No, not Joe! The holidays drag on. I eagerly await the return of normal life. I wonder if anyone has studied how productive the country is between Christmas and New Year's Day? I'm sure not very because everyone is waiting to be productive again after the holidays are finally over!
The Nordic Ski Trails have officially opened. Perhaps the snow will all be melted or sublimated by the time I make it up there next week. Just in case, I'll bring YakTrax AND snowshoes! The word is that we are entering a long dry, warm spell. Makes me almost miss the excitement of all the winter storms but maybe I can contain myself. Only thing is that then we pay for it in the fire season.
Got tired of the sewage treatment plant road so walked on West Road Bypass today. It's opened to traffic now. Wind was really blasting me!
Used 18% discount card at Co-op today. Earned five by volunteering 5 hours yesterday for inventory. Aim to earn back my yearly membership fee!
Grandson here for sleepover. Spouse goes out for Chinese carryout soon. Yes, we'll be swinging from the chandeliers tonight! Anyway, grandson is a fine young man and we enjoy his company!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Still Biding
Had a chance to go on a snowshoe with a group today but decided not to. Several reasons: Cañada Bonita Trail not really officially open yet, ski area and parking lot very crowded during LANL's mandatory Christmas week shut-down, afraid of getting stuck in parking lot if forced to park in unpaved lots. I could probably think of more but three's enough!
Instead, this morning spouse, grandson and I headed to White Rock. Spouse and grandson walked from library to thrift shop and back while I walked on path along NM4 to Gate 11 and back. Then, home to lunch. Spouse took grandson to Adventures of Tin Tin whilst I dispatched two loads of laundry.
Tomorrow, spouse goes to investment club while I jog on a dirt road. Then we pick up grandson to take him out to eat.
Friday, I have a small, short volunteer job in the morning so I won't be able to go on the Friday walk but spouse will. Grandson has declined accompanying us. Spouse will eat out at one of the Indian casinos with the group.
On New Year's Eve, grandson sleeps over. He will definitely enliven our usual extremely low key (boring) New Year's Eve "celebration"!
Sunday we try to clean up this pig sty for spouse's New Year's Day Gator-OSU bowl party. The party is definitely not my idea but the house could use cleaning!
Next week when spouse goes back to work, it will seem strangely quiet here but I'm looking forward to it!
Beautifully warm today! Love it! Not sure, though, how much snow will be left next week for me to snowshoe on!
Instead, this morning spouse, grandson and I headed to White Rock. Spouse and grandson walked from library to thrift shop and back while I walked on path along NM4 to Gate 11 and back. Then, home to lunch. Spouse took grandson to Adventures of Tin Tin whilst I dispatched two loads of laundry.
Tomorrow, spouse goes to investment club while I jog on a dirt road. Then we pick up grandson to take him out to eat.
Friday, I have a small, short volunteer job in the morning so I won't be able to go on the Friday walk but spouse will. Grandson has declined accompanying us. Spouse will eat out at one of the Indian casinos with the group.
On New Year's Eve, grandson sleeps over. He will definitely enliven our usual extremely low key (boring) New Year's Eve "celebration"!
Sunday we try to clean up this pig sty for spouse's New Year's Day Gator-OSU bowl party. The party is definitely not my idea but the house could use cleaning!
Next week when spouse goes back to work, it will seem strangely quiet here but I'm looking forward to it!
Beautifully warm today! Love it! Not sure, though, how much snow will be left next week for me to snowshoe on!
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Biding My Time
A lot of snow, a lot of family events and a lot of holidays have conspired to keep me off the trails and plying the asphalt and concrete. I haven't snowshoed since Pajarito Mountain. Mostly the past 3 weeks, it's snowed so much that with my snow unworthy car, I'm limited in where I can park - my car will get stuck if it runs over a snowball! Maybe next week I'll be able to find a well broken trail to snowshoe that also has a snow-free place for me to park the boat.
