WI group walked up Pajarito Mountain today. In their inimitable fashion, we started out as a larger group but dispersed into smaller groups. One woman who recently hurt her ribs walked up Zero Road East from the ski area lodge and then went down the Logging Road on the badly burned west side of the ski hill, two others wanted to stick more to the bike trails, several didn't go very far: one had vertigo, another had a torn meniscus, several simply didn't want a long hike.
Only 7 of us and a dog made it to the top of the mountain. We walked to just short of I Don't Care ski run when the group decided to have lunch at the top of an unburnt ski run. I walked further to take a photo of the Las Conchas fire damage in the Valles Caldera National Preserve from the top of I Don't Care. The forest on either side of the ski run is charcoalized. With the trees burnt, it's poignantly evident how close the grasslands of the caldera are to the ski area. The grass in the caldera has already greened up from the monsoon. Some of the volcanic domes in the eastern caldera have burn damage. The Jemez Mountain Trail Runs Facebook page has scads of photos of the Las Conchas fire damage because it severely affected their 50 mile route. They'll have to re-route that run next year.
From I Don't Care, I looked with binoculars at the road from Camp May up Cerra Bonita, the mountain just north of Pajarito Mountain Ski Area. I'd like to walk that road because although the conifers are toasted orange, there doesn't appear to be a lot of charcoalized trees waiting to fall right down onto the road. Beyond Cerra Bonita, to the north, I was surprised to see a lovely green meadow with a road running through it - maybe Pipeline Road. Caballo's meadow looks almost a neon green in contrast to its charcoalized forests.
Since I knew from past experience that after lunch, the group planned to barrel straight down a precipitous ski run to the cars, I walked back to the south side of Pajarito where I found a grassy area on the Valles Caldera side of the fence and enjoyed lunch of a protein bar and wasabi edamame. Screw the Preserve and their damnable fences that keep people out!
After a peaceful lunch, I walked cross country to Zero Road East, past the snow-making pond which is an impediment to cross country travel. Earlier, we could see that even with all our rains, the pond doesn't look any more filled up than before the monsoon. The walking was easier because some tussock grass clumps burned. I saw a downed spruce, still green at the top, but toppled because it's root had burned, neatly snapping the tree off. I saw a charcoal skeleton of a huge, old spruce and I felt sorry for it.
People say that years ago, and there are photos to prove it, the south back side of Pajarito Mountain was more completely a meadow. Over time, the meadow became invaded by conifers. We're gradually losing our montane meadows in the Jemez Mountains. If Las Conchas helps to bring back the meadow, that's a good result but it wasn't worth it to destroy so much land and people's homes on Cochiti Mesa just to bring back the meadow. I wish that small fires would occur more often as they have beneficial effects whereas catastrophic fires like Las Conchas do little good.
I could see either smokers or dust columns in the Dome Wilderness area. It's hard to see what damage there is in Pajarito Canyon but the west side of the canyon wall looks burnt here and there. I couldn't tell if there is any damage in Water Canyon. It looked no worse than from the Cerro Grande fire damage it sustained in 2000 but it was hard to tell for sure.
I've walked up Pajarito Mountain the past 3 days. The ski hill workers are repairing the Lone Spruce ski lift which was damaged by the fire. On Monday, I saw a bulldozer smoothing down the very bottom of the fire break that was made from the top to the bottom. Today a hiker pointed out that the fire break has been reseeded - recovery begins. It will be a race for the ski area to open this season, assuming we get any snow!
The morning started out overcast and cooler and some thunderclouds had formed by the time I got back to my car at 1:54 pm. My GPS said 5.97 miles. I saw purple harebell, yellow cinquefoil and a scarlet bugler penstemon and very oddly, a ponderosa on the back side of Pajarito Mountain. Seems too high for a ponderosa to be growing but I saw it with my own eyes. I was surprised to see elk hoof prints on Zero Road East.
Even though the landscape around and on Pajarito Mountain has been radically changed by the Las Conchas fire, I'm finding solace in walking up the mountain. Although much has been damaged by the fire, I'm grateful that I can still walk up Pajarito and see that much beauty still remains.