work parties to get the mountain ready to reopen. The reseeding and establishing water bars looked most interesting to me.
From Camp May Road, Quemazon Trail and Pipeline Road appear unburnt. I'll be glad when the forest trails reopen but so far this fickle monsoon only teases with a few drops of rain.
Looking into Los Alamos Canyon, I'm not seeing the burnt areas. Perhaps the 2,100 acres of the LA Canyon watershed that burnt in the Las Conchas fire are much further up and probably encompass the burned areas on Pajarito Mountain and the Cañada Bonita area.
Pajarito Mountain will be organizing work parties to get the mountain ready to reopen. The reseeding and establishing water bars looked most interesting to me.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Took a Chance
Took a chance today and walked 2 miles up Camp May Road starting from West Jemez Road. Camp May Road is still closed to vehicles due to the Las Conchas fire but I decided to risk getting yelled at by the police and walk up to the first chain turnout and back down. It was so pleasant and relaxing to have the road to myself that I wish there were no motor vehicles on Camp May Road all the time! I did see a green forest service truck going up and it passed me again on its way down but the occupants ignored me and thankfully, no policeman was waiting at the bottom so I was happy!
Right now, of the trails that are open in Los Alamos and White Rock, there are not many steep walks unless I dare go down the Blue Dot or Red Dot trails into White Rock Canyon in the summer heat. Actually, I wouldn't mind doing that but would prefer to have a hiking partner to notify authorities where my body's located!
I was happy to see a doe in the woods from the road. The Route on the south side of Camp May Road was part of the back burn used to create a fireline to keep the fire out of Los Alamos Canyon. Time will tell if the big conifers were damaged enough to fall across the Route. If they do, the Route is history because I won't be able to remove them. Too bad - having a trail for walkers to use as an alternative to walking up Camp May Road is a good idea since the road has no shoulder to walk on.
I could see that a lot of the young aspen's leaves were sizzled during the burnout but the trunks look unburnt. Last fall, those young aspens, which had sprung up after the 2000 Cerro Grande fire, gave such a brilliant display of gold. It was a joy to see and I told everyone that our aspen display along Camp May Road was going to rival that along Hyde Park Road in the Sangre de Cristos! I'll have to wait until next year to see how many of the young aspens survived.
On the way down, the sky looked terrifically dark and threatening to the southwest but no thunderstorm happened. Sure was a short monsoon!
Right now, of the trails that are open in Los Alamos and White Rock, there are not many steep walks unless I dare go down the Blue Dot or Red Dot trails into White Rock Canyon in the summer heat. Actually, I wouldn't mind doing that but would prefer to have a hiking partner to notify authorities where my body's located!
I was happy to see a doe in the woods from the road. The Route on the south side of Camp May Road was part of the back burn used to create a fireline to keep the fire out of Los Alamos Canyon. Time will tell if the big conifers were damaged enough to fall across the Route. If they do, the Route is history because I won't be able to remove them. Too bad - having a trail for walkers to use as an alternative to walking up Camp May Road is a good idea since the road has no shoulder to walk on.
I could see that a lot of the young aspen's leaves were sizzled during the burnout but the trunks look unburnt. Last fall, those young aspens, which had sprung up after the 2000 Cerro Grande fire, gave such a brilliant display of gold. It was a joy to see and I told everyone that our aspen display along Camp May Road was going to rival that along Hyde Park Road in the Sangre de Cristos! I'll have to wait until next year to see how many of the young aspens survived.
On the way down, the sky looked terrifically dark and threatening to the southwest but no thunderstorm happened. Sure was a short monsoon!
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Making the Best
I've been making the best of the trails that are open after the Las Conchas Fire. It's been very hot except for the last few days (thank you, God!) and the trails that are open are hot, dusty and shadeless. But I figure it's good heat conditioning for the next time I run a marathon in Death Valley - NOT EVER!!
The monsoon has been happening more reliably in Los Alamos lately. Not so much at our house since we're further from the mountains but at least it's been cooler inside the past two evenings. I love the cloud cover! It's odd, though, that so far there hasn't been much lightning with the rain. But that's good because we don't need another wildfire!
I noticed on Kwage Mesa that the drought has stunted the New Mexico locusts which is welcome. That's the only good feature but can think of tremendously long list of bad! No wonder the ancient puebloan Indians moved to the Rio Grande when drought struck the Pajarito Plateau during their time! Living in the Pacific Northwest is sounding better to me all the time!
