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!