The Las Conchas Closure will be amended soon. The Southwest Nordic Ski Club's (SWNSC) blog says that a few trails that have been mitigated (cutting down burnt, hazard trees, etc.) will reopen. So far, the only ones scheduled to reopen are the Nordic Ski Trails (in part, called the Cañada Bonita Trail/Guaje Canyon Trail 282) at the Pajarito Mountain Ski Area. The Cañada Bonita/Guaje Canyon Trail 282 will reopen as far as Guaje Canyon overlook. Pipeline Road will reopen from Quemazon Trail to the Guaje Canyon Trail 282 at the overlook into Valle de los Posos. The Nail Trail, off West Jemez Road, will reopen all the way to Camp May Road (the map on the SWNSC blog indicates that Forest Road 2998 is included). I'm happy about this!!
The Las Conchas Closure will be amended soon. The Southwest Nordic Ski Club's (SWNSC) blog says that a few trails that have been mitigated (cutting down burnt, hazard trees, etc.) will reopen. So far, the only ones scheduled to reopen are the Nordic Ski Trails (in part, called the Cañada Bonita Trail/Guaje Canyon Trail 282) at the Pajarito Mountain Ski Area. The Cañada Bonita/Guaje Canyon Trail 282 will reopen as far as Guaje Canyon overlook. Pipeline Road will reopen from Quemazon Trail to the Guaje Canyon Trail 282 at the overlook into Valle de los Posos. The Nail Trail, off West Jemez Road, will reopen all the way to Camp May Road (the map on the SWNSC blog indicates that Forest Road 2998 is included). I'm happy about this!!
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Small Snowshoe on Pajarito Mountain Jeep Road
Hiking group was having a joint snowshoe/cross country ski today at Pajarito Mountain Ski Area. When I drove past the the bottom of Camp May Road, no one was there to bum a ride up with. Camp May Road was OK up until I was almost at the ski area and then I met a snowplow coming down. I moved over to let the snowplow pass but then my car, hardly a snow-worthy vehicle, couldn't move forward. I put it in 1st gear and eventually it started uphill again. Next time I hitch a ride!
Only two snowshoers showed up and three cross country skiers. We snowshoers headed up Zero East Road while the skiers headed up the Logging Road. One of the snowshoers was really slow - only her second time snowshoeing. Due to babying my right foot with the bum posterior tibial tendon, this was my first time snowshoeing since the winter of 2009-2010. I felt bogged down with the very slow uphill progress so I said goodbye to the other two even though I'm no speedster. I made it as far as the 4-way intersection at the antennas and then the grooming ended. In deference to my right foot, I decided not to risk breaking trail to the back of the mountain and headed back down. On the way, I met up with the faster snowshoer. She was almost where I turned around and somehow she made it back down before me because I saw her car drive away as I approached the ski lodge. I think she took a short cut!
My right foot was OK. I kept adjusting the strap so it wasn't pinching my right medial arch too much. It was a quintessentially sunny-turquoise-blue-sky-New-Mexico-day! I was elated to have successfully snowshoed at least part way up the mountain. I was envious, though, of a woman snowshoer I met on the way down who was climbing straight up the mountain on the ski runs, breaking trail in the deep snow! I have to be happy, though, for what I can do. Until I get a bionic foot, breaking trail in deep snow is off my to-do list, much as I'd like to!
On the drive down, the snow was slushy and I stuck to the uphill side of the road since it was snow-free. One of the cross country skiers, a child-sized woman, advised me, when I told her about getting stuck on the way up, to stick to the middle of the road and don't move over! She's small but has big cojones!! Fortunately, I met no oncoming traffic!
Since I only managed 3 miles on the snowshoe today and 3 miles on the snowy Canyon Rim Trail this past Monday, I stopped at the closed West Road bypass for a 2 mile walk to balance my mileage account!
Only two snowshoers showed up and three cross country skiers. We snowshoers headed up Zero East Road while the skiers headed up the Logging Road. One of the snowshoers was really slow - only her second time snowshoeing. Due to babying my right foot with the bum posterior tibial tendon, this was my first time snowshoeing since the winter of 2009-2010. I felt bogged down with the very slow uphill progress so I said goodbye to the other two even though I'm no speedster. I made it as far as the 4-way intersection at the antennas and then the grooming ended. In deference to my right foot, I decided not to risk breaking trail to the back of the mountain and headed back down. On the way, I met up with the faster snowshoer. She was almost where I turned around and somehow she made it back down before me because I saw her car drive away as I approached the ski lodge. I think she took a short cut!