This is what's open: White Rock Canyon Rim Trail, Bayo Canyon, Pueblo Canyon, Kwage Mesa, Canyon Rim Trail, Pueblo Canyon Rim Trail, Quemazon Nature Trail, section of North Perimeter Trail from Mitchell trailhead to just north of Quemazon Community, the trails behind the Walkup Center, Tsankawi, Burnt Mesa and Tyuonyi Overlook (the latter 3 in Bandelier National Monument). It's good that these are open but I viscerally miss hiking Pajarito Mountain!
The monsoon has been happening more reliably in Los Alamos lately. Not so much at our house since we're further from the mountains but at least it's been cooler inside the past two evenings. I love the cloud cover! It's odd, though, that so far there hasn't been much lightning with the rain. But that's good because we don't need another wildfire!
I noticed on Kwage Mesa that the drought has stunted the New Mexico locusts which is welcome. That's the only good feature but can think of tremendously long list of bad! No wonder the ancient puebloan Indians moved to the Rio Grande when drought struck the Pajarito Plateau during their time! Living in the Pacific Northwest is sounding better to me all the time!
This is what's open: White Rock Canyon Rim Trail, Bayo Canyon, Pueblo Canyon, Kwage Mesa, Canyon Rim Trail, Pueblo Canyon Rim Trail, Quemazon Nature Trail, section of North Perimeter Trail from Mitchell trailhead to just north of Quemazon Community, the trails behind the Walkup Center, Tsankawi, Burnt Mesa and Tyuonyi Overlook (the latter 3 in Bandelier National Monument). It's good that these are open but I viscerally miss hiking Pajarito Mountain!
Stultified
Thoughts I had the whilst walking on Canyon Road one weekend night, listening to South by Southwest's Deep in the West, a magical waltz song, on their Deep in the West CD: Wouldn't it be lovely to have a man to waltz with under the full moon? I once was very interested in learning how to dance, both ballroom and folk dance. I enjoyed the music and movement immensely although I never became an expert. Somehow, that weekend night, it just seemed like a wonderful idea to waltz under the moonlight. As it was, just walking while listening to the beautiful music of South by Southwest intoxicated me and, yes, I shamelessly sang along! Then, to top off all my longing, as I approached home, I saw a man and dog slip across the Main Hill Road to walk the Canyon Rim Trail in the moonlight and I wished so much then that at least if I didn't have a man who would waltz with me in the moonlight that I'd have one who'd walk with me in the moonlight!
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Frustrated by Evacuation
Sunday, June 26, 2011, sometime between noon-1 pm (I don't remember the exact time), walked to Los Alamos airport and on the way back, thought I saw a few straggly wisps of smoke rise up in the distance. Since I saw no distinct smoke plume, I convinced myself that it was only dust stirred up by the high winds. After briefly stopping at home, I continued walking to Mesa Public Library on the Pueblo Canyon Rim trail behind East Park. When I got up to the Walkup Center, just before 2 pm, I was astounded to see a well-developed, towering plume of smoke south of the ridge above Water Canyon.
One of the librarians found the newly developed wildfire quite ominous because it reminded her of the 2000 Cerro Grande fire. She was very worried about having to evacuate 2 dogs by herself because her husband was out of town attending to his dying father. In my naivete, I thought that another evacuation would be highly unlikely. On the walk back home, I kept looking to the southwest. The smoke filled the southern half of the sky with blue skies to the north. The sunlight had an orange cast to it. I was surprised by how quickly the fire was growing but I shouldn't have been since our mountains are tinderbox dry. In the evening, we could smell the smoke so we closed our windows even though it was very hot outside.
When it was dark, we could see flames to the the southwest. (Later we learned we were looking at the area of Sawyer Hill and Ponderosa Campground burning.) Other neighbors were also out watching the flames. On KRSN, we heard that a voluntary evacuation was ordered. We could see a lot of traffic, including horse trailers, driving down the Main Hill Road (NM502), leaving town. Husband kept insisting that we pack up and leave that night but I felt that since both our night vision is impaired, we should wait until the next day, especially since a mandatory evacuation order hadn't been issued yet. Our next door neighbors who are both in their 80's were helped by their son to evacuate to Espanola. We realized that inevitably we'd have to evacuate again, just like we did 11 years ago for the Cerro Grande fire so we started to pack. I stayed up until around 1 am and then went to bed but couldn't fall asleep until sometime after 3 pm.
