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!