My right foot was OK. I kept adjusting the strap so it wasn't pinching my right medial arch too much. It was a quintessentially sunny-turquoise-blue-sky-New-Mexico-day! I was elated to have successfully snowshoed at least part way up the mountain. I was envious, though, of a woman snowshoer I met on the way down who was climbing straight up the mountain on the ski runs, breaking trail in the deep snow! I have to be happy, though, for what I can do. Until I get a bionic foot, breaking trail in deep snow is off my to-do list, much as I'd like to!
On the drive down, the snow was slushy and I stuck to the uphill side of the road since it was snow-free. One of the cross country skiers, a child-sized woman, advised me, when I told her about getting stuck on the way up, to stick to the middle of the road and don't move over! She's small but has big cojones!! Fortunately, I met no oncoming traffic!
Since I only managed 3 miles on the snowshoe today and 3 miles on the snowy Canyon Rim Trail this past Monday, I stopped at the closed West Road bypass for a 2 mile walk to balance my mileage account!
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Quemazon Trail in the Golden Afternoon Light
Finally wrested myself from the Pueblo Canyon Rim-Canyon Rim trails loop and went up the Quemazon Trail as far as Pipeline Road.
The trail tread has been mostly restored since it was bulldozed as a fire break during Las Conchas fire. Regardless, the mish mash of fallen dead trees to either side of the trail is butt ugly - that is until the golden afternoon sun light shines upon all the devastation. Somehow, that makes it beautiful. Yet and still, I wish I had magic powers and could make all the ugly, hacked up timber disappear. One saving grace is that it's unlikely that mountain lions could bound out at me from all that mess; more likely, they would use the trail like civilized beings. So, convincing myself of that, I kept looking behind to make sure no predators were tracking me. Keeps me in the moment, I suppose!
On the way down, I pondered about why Los Alamos Canyon is such a deep, mostly straight canyon while Pueblo Canyon is dissected into multiple branches in its upper reaches. Los Alamos Canyon is south of the Quemazon Trail while several Pueblo Canyon branches are north. One Pueblo Canyon tributary wraps right up to where the Quemazon Trail intersects Pipeline Road. Pipeline Road then parallels that downhill for a while. All I can figure is that Los Alamos Canyon has a more direct path to follow from the high mountains while the Pueblo Canyon drainage seems to start lower and is broken up by ridges running this way and that.
Near the bottom, I startled at a long, moving shadow to my right. When I turned, I saw a woman I know. She was just completing the Quemazon Nature Trail loop. It was late afternoon and we talked briefly as we continued downhill. She was faster so we said goodbye and she headed off toward Western Area and I toward my car parked at the Quemazon trailhead.
The trail tread has been mostly restored since it was bulldozed as a fire break during Las Conchas fire. Regardless, the mish mash of fallen dead trees to either side of the trail is butt ugly - that is until the golden afternoon sun light shines upon all the devastation. Somehow, that makes it beautiful. Yet and still, I wish I had magic powers and could make all the ugly, hacked up timber disappear. One saving grace is that it's unlikely that mountain lions could bound out at me from all that mess; more likely, they would use the trail like civilized beings. So, convincing myself of that, I kept looking behind to make sure no predators were tracking me. Keeps me in the moment, I suppose!
On the way down, I pondered about why Los Alamos Canyon is such a deep, mostly straight canyon while Pueblo Canyon is dissected into multiple branches in its upper reaches. Los Alamos Canyon is south of the Quemazon Trail while several Pueblo Canyon branches are north. One Pueblo Canyon tributary wraps right up to where the Quemazon Trail intersects Pipeline Road. Pipeline Road then parallels that downhill for a while. All I can figure is that Los Alamos Canyon has a more direct path to follow from the high mountains while the Pueblo Canyon drainage seems to start lower and is broken up by ridges running this way and that.
Near the bottom, I startled at a long, moving shadow to my right. When I turned, I saw a woman I know. She was just completing the Quemazon Nature Trail loop. It was late afternoon and we talked briefly as we continued downhill. She was faster so we said goodbye and she headed off toward Western Area and I toward my car parked at the Quemazon trailhead.
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