The smoke wasn't any better the next day. It was now moving to the north and ash was falling. Our next door neighbors had returned to get some items they had forgotten. I asked if they needed any help carrying anything out but he reassured me that he didn't. Throughout the morning, I had packed more but didn't do the last minute packing (toiletries and some food from the refrigerator) until the mandatory evacuation order, which we heard on KRSN, was issued Monday, June 27, at 2 pm. (Residents were to be notified by reverse 911. From Albuquerque, we checked our phone messages to see if we received the reverse 911 phone call but we didn't. Must notify Phil Taylor, Emergency Management Coordinator, about this.)
We were to leave in stages, our neighborhood last, but since we were mostly packed and live at the most eastern edge of town, we left within a half hour, each driving our car. We stopped at a friend's house in Santa Fe to leave one of the cars and drove the other to a hotel in Albuquerque. It wasn't until that evening in the Fairfield Inn that we both realized we could have packed all our photos and slides in the trunk of the car to be parked in Santa Fe rather than leaving them at home to possibly burn up a lifetime of memories. I remember we packed all the memorabilia and my genealogy research when we evacuated for Cerro Grande. We were gone for 10 days and I got so anxious about all that being stored in the trunk of our car while we stayed in Albuquerque. I didn't really think anything would burn this time since it seemed they were evacuating us more because of the air quality and to keep us out of the way of the firefighters. Luckily, no houses burned in Los Alamos during the Las Conchas fire.
[I started this on July 1 while we were evacuated in Albuquerque but never finished it. I'm posting it unfinished. It's old news now. I haven't had any time recently to post anything. My sister's planned visit started on July 5, 2 days after we got back home on July 3, so I've been busy. She flew back home July 12 but since then, I've been busily catching up with my life.]
One of the librarians found the newly developed wildfire quite ominous because it reminded her of the 2000 Cerro Grande fire. She was very worried about having to evacuate 2 dogs by herself because her husband was out of town attending to his dying father. In my naivete, I thought that another evacuation would be highly unlikely. On the walk back home, I kept looking to the southwest. The smoke filled the southern half of the sky with blue skies to the north. The sunlight had an orange cast to it. I was surprised by how quickly the fire was growing but I shouldn't have been since our mountains are tinderbox dry. In the evening, we could smell the smoke so we closed our windows even though it was very hot outside.
When it was dark, we could see flames to the the southwest. (Later we learned we were looking at the area of Sawyer Hill and Ponderosa Campground burning.) Other neighbors were also out watching the flames. On KRSN, we heard that a voluntary evacuation was ordered. We could see a lot of traffic, including horse trailers, driving down the Main Hill Road (NM502), leaving town. Husband kept insisting that we pack up and leave that night but I felt that since both our night vision is impaired, we should wait until the next day, especially since a mandatory evacuation order hadn't been issued yet. Our next door neighbors who are both in their 80's were helped by their son to evacuate to Espanola. We realized that inevitably we'd have to evacuate again, just like we did 11 years ago for the Cerro Grande fire so we started to pack. I stayed up until around 1 am and then went to bed but couldn't fall asleep until sometime after 3 pm.
The smoke wasn't any better the next day. It was now moving to the north and ash was falling. Our next door neighbors had returned to get some items they had forgotten. I asked if they needed any help carrying anything out but he reassured me that he didn't. Throughout the morning, I had packed more but didn't do the last minute packing (toiletries and some food from the refrigerator) until the mandatory evacuation order, which we heard on KRSN, was issued Monday, June 27, at 2 pm. (Residents were to be notified by reverse 911. From Albuquerque, we checked our phone messages to see if we received the reverse 911 phone call but we didn't. Must notify Phil Taylor, Emergency Management Coordinator, about this.)
We were to leave in stages, our neighborhood last, but since we were mostly packed and live at the most eastern edge of town, we left within a half hour, each driving our car. We stopped at a friend's house in Santa Fe to leave one of the cars and drove the other to a hotel in Albuquerque. It wasn't until that evening in the Fairfield Inn that we both realized we could have packed all our photos and slides in the trunk of the car to be parked in Santa Fe rather than leaving them at home to possibly burn up a lifetime of memories. I remember we packed all the memorabilia and my genealogy research when we evacuated for Cerro Grande. We were gone for 10 days and I got so anxious about all that being stored in the trunk of our car while we stayed in Albuquerque. I didn't really think anything would burn this time since it seemed they were evacuating us more because of the air quality and to keep us out of the way of the firefighters. Luckily, no houses burned in Los Alamos during the Las Conchas fire.
[I started this on July 1 while we were evacuated in Albuquerque but never finished it. I'm posting it unfinished. It's old news now. I haven't had any time recently to post anything. My sister's planned visit started on July 5, 2 days after we got back home on July 3, so I've been busy. She flew back home July 12 but since then, I've been busily catching up with my life.]
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